Digital Publishing
1 min read

The 3 hard truths publishers must face in 2018

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At a time of profound disruption, a publisher’s path forward must recognize some fundamental strategic truths about the publishing business model. It’s through these truths that publishers can start planning for 2018 – and beyond.

Truth #1: Facebook Is Not Your Friend.

While some publishers have seen Facebook success, the relationship between the platforms and the content creators that sustain them could hardly be called a friendship. After all, Facebook has made it clear that they prioritize friends in the News Feed; they don’t extend the same courtesy to publishers.

Historically Facebook has delivered significant traffic, but the boundless reach Facebook once offered is long gone. Some publishers have altered their strategy to game Facebook’s rules, tailoring their content to what they think the algorithm wants, but with mixed results.

Truth #2: Ad Revenue Won’t Be Enough to Sustain Quality Publishers.

In recent years, much of digital publishing strategy has focused on propping up the ad-driven business model, but the problems facing the industry go beyond finding new ways to drive ad revenue. The problem is with the ad-driven business model itself. With two platforms absorbing a growing majority of ad spend, publishers with an ad-driven business model must fight for a diminishing pool of dollars.

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