The Weekly Bulletin | July 25, 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

The best part of any conference, at least to me, is when delegates get to chat amongst themselves and share their “war stories”.

I found myself caught up in one such conversation last year with a publisher whose primary audience consisted of those either in retirement or in the process of doing so. He explained that advertisers refused to pay much attention to his readership demographic, despite their higher disposable incomes.

Now, despite being as far from an expert on the retiree publishing niche as you could imagine, even I could understand that simple logic of targeting people who most likely owned their home outright, didn’t have any dependents and had lots of free time and money to splurge.

I’ll be honest though, I haven't spent too much time thinking of that subject, except for whenever new articles popped up about digital publishers’ ongoing quest for the next generation of young adults’ acceptance and patronage.

But a growing industry awareness over the underwhelming volume of advertising dollars being poured into campaigns targeting older demographics has brought the subject front and center for me once more.

Given that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have all the money, the constant pursuit of younger audiences strikes me as an … intriguing strategy. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that being an elder millennial (and not a geriatric millennial as some would opine) has definitely colored my perspective on some issues. But that doesn’t make my point any less true.

The older generations hold most of the world’s wealth and power. A quick look at the average age of newly hired CEOs in the US and we can see that it has been trending upwards since 2005, hitting 54 years in 2018.

Show Me the Money

The link between seniority, money and age is hardly breaking news. If you’re around for longer, then you’ve got a better chance of building your fortune.

Consider for example, how much faster house prices have grown than salaries. It only takes an incredibly small leap of logic to say those already on the property ladder are, generally speaking, better off financially than recent entrants.

OK, so now that we’ve established that Boomers and Xers have more money, shouldn’t that also mean that brands are working hard to separate them from said cash? Well, not so fast.

A recent report from UK independent media agency The Kite Factory found that while over 55s are 2.5 times wealthier than other age groups, they’re also less likely to be targeted by advertisers. Despite more money in the bank and higher discretionary spending, ad spend was mostly aimed at the younger end of the market. Indeed, over 55s were the least likely to feel represented in creatives, leaving them disengaged.

I’m not here to talk about a social responsibility towards greater demographic representation — down that path lies a lot of hand wringing and surprisingly little action. No, I’m talking about a financial imperative.

Speeding Up, Not Slowing Down

Appealing to older audiences isn’t an advertising or publishing responsibility, it’s an opportunity. With the end of third-party cookies on the horizon — meaning a heavier reliance on first-party data and contextual targeting — publishers could be creating content for over 55s and using audience data to help advertisers chase this segment.

Advertisers and publishers need to work more closely to understand how to both entertain older audiences and advertise to them. They may have money burning a hole in their pocket, but they’re only going to spend it with companies that sell to them.

Talking at the FIPP World Media Congress in June, pilot, philanthropist and pensioner Michael Clinton argued: “For media people, it’s our responsibility to create the modern contemporary images of what 50 plus looks like — not just in images, but in words and in representation.”

So what does this all mean? Well, if publishers are following Gen Z and Gen Alpha onto TikTok, surely they should be chasing Boomers and Xers to their stomping grounds. Where, you ask? While TV remains an entertainment bastion for over 55s (PDF download), it has begun to lose some market share to digital media.

A fair bit of money’s been left on the table when it comes to the over 55s and yet, for some reason, they still don't feature majorly in the media industry’s big picture plan. Given that it’s going to be decades before Gen Z and Gen Alpha have similar purchasing power, are we really chalking today’s media strategies up as an extremely long play? How intriguing.

SODP POSTS

––– SPONSORED POST –––

10 WEBSITE PERFORMANCE METRICS PUBLISHERS SHOULD TRACK

Engagement. That term, along with discoverability, is a key measurement of a digital publisher’s success. The more engaged an audience is, the easier it becomes for publishers to monetize their content.

Regardless of the monetization model a publisher chooses — ad revenue, subscriptions or affiliate marketing — the higher the level of audience engagement the easier it is to make money.

While that may seem straightforward enough, engagement is such a broad term that trying to figure out how and where to begin measuring it can be daunting. Short of speaking to every single visitor that arrives and leaves a site, it’s impossible to perfectly understand how engaged audiences actually are.

What publishers can do, however, is track a series of well-documented website metrics that paint a holistic picture of what does and doesn’t appeal to site visitors.

Some of these metrics provide insight into a site’s user experience (UX), while others shine a light on how users are consuming content. Join us as we explore these metrics to identify the data that publishers should be measuring.

SEE MORE

NEW WPPS PANELIST: BARRY POLLARD – GOOGLE

WordPress Publishers Performance Summit is just a couple of days away. This virtual event for digital publishers features panelists from brands like Forbes, NBCU Local, Multidots, The Boston Globe, Endgame360, WordPressVIP, and others.

We are excited to announce one more addition to the program. Barry Pollard, Web Performance Developer Advocate on Google Chrome, will be joining Multidot’s Jeremy Fremont to host a masterclass titled Reasons why your Core Web Vitals are not passing.

There’s still time for digital publishers to register for the event. Since the event will not be recorded, joining live is the only chance to learn from the industry experts.

SEE MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ Canva is looking for a Head of Education content (hybrid Sydney-based). SEE MORE

➡️ The New York Times is hiring a deputy tech editor (New York). SEE MORE

NEWSLETTERS WE RECOMMEND

➡️ Join 13,000+ others and get actionable tips to grow your website every Tuesday with Niche Site Lady. SEE MORE

➡️ Receive tips to help your newsletter go brrrr with 2nd Mountain newsletter. SEE MORE

➡️ Discover how to build, grow, and monetize any digital content with Niche Media Publishing newsletter. SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

INDUSTRY NEWS

➡️ Twitter has removed the iconic bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo. This move comes after Elon Musk announced the change over the weekend. The change is already live on the website. READ MORE

➡️ Microsoft expands Bing AI chatbot and AI search copilot features beyond Microsoft Edge and the Bing app to Google Chrome browsers. READ MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSIONS

➡️ Connor Gillivan on LinkedIn:

How I Upgrade Pages w/ SEO Keywords Ranking #5-20 to #1:

1. Open Google Search Console.
2. Go to Performance.
3. Click "Export" → "Google Sheets"
4. Add a filter for 5-20 on Position (Col E).
5. Sort from A to Z on Col E.
6. Find page ranking for each keyword.
7. Paste it into new column on G Sheet.
8. Open each page & analyze.
9. Compare to pages ranking top #1-5.
10. Make To Do list to improve.

SEE THE FULL POST

These are the highlights for last week.

Until next!

Andrew Kemp and the editorial team at SODP