“Much-needed cash infusion at a critical time for the local news industry”: Facebook commits $100M to support publishers
Facebook has announced a $100M investment to support the news industry which has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Its VP of Global News Partnerships, Campbell Brown, writes, “At a… (more)
From $100M in debt to 98% growth in digital revenues: Lessons from Trusted Media Brands’ remarkable turnaround to profitability
Trusted Media Brands, the publisher of Reader's Digest, has gone from being bankrupt twice (2009 and 2013) and struggling with 100M in debt, to becoming profitable again. Its digital ad… (more)
“Subscription Economy has grown its revenue by 321%”: Highlights for publishers from ‘The Forever Transaction’
“The Membership Economy is my name for the massive trend among organizations to tap into the value of long-term, formal relationships through subscriptions,” writes Robbie Kellman Baxter in her latest… (more)
“Profitable since going all-digital”: What publishers can learn from The Independent’s growth story
The Independent is now one of the most profitable newspapers in the UK. It's a significant achievement for a company that had to stop print and go digital-only in 2016,… (more)
Coronavirus leads to surge in traffic: How publishers are building reader loyalty by offering free content
Popular content analytics platform Chartbeat has reported that the number of pageviews across its network was up 33% last week compared to the same time last year, according to Recode.… (more)
“Significant driver of consumer activity”: How publishers are tackling the coronavirus challenge head-on
When the Great Plague of London hit in the mid-1600s, Isaac Newton was just another student at Trinity College, Cambridge. The University of Cambridge decided to shut down for two… (more)
“Break free from the stuffy, media-trained bubble”: How publishers are using TikTok to connect with a new generation of readers
TikTok, was the second-most downloaded app of 2019. It surpassed both Facebook and Instagram while only losing out to WhatsApp, according to The Drum. Sensor Tower said last November that… (more)
15M app downloads, 3B pageviews per month: What publishers can learn from the meteoric rise of Indian news app Inshorts
Inshorts, founded in 2013, has become one of most popular news apps in India with more than 15M downloads across Android and iOS, and 3B page views per month (Android). … (more)
Popular news aggregators are now focusing on regional content, driving substantial traffic for publishers
Local news publishers stand to get a significant boost in traffic as popular news aggregators are now starting to focus on them. Both SmartNews and Flipboard have expanded their local… (more)
Video to account for a third of all online display spend: Highlights for publishers, from WARC’s Adspend Outlook
Global advertising spend is set to rise by 7.1% to $660B this year, according to WARC’s latest Global Advertising Trends - The Adspend Outlook report. The growth is driven by… (more)
Key trends driving mobile advertising growth – what publishers need to know
Over 2B users will watch videos on mobile devices this year. “This population continues to rise as viewers increasingly shift media consumption behaviors away from traditional screens,” according to PubMatic’s… (more)
The engagement metrics publishers are using to grow traffic, subscription and ad revenue
The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina grew its digital subscriptions by 250% (from 1,700 to 6,000) between 2017 to 2019, reports Digiday. It did so after shifting focus… (more)
“The winners will be those heavily armed with first-party user data”: Highlights from IAB’s latest study
“Total media consumption is at an all-time high (now an average of 48% of our day),” according to IAB’s latest report, Brand Disruption 2020. It has risen by more than… (more)
Mobile web traffic has increased by an “astounding” 30.6% since 2017, study shows: Highlights for publishers
“Traffic to the top 100 sites globally reached 223B monthly visits in 2019,” according to Similarweb’s 2020 Digital Trends report. “While the volume is impressive on its own, it’s even… (more)
“Users who visit three times a week are 8x more likely to subscribe”: Lessons in building habit-forming news products
People who read 10 times a month are 50% less likely to churn, according to research by Twipe. The company, which specializes in products for publishers, has taken the latest… (more)
“A watershed moment for the business”: Instagram sees 20x more interactions than Facebook, and a bigger audience
The total audience on Instagram has surpassed that on Facebook globally for the first time, according to a new report. The Social Media Trends Report for Q4 2019 by Socialbakers,… (more)
“Clearly too big a space for publishers to ignore”: How Bonnier is leveraging its brands for licensing and eCommerce
Bonnier Corp., one of the largest special-interest publishing groups in America, is set to launch a line of Popular Science-branded STEM toys. The publisher has partnered with UK-based toy-maker Wow!… (more)
Google to help publishers in Europe grow revenue, through their Subscriptions Labs program
The GNI Subscriptions Labs program will be expanded to Europe, building on the success of similar Labs in North America and Latin America, according to Richard Gingras VP, News at… (more)
“Only 10% of news publishers report a thriving digital revenue model”: Viafoura’s paywall strategy report lays out a roadmap for the rest
More and more publishers are putting up paywalls because ad revenues continue to reduce. According to a new report, “roughly 76% of publishers have a paywall in place, however, only… (more)
“Publishing is dying and everything sucks is a false narrative”: Charting the rise and rise of Dotdash
Dotdash is an anomaly in the current business landscape where publishers facing dwindling ad revenues are increasingly looking at other sources to supplement their income. The publisher, which makes lion’s… (more)