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What Google’s latest search changes mean for publishers, inside Buzzfeed’s eCommerce expansion, and more
Imagining the revenue lines of the future
For many publishers, diversification will be essential to ensure they don’t just survive, but thrive. But planning where income is going to come from in the medium to long term can be a challenge when some of the key ways of making money in the future may not even exist yet.
Buzzfeed is one publisher who has moved quickly to take advantage of emerging methods of making money. CEO Jonah Peretti said that in 2018, the company generated over $100 million in revenue “from business lines that didn’t even exist in 2017”. The viral publisher may have faced its own set of challenges, but it’s projected to break even this year and return to profitability in 2020.
This week, Damian Radcliffe does a deep dive into Buzzfeed’s eCommerce expansion, from establishing a dedicated Commerce division to its recent roll-out of ‘shoppable recipes’, and collaborations with other brands.
And if that’s inspired you, we think you’ll enjoy our newly-released report, The Publisher’s Guide to eCommerce; a comprehensive look at how publishers around the world are embracing eCommerce opportunities.
What’s new this week
While the old Google search algorithm treated a sentence as a “bag of words,” the new algorithm is able to understand the context of the words and return results accordingly.
| More than just cat memes: BuzzFeed’s major eCommerce expansion BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti told CNN’s during a session at SXSW that in 2018 the company generated over $100 million in revenue “from business lines that didn’t even exist in 2017.” |
| “5G is the next battleground”: Worldwide demand for smartphones surge The worldwide smartphone market finally returned to positive growth, expanding +2% YoY in Q3 2019. This is the industry’s first uptick in 2 years. |
| How publishers can adapt to the digital acceleration: Key findings from global ICFJ survey As journalists rely on technological tools frequently—using social media, data, podcasting and others for their reporting—they are looking for far more intensive training than what they get now. |
| 10 essential media stats from October 2019 Snapchat’s resurgence, Global Advertising projections for 2020, Instagram’s struggle with disinformation, Vox Media’s podcast punt and social commerce in China. |
| How publishers can benefit from diversifying into training and development Many publishers are looking into education as a way to diversify their revenue streams, and education is a natural fit with many publishers’ expertise. |
| The Publisher’s Guide to eCommerce: Report Download This report looks in-depth at those publishers harnessing eCommerce to great effect, including BuzzFeed, POPSUGAR, Marie Claire UK, Dennis Publishing, and more. |
| Mobile set to outpace desktop ad spending by 2022 In line with the evolution of smartphones and tablets, the global mobile advertising market has been growing ever larger over the past decade. |
| Facebook Groups and Pages: what’s the difference for publishers? This guide will show you the differences between groups and pages, and where you should be focusing your attention if you choose to put your content on Facebook. |
| Damon Reeve speaks about The Ozone Project: the UK’s leading digital advertising marketplace The Ozone Project – formed by The Guardian, News UK, The Telegraph and Reach in 2018 – is the UK’s leading fully transparent and brand-safe digital marketplace. |
| How platforms abandon their homegrown creators Every time Facebook carves out prime real estate for select publishers it hand picks, it’s depriving smaller publishers of attention. |
| Should publishers worry about Apple News Plus? Since Apple’s iPhone business is reportedly deflating, they’re looking to build new streams of revenue. |
| Growth in news consumption on social media has slowed down, and it might be a good thing Despite the concerns surrounding the inaccuracy and saturation of news on social media, these platforms are a vital part of our ecosystem. |
| Where US publishers see potential for innovation After six rounds in Europe, Google has turned its focus (and money) to the US. So which projects received funding, and where are publishers seeing a potential for innovation? |
| 5 things publishers can do to increase revenues this quarter Here are a few of the tried-and-true methods small and large publishers have used to keep their revenues on the increase. |
| FT Future of News Europe 2019: Tech, transparency and trust For the sake of citizens, societies and world order, journalists and publishers must now navigate an ever more complex landscape to hold power to account. |
