The Weekly Bulletin | May 23, 2023

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening last week, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

EDITOR’S NOTE

I can’t say I was overly surprised when I read earlier this month that Facebook’s pivot away from news, reported last year, had led to a drop in traffic to a host of publications.

As tensions between the social media network and publishers have continued to escalate, Facebook parent Meta has made no bones over its distaste at being made to pay for news shared on its platform.

I’m sure most of us can remember the debacle that was Meta’s decision to remove news from Facebook Australia in 2021, before lifting the ban a few days later. Since then we have seen reports of Meta reallocating resources from news and a Meta-commissioned report that dismissed the importance of news to Facebook’s business.

Meta policy communications director Andy Stone even warned that the tech giant would be “forced to consider removing news” from its platform if the US Congress were to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. At the same time, the UK has introduced similar laws.

The growing wave of regulation over news sharing on Google and Meta has forced both companies to sit down with publishers and begin hashing out deals. For Google, the answer lay partly in developing its News Showcase program. But for Meta? Seems the more palatable option has been to slowly starve news publishers of traffic.

Data from analytics provider Chartbeat show that 1,350 global publishers saw their share of page views from external, search and social fall drop from 27% in January 2018 to 11% in April 2023.

This lines up with the experience of major UK newspaper group Reach, which has reported a fall in Facebook traffic since the start of the year, which has eaten into its revenue.

Meanwhile, 28 legacy and digital native publishers saw a sharp fall in desktop traffic between 2021 and 2023, data that web analytics provider Similarweb supplied to Press Gazette shows.

It’s tempting to take Facebook's move as just another mile marker in its slowly deteriorating relationship with publishers throughout the years. And while there's an element of truth to this interpretation, it does miss what’s going on in the wider regulatory landscape — namely, Facebook’s struggle against heightened oversight.

The social media giant’s years-long struggle against European regulations saw Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) issue a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) fine this week for breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The regulator, which oversees the company's operations in Europe — thanks to Meta’s decision to locate its EMEA headquarters in Dublin, took issue over Facebook’s transfer of EU user data to US servers.

Facebook has been given five months to stop the practice, though the search giant has pledged to appeal the decision.

Ultimately, there are only so many wars with regulators a company, no matter how big it is, can fight at one time. In the grand scheme of things — and if we believe Meta’s claim that news isn’t important to its business model — walking away from news seems like the most financially sensible option currently on the table.

SODP POSTS

DIGITAL PUBLISHING TRENDS OF 2023

Between inflationary pressures and recession fears, digital publishers more than ever need to identify industry trends that can improve their business outcomes and reader relationships.

There are three overarching themes that dominate the current trends among digital publishers — technological, business and audience development.

Digital publications are embracing AI to boost performance and efficiency, while also considering the ways in which it can impact the editorial side of the business. Increased efficiency is critical in the industry, with rising costs placing added importance to that old adage “doing more with less”.

On the business side, media companies are also looking for efficiency gains as they strive to reach new audiences and multiply revenue streams.

Justin Hansen, COO and co-founder of media advisory and analytics service Media Tradecraft, told State of Digital Publishing (SODP): “Publishers will focus more on content data, including bridging editorial with revenue analytics to help drive effective decisions and profitability.”

So, let’s look more closely at several important digital publishing trends of 2023 and the impact they’re having on the industry.

SEE MORE

PAGE BOOSTER REVIEW FOR 2023

Even the best content, which has been meticulously crafted and painstakingly optimized, can begin to slip down the rankings over time. Most publishers lack the time and resources to constantly monitor old content, as there’s always new content to create.

Even if they do monitor their content, they can still struggle to diagnose the problem and fix it, unless they’re willing to invest in expensive, complex tools or seek help from an SEO agency. This is where Page Booster comes in.

Page Booster is a feature that comes bundled as a part of NicheIQ, Ezoic’s keyword research and topic suggestion tool. It identifies the pages on a website that are losing traffic and slipping down the search rankings, and suggests measures to boost that page’s performance.

NicheIQ claims to be the first keyword research tool built specifically for content websites and Page Booster is integral to how NicheIQ delivers on this promise of uniquely serving content websites better than other, generic, all-purpose keyword research tools.

We believe this makes Page Booster deserving of its own review, having previously reviewed NicheIQ. During our review we wrote about how we struggled to make Page Booster work, given that it only works for websites with relatively high traffic. As such, this time around we’ve used a demo site with enough traffic to test all of Page Booster’s features.

SEE MORE

WHAT IS AD REVENUE? AD-BASED REVENUE MODELS EXPLAINED

While publishers have a number of options when it comes to monetizing their content, the most popular remains via advertising.

In the fast-paced digital landscape, the advertising-based revenue model serves as the lifeblood for most publishers. Online advertising revenue allows publishers to reach and build new audiences, without having to overcome any reluctance at paying for content.

With digital ad spend in the US set to surpass two-thirds of the ad industry’s total this year, understanding ad revenue is essential for publishers trying to map out their business strategy.

Let’s shed some light on digital advertising to understand how ad-based revenue models support publishers’ content creation efforts.

SEE MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ There's just a couple of days left to apply to be the new editor of a fantastic independent community newspaper, Waltham Forest Echo. SEE MORE

➡️ Great SEO role going at a Balls Media with Brian Reynolds and his team - well worth a gander if you're a sports-loving SEO nut! SEE MORE

NEWSLETTERS WE RECOMMEND

➡️ They Got Acquired – receive stories of founders who’ve exited, industry trends, and resources for selling your company. SEE MORE

➡️ Write On is the newsletter that makes you a better copywriter. SEE MORE

➡️ The Website Flip you get websites for sale in your inbox. Save hours searching through broker listings. Get 10+ websites & aged domains for sale weekly. SEE MORE

MEMBER PROFILE OF THE WEEK

Each week, we’ll introduce one of the community members – either one of the newest additions or those who’ve been actively contributing to discussions. Feel free to give them a shoutout on our Slack channel or connect on LinkedIn.

This week, our member of the week is Jeremiah Ajayi, Senior Content Marketer at Stears.

Jeremiah, we loved your interview with Smarketers Hub! In addition to lots of interesting facts you share about yourself, the interview is full of valuable tips on how marketers can become more data-driven.

COMMUNITY BUZZ

INDUSTRY NEWS

➡️ After nearly 18 months, The New York Times released its standalone Audio app, available exclusively to its 9.7 million subscribers. READ MORE

➡️ Google announced that it is retiring one core web vitals metric and replacing it with a newer one that more accurately represents the user experience. READ MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSIONS

➡️ #AffiliateGathering

Last week, SODP’s founder Vahe Arabian made the long journey from Australia to the UK for Affiliate Gathering 2023. Check out what the attendees and speakers shared on Twitter.

Vahe’s presentation was on content re-usage and testing for better conversions and outcomes.

SEE THE POSTS

These are the highlights for last week.

Until next!

Andrew Kemp and the editorial team at SODP