The Weekly Bulletin | July 4, 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

As we rolled into 2023, good money was riding on projections that publisher ad revenue would suffer amid rising interest rates and a deepening cost of living crisis. And it seems those bets have started to pay off.

The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) predicted that global ad spend with published media (digital and print newspapers and magazines) would contract by 7.7% year on year to $47.2 billion in 2023, amid a 2.6% increase in total global ad spend to $880.9 billion.

This followed speculation that the global ad market was heading into a “car cash” of a year.

I myself harbored a somewhat pessimistic outlook, backing publisher efforts to trim the fat. Even if publishing ad spend managed to avoid a recession, publishers would still benefit from more money in the bank.

From what I can see — from admittedly limited data on the subject — that “best-case” scenario vis à vis an ad-spend downturn hasn’t materialized. In one review of the first-quarter revenue of six major publishers — The Arena Group, BuzzFeed, IAC, Gannett, News Corp, The New York Times — only The Athena Group saw its ad revenue grow.

Revenue Diversification

The NYT has, however, been busy boosting its subscription offerings, acquiring The Athletic and Wordle as a means to increase its bundle packages’ value proposition. These acquisitions contributed to an increase in subscriber numbers at the end of March quarter, helping to offset the decline in its first-quarter ad revenue.

Larger publishers are aware of the risks associated with a heavy dependence on a single stream of revenue. UK daily The Independent, for example, has been pursuing a three-year agenda of revenue diversification.

These efforts saw the publisher reduce the share of its revenue that came from ads to just 43% in the year September 30, 2022 from 60% in the previous year. It also expects to keep it below 50% in the current 12-month window.

It’s not just larger publishers that are pursuing revenue diversification, however, with smaller outfits also striving to boost reader revenue and sponsorship revenue.

Reducing Management

Let me stress that I’m not criticizing publishers that rely heavily on advertising. It’s easy to see the advantages of the business model, especially when considering what programmatic advertising brings to the table.

What I am saying is that publishers need to think long-term about their monetization strategies and how they can reduce their risk profiles. Hell, even in the short term there are steps that ad-focused publishers can take to maximize their revenue.

While predicting the future may be a mug’s game, as the author said: “it’s a game we all have to play”. Risk management is part of that game and, for those that are yet to begin, there’s no better time than the present.

SODP POSTS

HOW TO IMPROVE CORE WEB VITALS FOR WORDPRESS SITES

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) on the planet, thanks to its ease of use and flexibility. WordPress’ rich customization options allow publishers to create websites that resonate deeply with their audiences.

And yet despite the CMS’s powerful featureset, it’s still possible to create sites that look great but struggle to grow audience numbers. While a content audit is certainly advisable, publishers should first consider a technical audit to ensure there’s nothing going on in their site’s background that is bottlenecking their reach.

Chief among the performance metrics they should be measuring are the Google Core Web Vitals (CWVs).

These metrics, which Google converted into ranking signals shortly after their introduction in 2020, play a key role in measuring a web page’s user experience (UX).

The CWVs encompass three distinct yet connected metrics:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

• First Input Delay (FID)

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

These signals measure the perceived load speed, interactivity and visual stability of a web page, respectively.

Let’s take a closer look at these CWVs to understand why they’re so important, how to measure them accurately and then weigh up the actionable steps we can take to boost their scores.

SEE MORE

5 BEST CRM SOLUTIONS FOR PUBLISHERS IN 2023

Digital publishers are in a fight for survival, striving to capture audience share from established rivals while fending off challenges from new entrants. It’s more important than ever before that publishers cultivate their audience relationships if they hope to drive revenue and maximize engagement.

Audience churn is a real problem for publishers, with some research finding that the media and publishing industry’s average customer retention rate is just 25%. Little wonder then that more and more publishers are turning to customer relationship management (CRM) systems to help build and keep their audience.

CRM platforms have emerged as powerful tools that enable publishers to streamline their operations, enhance communication and improve customer satisfaction. There are a number of different platforms available on the market, but not all of them are created equal.

Read to find out more about what we think are the top five CRM platforms for online publishers in 2023.

SEE MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ The Wall Street Journal is looking for a Platform and Publishing Editor for its London news hub, a team that plays an important role in capturing big breaking news and sharpening digital platforms for the rush of early-morning traffic from the U.S. East Coast. SEE MORE

➡️ News Corp Australia is looking for a Programmatic Growth Lead. Your primary role will be around evangelising programmatic and data solutions to clients and agencies. SEE MORE

NEWSLETTERS WE RECOMMEND

➡️ How do you turn a successful niche site to an online magazine publisher? Learn the tricks and tips with this newsletter. SEE MORE

➡️ Most podcast growth advice is broken. The proof? The median show still only gets 127 downloads/episode. Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter for a weekly dose of (often unorthodox) podcast marketing ideas you won't find anywhere else. SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

INDUSTRY NEWS

➡️ Instagram’s rumored Twitter competitor just dropped on the iOS App Store in the U.S. The app will be called Threads, and according to App Store data, it’s expected to launch on July 6. READ MORE

➡️ Ad platform MediaMath, which had raised $600M and was reportedly valued at $1B+ in 2018, plans to file for bankruptcy, after acquisition talks fell apart. READ MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSIONS

➡️ Poonam Soni on Twitter:

AI 'prompt engineer' jobs can pay up to $375,000 a year.

Still, it's surprising that average person has no clue about these Prompts.

Here're 8 Advanced ChatGPT Prompts to stay ahead:

SEE THE FULL THREAD

These are the highlights for last week.

Until next!

Andrew Kemp and the editorial team at SODP