“Little in the way of direct relationships with readers”: Why The New York Times cut Apple News out
“It’s time to re-examine all of our relationships with the big platforms.” Earlier this year, we reported about trouble brewing in the Apple News universe, and the growing industry consensus… (more)
Google launches a new social network, because “technology struggles with understanding what we want to spend our time on”
Orkut. Google+. Buzz. Friend Connect. Shoelace. Google’s attempts at building a viable social network are legend. Time after time the Mountain View monolith has taken on the likes of Facebook,… (more)
Email newsletters are resurging, says Reuters Institute
Email newsletters, once thought of as low-tech and unfashionable, are proving increasingly valuable to publishers looking to build strong direct relationships with audiences, says this year’s Reuters Institute Digital News… (more)
“News content is highly substitutable”: Facebook rejects payments to publishers
“News does not drive significant long-term value,” Facebook stated, saying it could cut out news completely without any significant impact on its business. Earlier this year, after the announcement of… (more)
Facebook may be about to upend the rules of email marketing
Earlier this month, social media expert Meg Coffey spotted a heretofore undisclosed feature on Facebook: “Send Marketing Emails From Your Page”. Realizing the company was quietly testing a potentially revolutionary… (more)
Have you “heard” the news? Apple leak reveals audio stories for News+
Apple’s WWDC20—the first global, all-online WWDC—is just around the corner, and the Cupertino rumor mill has gone on overdrive. Some of the leaks appear to be pretty credible, and the… (more)
What’s ‘up’ for publishers? Traffic, subscriptions, and commerce revenue.
The average publisher expects things to normalize by early 2021 Even as the industry has taken a massive hit due to the Coronavirus, it’s heartening to know that almost half… (more)
Pew reports “notable job growth” in the digital-native news sector
A recent Pew Research Center analysis of employment in the news-producing industries reveals that the digital-native news sector is the only one providing consistent, notable job growth among the five… (more)
News media: a rare bright spot in “the sharpest decline in consumer spending that we have ever seen”
Across the United States, consumer spending is down. People are cautious about making purchases, with the looming uncertainty about how long the coronavirus will last or the financial impact it… (more)
Over 60% of content related to Covid-19 considered brand safe, study finds
A majority of online content containing keywords related to the coronavirus pandemic is actually safe for brand advertising, according to a study by the artificial intelligence company GumGum, Inc. The… (more)
As publisher traffic continues to surge, local news sees an 89% boost
Comscore’s latest report on shifting category trends for digital audiences amid pandemic shows that the surge to news publisher websites continues, with a further growth in the last few days.… (more)
How can publishers drive more revenue, besides ads? Firefox and Scroll team up to test a new model
A cleaner web experience for users, yet one that is profitable for publishers… that’s the idea behind a new initiative launched by Mozilla and Scroll, the Firefox Better Web with… (more)
“The appetite for news seems greater than ever”: As traffic surges, publishers see a spike in subscriptions
“Despite the coronavirus containment efforts that have emptied newsrooms,” The New York Times reports, “the appetite for news seems greater than ever.” Readers are flocking to news outlets, web traffic… (more)
“A long-overdue technological shift toward online privacy”: Firefox encrypts domain names. Google to follow.
Mozilla's Firefox browser has begun to encrypt domain names by default. This will ensure that a user’s website browsing history cannot be accessed by third parties without either informing the… (more)
Programmatic accounts for 85% of US digital ad spending: IAB
Data growth leads to higher programmatic investment, enabling automated buying According to IAB’s Brand Disruption 2020 report released this week, US programmatic ad spend has grown to almost $79 billion,… (more)
“The biggest change to News Feed since 2013”: Facebook is making it easy to bypass its algorithm
Not everyone is a fan of the Facebook News Feed algorithm. The algorithm ranks available posts that can display on a user's News Feed based on various parameters known only… (more)
Google will pay publishers to “support a sustainable news industry”
First Facebook offered to pay publishers “millions of dollars”. Now Google is following suit. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti predicted almost a decade ago that major tech firms—such as Facebook and… (more)
“Buy applause and show support”: YouTube rolls out a new monetization tool for creators
Within days of Google revealing—for the first time—how much revenue YouTube generates ($15 billion-a-year), it’s rolling out more ways publishers can make money off the platform. Content creators on YouTube… (more)
Internet media jobs are at an all-time high, and online ad spend will rise to 60% by 2022, reports AdAge
AdAge’s Marketing Fact Pack 2020 projects that the US online ad spend will rise to about 60% of all advertising outlay by 2022. This is in sharp contrast to the… (more)
WSJ crosses 2 million digital subscribers: says there is “strong and growing appetite” for deeply reported journalism
Days after The New York Times reported record subscriptions, News Corp announced that The Wall Street Journal has crossed the 2 million digital subscriptions mark for the first time. Dow… (more)