The Weekly Bulletin | May 6, 2025

Hi SODP community,

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

BROADSTREET WEBINAR

How to Price and Package Digital Advertising and Sponsored Content in 2025

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How much your digital advertising should cost

• How to sell digital for real money, not “digital dimes”

• How to build packages for mom/pops AND $100k whales

DON’T fall into the trap of:

• Thinking that your site traffic needs to dictate pricing

• Looking at other publishers to figure out your pricing (they’re as probably confused as you are)

• Underselling and underpricing the real value that you provide

📅 Date & Time: Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET

Hosted by Kenny Katzgrau, Publisher of Red Bank Green and creator of Broadstreet. Joining him will be Charity Huff, Publisher of 5280 Magazine and owner of January Spring.

You’ll walk away from this workshop with a clear plan to figure what you should be charging for your display, newsletter, and sponsored content packages along and gain rock-solid confidence in the result.

REGISTER HERE

TIP OF THE WEEK

Static paywalls are leaving money on the table; intelligent pricing is how publishers reclaim it.

Fixed paywalls block access and revenue potential. Relying on static pricing risks falling behind competitors like Schibsted, which saw a 19% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) after adopting dynamic pricing (INMA, “Dynamic Paywalls Gain Momentum”, 2023). Traditional paywalls offer the same deal to every user, but not all readers are the same. Behaviour, loyalty, and content value vary, and a one-size-fits-all approach ignores these critical factors. This rigidity limits revenue yield and risks losing high-value audiences to more agile publishers.

How AI-driven paywalls maximise revenue yield

Dynamic pricing, powered by AI, allows publishers to adjust subscription offers based on real-time user behaviour and perceived content value. Here’s how:

• Behavioural targeting: The Dallas Morning News increased conversions by 28% by offering discounts to frequent readers and trials to casual visitors (INMA, 2023).

• Content valuation: The Financial Times uses dynamic pricing to align fees with content value, a strategy that contributed to a 14% YoY digital subscription growth (FT Group Annual Report, 2023).

• Predictive adjustments: Amedia reduced bounce rates by 18% using AI-driven exit-intent discounts (Reuters Institute, “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends”, 2023).

Instead of setting prices in stone, publishers use intelligent signals to flexibly match user willingness to pay, unlocking hidden revenue pockets.

Three Practical Steps to Smarter Paywall Monetisation

• Audit current paywall performance: Identify weak points like high drop-off rates or low conversion on high-value articles.

• Implement AI segmentation: Use machine learning models to predict engagement and optimise when and how offers are shown.

• Define dynamic pricing rules: Allow prices to shift based on real-time behaviour, content consumption trends, and traffic patterns.

AI-driven dynamic paywalls aren’t about squeezing users—they're about aligning subscription offers with actual user value and intent. Early adopters have seen 20–35% higher conversion rates and up to 15% lift in average revenue per user (ARPU). Static pricing is no longer sustainable for publishers aiming to maximise revenue yield. Intelligent pricing strategies are the future.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Static paywalls limit potential revenue growth.

2. AI-driven paywalls tailor offers based on user behaviour and content value.

3. Dynamic pricing improves both conversion rates and ARPU.

4. Publishers must audit, segment, and dynamically adjust pricing strategies to stay competitive.

It’s time to audit your pricing model. If it can't adapt, your revenue won't, either.

SODP POSTS

AI, The Double-edged Sword of Creativity, and Why Publishers Must Embrace It

It’s cliche now to say that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed everything, but it’s also inescapably true.

AI is so deeply entrenched in our everyday lives that it has paradoxically become almost invisible – a recent report by Reddit, GroupM and WPP found that only 1 in 6 consumers can often tell when they’re using AI-enabled tools. At the same time, AI’s rapid rise and widespread integration has sparked apprehension about its potential to disrupt various sectors of the workforce. For publishers, these concerns are particularly acute.

Publishers face the dual challenge of embracing AI’s efficiencies while safeguarding the integrity and quality of human-authored content. The rise of AI-powered search, referrals, and summaries, threaten to draw viewers – and advertisers – away from publisher domains.

READ MORE

Why Online Publishers Need a VPN: Protecting Data, Sources, and Revenue

As an online publisher, you’re likely exposed to countless security risks – from data theft and censorship to geographic restrictions on your revenue.

To protect your information and the confidentiality of your sources, it’s a good idea always to use a virtual private network, also known as a VPN.

Here, you’ll learn how a VPN can improve your security and privacy, as well as give you access to international opportunities.

One of the biggest threats you can experience as an online publisher is the security of your data. Emails, internal documents, login credentials, or a publication’s private information can be targeted by a cyberattack.

READ MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ The Guardian is looking for a commercial audience editor who will be responsible for ensuring their branded content reaches the widest, most relevant audiences across their platforms and beyond. (UK). SEE MORE

➡️KNKX is looking for a senior digital news manager dedicated to local journalism, inspired to make their stories stand out online, and who is excited to collaborate with the talented journalists in their newsroom. (US). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️Google’s in the process of losing its search monopoly, and judges in the US and Europe are insisting it stops charging 30 per cent to use its app store too. Now we have a date for its ad tech break-up as well - September 22 - and in the coming days, we will see just what the US Government wants that to look like. It will demand the sale of Google’s ad server GAM, its ad network AdX, and the sharing of the data it uses for targeting, post-campaign reporting and analytics, as well as the secrets of its ad auctions. READ MORE 

➡️Search is changing. Fast. And not just because of AI Overviews or LLMS’ answers. We’re witnessing a shift in how people make meaning online. Queries have stopped being simple keywords: they’re now liquid, personal, and shaped by context, history, and culture. To understand this shift, we can borrow tools from a surprising place: semiotics, the study of signs and meaning. Think Umberto Eco meets user intent READ MORE 

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Argi Avetisyan on LinkedIn:

Programmatic SEO is the most slept-on growth channel in 2025.

You’re not competing for 10 keywords.

You’re competing for 10,000.

Here’s how smart companies are winning:

• Find repeatable intent. (e.g., “ADU regulations in [city]”)

• Build a template. (Landing page that answers it perfectly)

• Auto-generate hundreds or thousands of pages.

• Layer real value. (Unique data, clear answers, local info — not AI spam)

• Get backlinks early. (Even just 5–10 strong ones can lift thousands of pages.)

• Update the pages. (Google loves freshness now.)

Done right, programmatic SEO can feel unfair.

You’re creating properties — not just content.

CONTINUE READING

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP