I did something rare over the holidays. I took a break and downed tools so that I could start 2024 recharged and ready for everything that this year will bring. I hope that all of you had some downtime as well.

My downtime has left me in a reflective mood. 2023 was a challenging year for people in the media, and back in the US where I’m from, tens of thousands of people working in the media lost their jobs last year. Mark Stenberg of Adweek called it the “worst year in digital media”. And in the UK, where I live now, friends of mine lost or left their jobs.

I’m a survivor and so will all of you talented folks, even though it’s stressful and extremely challenging. I survived the dot.com crash, the one that wiped out a wave of early internet companies but also wiped out the careers of an early wave of digital journalists. I know so many incredibly smart young journalists like myself who lost their jobs and couldn’t find work in the industry because it didn’t value their skills at the time. A few years later, they would be desperate for staff with their skills. Increasing precarity has been the trajectory of the industry. I worked for the BBC for eight years, and half the time there were cuts. I worked at The Guardian for three and a half years, and half the time there were cuts. I worked for Gannett for 21 months, and as I have told many friends, I survived the first six rounds of cuts but not the seventh. It has been a lot of turmoil, and it has not always been easy to keep my confidence.

Of course, the other challenge for me and so many others is a loss of professional identity. Who are we outside of newsrooms? How will we ever find a job with such purpose and meaning again? Trust me when I say that there are a lot of ways to use your skills to do meaningful work. My career has been a wild ride and a fascinating journey and will continue to be. If you know of someone who needs to talk, point them in my direction.

Now onto the new year. 2024 is already upon us. The Press Gazette has a good overview of the challenges that media leaders are focused on in this new year and how they are looking to respond. The challenges are familiar: loss of advertising revenue, loss of social and search traffic and anxiety over AI. I think a lot of this can be summed up by a renewed sense of ownership, with the shift to first-party data and owned platforms and owning relationships with audiences

How can news media bounce back in 2024? 18 leaders share their insights

News leaders share predictions for 2024: Bosses from likes of Guardian, Reach, Business Insider and Bloomberg on challenges and opportunities

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/news-predictions-2024-challenges-opportunities

Keeping our heads about AI

I’m not sure that I agree with the Press Gazette that the New York Times is seeking the “destruction of OpenAI and Microsoft LLMs”. I think they are rightfully offended by the lifting of their content. Plagiarism is a cardinal sin in US journalism, and the NY Times has found a wealth of examples of OpenAI copying and pasting their content. The New York Times want to be compensated for the theft of their content.

The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work

Millions of articles from The New York Times were used to train chatbots that now compete with it, the lawsuit said.

www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/business/media/new-york-times-open-ai-microsoft-lawsuit.html

This is part of the response to LLMs by the industry. In my professional journey, I have seen too many folks treat technology as magic. They think what technology does is the realm of Harry Potter. It is much more like The Matrix: It is a logical system and sets of tools. AI offers up many operational benefits for many industries, including media. It can optimise front-page displays and tailor them for each known user. It can create personalised newsletters. It can support consistency of metadata, which can support improved discovery.

AI should be understood for the operational, not magical, gifts it brings

Don’t let the headlines fool you: Generative AI is more tactical and operational than organisation changing. Still, the exploration and possibilities — with expectations managed — are exciting for news media companies.

www.inma.org/blogs/smart-data-initiative/post.cfm/ai-should-be-understood-for-the-operational-not-magical-gifts-it-brings

And my friend, Gina Chua at Semafor, has some other advice on how to use data and AI. He experimented building very focused chatbots to summarise reporters’ notebooks, develop interactive experiences and explain technical expertise to “resource-strapped newsrooms”. He came away impressed..

How less, not more, data, could help journalism | Semafor

Restricting the information that chatbots can access may be the quickest way to build useful AI-powered tools for journalism.

www.semafor.com/article/12/19/2023/how-ai-could-help-journalism-with-less-data

And now onto other topics. Puzzles and quizzes can build habit and engagement. Here are some examples of how to do that.

In the middle of the last decade, I used to hold up theSkimm and its newsletter-based business to help millennial women get informed quickly as an example of a great model. But like so many other millennially-focused outlets, it hasn’t aged well and continues to struggle to diversify.

theSkimm Cuts 10% of Staff, Its Third Round of Layoffs This Year

The reductions come amid a broader push from the publisher to diversify its business

www.adweek.com/media/theskimm-layoffs-2023

It is interesting to see how many newspapers are getting into TV, not just video but TV. The Boston Globe (a customer of Pugpig, where I work) is just the latest example.

The Boston Globe expands reach with TV show, investigative journalism and more - Editor and Publisher

The Boston Globe is evolving how they report and deliver the news and expanding geographically and technologically to serve their loyal readers and reach today's more diverse audiences. The Globe has focused on building its digital presence for many years, resulting in more than 245,000 digital-only subscribers. And in April 2023, the Globe launched "Boston Globe Today," a 30-minute news broadcast jointly produced with the New England Sports Network (NESN).

www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/the-boston-globe,247279

Podcasting is still attracting money. What is interesting about Podimo is that is operating in non-English markets - Denmark, Norway, Germany and Spain. Will this investment help it to break out into larger markets? (Colour me sceptical.)

Podimo raises €44M to turn up the volume on its Netflix-style podcasting platform | TechCrunch

We are fast approaching half a billion people listening to podcasts, and today one of the independent players hoping to cash in on that activity has

techcrunch.com/2023/12/21/podimo-raises-e44m-to-turn-up-the-volume-on-its-netflix-style-podcasting-platform

I’m not quite ready to do a year-in-review piece, but when I do, there is a lot to reflect on over the past year. During my career in digital media and working with digital media projects, there have been few years where I’ve seen as much change. Despite the job losses this year and the change, I think it’s a little more hopeful because we do have models and tactics to build successful media businesses. More on that in that in the year-end wrap. Now onto the stories..

Data-driven optimisation is one of the major positive results of product-driven cultures at news organisations, and INMA has a case study from Sweden of how VK used a “data-driven, iterative process” to improve its click-through rate.

VK Media increased CTR by 130% “one step at a time”

VK Media’s front page was working well, but the article recommendations shown below the article on the article pages were not generating much engagement. It began A/B testing and compared clicks in its article recommendations to article pageviews over time to evaluate how it was doing.

www.inma.org/blogs/ideas/post.cfm/vk-media-increased-ctr-by-130-one-step-at-a-time

As I said, we have some great tactics on how to increase revenue in media, and on the journalism side, WAN-IFRA has a great rundown of the stories that it has done about reader revenue. From paid newsletters to tactics to grow subscriptions, WAN-IFRA has some great case studies.

Ten of our top reader revenue stories from 2023 - WAN-IFRA

2023-12-14. To close out this year, we are taking a look back at some of our most popular reader revenue related articles from 2023. These stories offer good lessons to be learned, reviewed and re-considered, and we’re pleased to see that they come from many different countries around the world as well.

wan-ifra.org/2023/12/ten-of-our-top-reader-revenue-related-stories-from-2023

In my day job at Pugpig, we write a weekly newsletter, and we have a mutual admiration society with Madeleine and Marion from The Audiencers, which has excellent pieces about audience development, digital media transformation and subscription optimisation. A great insight in this piece is to allow for the novelty effect to wear off so that you can see how things have settled down into discernable patterns. As we have said at the Pugpig Media Bulletin, make sure to test only one variable at a time.

4 learnings about A/B testing after 5 years working on Paid Content at ZEIT ONLINE | The Audiencers

A/B testing is essential to being successful in the subscription business. Whether Spotify, Netflix, Disney or The New York Times - everything is tested

theaudiencers.com/operations/4-learnings-about-a-b-testing-after-5-years-working-on-paid-content-at-zeit-online

I will write more about this in my year-end wrap, but it’s been a tough year both in the US and the UK for folks working in media. And at the end of the year, I had a few friends who were affected by layoffs. Adweek’s Mark Stenberg looks back at the job losses in the US and how many players it affected, particularly in the internet space. And he writes how advertisers are now shifting away from the internet as a channel.

The worst year in digital media history

More than 20,000 jobs have been lost

medialyter.substack.com/p/the-worst-year-in-digital-media-history?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Another theme this year has been regulators battles with tech giants in Australia, Canada, the EU and US states. Canada recently struck a deal with Google for payments to news publishers, and now Australia is looking to share the details of the deals that tech giants have made with news publishers there.

Tech giants could be forced to share secret news deals under Australia’s media bargaining code

New legislation will help ensure sustainability of public interest journalism, Labor says

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/18/tech-giants-could-be-forced-to-share-secret-news-deals-under-australias-media-bargaining-code

This is data for the UK TV industry, and while I haven’t heard similar figures for newspapers and magazines, I can’t believe that it is any rosier. However, the UK market has its own unique headwinds that aren’t the same for others.

Even a drop of festive Bublé can’t halt £150m slump in Christmas TV advertising

As a cash-strapped festive season looms, brands are reining in their spending on traditional broadcast campaigns

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/17/even-a-drop-of-festive-buble-cant-halt-150m-slump-in-christmas-tv-advertising

Content discovery is a major issue in TV and podcasts, but improved discovery can also support improved engagement with text content. And AI personalisation of newsletters and homepages is an opportunity for publishers to apply AI.

AI-powered personalization will boost revenue in new ways

AI-powered personalization is discovery's future. It will enable content distribution optimization and conversational voice discovery.

nscreenmedia.com/ai-powered-personalization-revenue

The big news this week was German media giant Axel Springer’s deal with OpenAI, more on that in a bit. Before we get into that, I think it’s worth taking a step back and getting some strategic thinking from my friend Damin Radcliffe. His starting point is not to jump on the bandwagon, which is to say that any move needs to be considered and carried out with intentionality. A media company needs to establish guidelines and bring the entire company along through the process, he says. And lastly, he says that media companies need to protect their IP and monetise it when possible.

Seven steps for a successful AI strategy - Digital Content Next

Many media companies have already been using AI for some time. Rapid advances have accelerated interest in the possibilities AI can unlock.

digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2023/09/28/seven-steps-for-a-successful-ai-strategy

TechCrunch has the details on the deal. OpenAI will create summaries of content for its properties including those that are behind paywall gates. The agreement includes licencing and attribution.

OpenAI inks deal with Axel Springer on licensing news for model training | TechCrunch

OpenAI has inked a deal with the news publisher Axel Springer to pay for articles on which OpenAI will train future AI models.

techcrunch.com/2023/12/13/openai-inks-deal-with-axel-springer-on-licensing-news-for-model-training

My friend Adam Tinworth summarises other details of the deal. Axel Springer will get to use OpenAI to improve its products. Adam also puts this in the context of other developments at Springer such as its decision to close down aggregator Upday. He thinks that this bodes well for big publishers, but I also think that smaller publishers need to come together and make sure that their content is licenced properly as well.

OpenAI is paying Axel Springer for its content

The German publishing giant has inked a deal with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT

onemanandhisblog.com/2023/12/openai-is-paying-axel-springer-for-its-content

In other news, the Press Gazette reviews what it has learned from five years of daily news podcasting. It is a competitive space with the New York Times’ Daily. But The Guardian takes a slightly different take on the model as it focuses on its in-depth journalism.

What The Guardian has learned from five years of daily news podcasting

The Guardian's head of audio Nicole Jackson and podcast presenter Michael Safi on five years of daily news podcast Today in Focus.

pressgazette.co.uk/podcasts/guardian-today-in-focus-daily-news-podcast-five-years

Aron Pilhofer is moving on from News Catalyst to lead product at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and he takes time before he moves on to recap the lessons that he learned. One thing that I appreciate is that they didn’t have the resources “to drive the change (they) wanted to see” on their own so they used a networked, collaborative approach. It’s a good piece on how to partner smartly to have the impact you want to have.

Lessons from News Catalyst - The Lenfest Institute for Journalism

News Catalyst provides tools, fosters collaboration, and promotes experimentation to build digitally sustainable local news organizations

www.lenfestinstitute.org/solutions-resources/lessons-from-news-catalyst-as-it-sunsets

LIONPubs also has some sage wisdom on building sustainable local news businesses. Direct funding alone won’t make them sustainable so they invest in helping companies get operationally ready and invest in business hires as well as editorial talent. (They also need to have a business plan as early as possible.)

Direct funding alone does not make a news business more sustainable - from ⁦@LIONPubs⁩ Couldn’t agree more - we’ve distributed $15M over past 3 yrs. Operational readiness is key to success. Revenue hires need training & competitive pay. Good read!

— Nancy Lane (@localmediarocks)
Dec 13, 2023

This is a classic story of digital transformation about aligning editorial teams and focusing on user needs. They realised that their production cycles were not in sync with their audiences’ behaviour. More than that, they struggled because 90% of their revenue still comes from print. This was the story with publishers across the West, and now, it is coming to India as well.

To guide their transformation, they are focusing on users and also developing metrics so that they have a common understanding of what success looks like. And their transformation is focused on digital subscription.

How The Hindu increased audience engagement by 21% in 6 months - WAN-IFRA

2023-12-14. India’s The Hindu Group recently undertook a major initiative to overhaul their digital transformation strategy. The objective of the project was to seed audience-first thinking in the company’s Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus and study its impact before rolling out the program to all the centres.

wan-ifra.org/2023/12/how-the-hindu-increased-audience-engagement-by-21-in-6-months

Twitter has long obsessed journalists, often in unhealthy ways. It did drive the conversation about politics and sports, but for a lot of other news especially local news, it didn’t really have that much of an impact. As I have said a number of times, I’ve seen the analytics at hundreds of publishers, and Twitter rarely ever drove more than single digit referrals. And even before Musk started breaking the platform, Twitter’s analytics were increasingly poor. This is a good corrective view of Twitter. Some incredible folks worked there who tried to increase the positive impact of the platform, but sadly, all of that has been undone. This isn’t to detract from their work, but it is to add some perspective

How Twitter broke the news

“No one chasing money in media ever chased Twitter. But anyone chasing power found themselves irresistibly drawn to the platform.”

www.theverge.com/c/features/23993135/twitter-breaking-news-history

I am all for using technology smartly to support local journalism, and it is interesting to see public media in Chicago use the Crosstown newsletter platform to add local data to a story so that it can be tailored for each neighborhood. For WBEZ in Chicago, that meant a reporter wrote one story, and the software produced 77 different versions. They say that the open rate is more than 70%, which means that the newsletters are finding a receptive audience. Fascinating.

Crosstown helps newsrooms create hyperlocal newsletters Crosstown helps newsrooms create hyperlocal neighborhood newsletters

The Crosstown newsletter platform allows a publisher to produce different versions of the same story that are then fitted with the data and charts for every community.

localmedia.org/2023/12/crosstown-helps-newsrooms-create-hyperlocal-newsletters

A bit of a disclaimer first, not only is the New European a customer for Pugpig, where I work, but my team is currently doing some consulting for them. A couple of years, they launched a crowd-funding investment programme to allow them to market their newspaper. It has paid off so that they will be in the black with their pro-European British newspaper and digital news service. I like that they used this funding model to create a sustainable subscription business.

New European 'in profit' with 33,000 paying readers seven years after Brexit vote

The New European newspaper has reached profitability for the first time, driven in part by a partnership with the Rest is Politics podcast.

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/magazines/the-new-european-profitable-the-rest-is-politics

Future announced a decline in revenue, especially in the US market with the CEO putting the rough patch down to being hit hard by Google Algorithm changes, AI and the macro-economic environment. They saw a major decline in their technology commerce business with soft Black Friday sales, but sports and gardening were bright spots. They are splitting their portfolio into three segments. What is interesting to me is that these three segments aren’t audience-focused but rather focused on their performance: hero, halo and cash generator brands.

Future plc CFO stepping down as company reports revenue declines and new two-year investment plan

Future plc’s CFO Penny Ladkin-Brand announced on Thursday that she is stepping down, as the U.K.- based media company reported declining revenues and a new two-year investment plan to get back to growth.

digiday.com/media/future-plc-cfo-stepping-down-as-company-reports-revenue-declines-and-new-two-year-investment-plan

Cheddar was one of those news brands for millennials, and as it is up for what Brian Morrissey described as a “fire sale”, I wonder if this is an issue for media that was created for the generation’s moment but didn’t have a broader strategy.

Altice USA in talks to sell Cheddar News to private equity firm Regent

Altice USA is in talks to sell financial streaming news service Cheddar to a private equity firm.

www.cnbc.com/2023/12/11/altice-usa-in-talks-to-sell-cheddar-news-to-private-equity-firm.html

News companies are getting serious about AI, and the New York Times has just announced its editorial director of A.I. Initiatives, Zach Seward. He will start by touring the newsroom and establishing principles for the use of A.I.

Zach Seward Is the Newsroom’s Editorial Director of A.I. Initiatives | The New York Times Company

www.nytco.com/press/zach-seward-is-the-newsrooms-editorial-director-of-a-i-initiatives

The Nieman Lab posts that caught my eye

Sarah Marshall highlights how post-platform has meant a change in platforms for her teams. She highlights work her teams have done on “Threads, WhatsApp Channels, Instagram Broadcasts, and the soon-to-launch Facebook Channels”. And YouTube Shorts has seen explosive growth as Comscore highlighted during its recent year in review. What I like about Sarah’s post is that it is focused on audience needs not just changes in platforms.

We get past “post-platform”

"With a seemingly limitless number of platforms on which to meet and engage audiences — but still a finite number of hours in the day — teams will need to develop frameworks to understand where to start, stop, and pivot."

www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/we-get-past-post-platform

This piece caught my eye because it shows how a mix of public and institutional funders are trying to find a way forward for local news. Add this project in California to the Press Forward half-billion-dollar fund announced this year to other experiments such as information districts that leverage local libraries in the US, there are several efforts in the US to restore local news coverage.

More public funding for local news

"The local news fellowship model is gaining traction in states beyond California and may be a way to test the country’s comfort with public financing of news."

www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/more-public-funding-for-local-news

After the AI screw-up at Sports Illustrated, there has been a leadership shake-up. But this coverage of the fall-out is a classic example of toxic leadership.

Inside a Major Shakeup at Sports Illustrated

The new owner of the company that owns Sports Illustrated made a jarring first impression, warning his employees: ’No one is important.’

frontofficesports.com/the-amount-of-useless-stuff-you-guys-do-is-staggering-inside-a-shakeup-at-sports-illustrated

This is an important question, and this piece looks at some of the things that young journalists will need to be prepared for as they enter the field. I think that young journalists will also need to be taught how be entrepreneurial as they navigate an uncertain career path.

How can universities prepare young journalists for the industry?

Focusing on emotional resilience is as important as teaching media law

www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-can-universities-prepare-young-journalists-for-the-industry-/s2/a1096376

Guy Tasaka makes a very sturdy case for mobile apps for local news publishers. He highlights stats on how much more engagement apps users. App users consumer more than 6x more sessions per month than desktop or mobile web users, and more than, he breaks out the incredible amount of adviews -151 - that mobile app users consume than desktop - 10 - or mobile web -7. And push notifications are such an important tool for publishers to engage users. Tasaka is right to highlight that publishers have aggregators to content with, but apps are an important tool in the publishing stack for local news organisations.

Native mobile apps put news publishers in control of content and their futures - Editor and Publisher

Mobile apps are now used more than mobile web browsers. eMarketer estimated that in 2022, the average American spent over four hours a day on mobile devices, and over 90% of that time spent was using a mobile app. This ubiquity of mobile apps in everyday digital habits presents both risks and opportunities for news publishers.

www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/getting-mobile,246794

Print represents 25% of The Guardian’s revenue, and their publishing director Mylene Sylvestre attributes the resilience of their print business on distinctive content and a global footprint. It underscores how much British publishers are looking to a global market for growth. And both in their digital and print operations, they are looking to leverage data. I also think it’s interesting how they are looking to convert print readers in the UK to subscribers. That is different than the traditional newsstand sales in the UK, but it provides a more stable basis for their business.

How The Guardian continues to drive print revenues through subscriptions - WAN-IFRA

2023-11-24. The Guardian has maintained its subscription growth in print while also growing its digital revenues and audience, which now has 81 million unique monthly visitors globally. Guardian’s publishing director Mylene Sylvestre explains how they have achieved this.

wan-ifra.org/2023/11/how-the-guardian-continues-to-drive-print-revenues-through-subscriptions

And licencing deals like this one for the Guardian are a new source of revenue for major newspapers and other publishers.

Guardian strikes TV and film deal with company behind The Crown

Collaboration will give Sony Pictures Entertainment exclusive first-look rights to Guardian’s global journalism

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/29/guardian-strikes-tv-and-film-deal-with-company-behind-the-crown

I had to double-check the date on this story. Is is 2023 or 2017? No, it is definitely this year. Subscriptions for groups have been around for a while, but this is a good case study of how they could work for local publishers. Subscribers get access to special content including dedicated discussion groups, exclusive content, polls and a special badge on their profile. It is an interesting play for a local publisher. Could this scale for larger publishers?

Facebook subscriptions: Could Meta still be a friend for publishers?

Small local newsbrand Pulman's Weekly News has got more than 500 Facebook subscriptions in under one month.

pressgazette.co.uk/social_media/facebook-subscriptions-news-publishers

For all of the smart uses of AI, there are some very public and very stupid uses of it that will damage a lot of businesses and the use cases for AI. Following Sports Illustrated being caught using AI to generate content. Publishers under pressure will be using generative AI. Will it be enough for readers to alert them that the piece was written by AI? Or will it further erode trust?

The tsunami of crap has arrived

Bring in the bots

open.substack.com/pub/therebooting/p/the-tsunami-of-crap-has-arrived?r=1u7ee&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

And here is an article about the Sports Illustrated AI controversy. So sad.

Sports Illustrated accused of publishing AI-written articles

The Sports Illustrated union said staff were "horrified" and demanded "basic journalistic standards".

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67560354

It is positive to see the industry being proactive with policies and processes to govern the use of AI in journalism. In another excellent piece from The Fix they dig into the new Reporters without Borders guidelines. One criticism of the guidelines is that they were not written by a broad group of stakeholders. They were written with journalism unions and researchers only, The Fix says. I also find it interesting that WAN-IFRA has decided not to promote the charter due to unrealistic expectations. It’s a valuable piece.

Review of RSF’s new guidelines on using AI in journalism: what they achieve and where they fall short - The Fix

A critical look into the Paris Charter on AI and Journalism developed by Reporters Without Borders and 16 partners

thefix.media/2023/11/24/review-of-rsfs-new-guidelines-on-using-ai-in-journalism-what-they-achieve-and-where-they-fall-shor

A thoughtful piece from The Conversation on what news organisations are doing as their content fades, or in the case of Canada has completely disappeared on Facebook, on social media platforms.

The news is fading from sight on big social media platforms – where does that leave journalism?

Social media platforms are abandoning news – which is bad news for traditional media organisations that have come to rely on them for consumers.

theconversation.com/the-news-is-fading-from-sight-on-big-social-media-platforms-where-does-that-leave-journalism-218522

Just a few weeks before the Online News Act is set to go into effect in Canada, Google has struck a deal with Google. I am sure that news companies are hoping that a similar deal can now be struck with Facebook and that their visibility online will be restored.

Social Media this week: Musk drops the F-bomb on advertisers and disinformation networks build ahead of the US elections

Ahead of the US elections, Russian and Chinese misinformation networks are growing their audiences, Meta has warned. It is a worrying that after all that has happened over the last eight years that the US does not seem prepared to tackle this issue. But efforts to deal with them seem to have been hampered by partisanship.

And, of course, Elon Musk looks to be preparing for a messy divorce with advertisers. This comes as those in the ad industry are calling on CEO Linda Yaccarino to resign to preserve her standing and reputation in the industry.

Russian and Chinese interference networks are ‘building audiences’ ahead of 2024, warns Meta

Influence operations from Russia and China are ramping up on social media in the run-up to several key elections that will take place in 2024, Meta said in a new report.

therecord.media/russia-china-interference-networks-building-audiences-elections

5 Considerations for the Future of X Following Elon’s Anti-Advertiser Comments This Week

Elon has made his stance on advertisers clear - but will that lead to the end of the platform as we know it?

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/5-considerations-for-the-future-of-x-following-elons-anti-advertiser-comme/701372

Musk Tells Advertisers to ‘Go F--- Yourself’ if They Don’t Agree With His Comments

Elon Musk is not backing down, despite ongoing advertiser backlash over his divisive comments.

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/musk-tells-advertisers-to-go-f-yourself-if-they-dont-agree-with-his-c/701088

The first two items today are very closely related, and the common thread is this: Publishers are seeking additional revenue streams than advertising. The softness in ad revenue is driving layoffs at digital and traditional publishers - particularly with digital publishers such as BuzzFeed, G/O Media and Vice. But it has also hit publishers like the Washington Post, which has seen issues with its subscription and ad revenue.

Digiday is reporting that companies are leaning into events and not just traditional conferences but experiences as well. Broadly, publishers are trying to find ways to increase ARPU so that they can reach sustainability from a smaller but more engaged audience. We are seeing this at all scales of media, from small local newsletter-led players to larger publishers.

Publishers double down on events heading into 2024

Several digital publishers are doubling down on the business they still carry some authority over: events.

digiday.com/media/publishers-double-down-on-events-heading-into-2024

Media companies announce more layoffs to cut costs, blaming a relentlessly challenging ad market 

The seemingly endless cycle of media industry layoffs over the past year hit a crescendo last week, with cuts hitting G/O Media, Vice Media and Vox Media, as execs sought to cut costs before the end of the year.

digiday.com/media/media-companies-announce-more-layoffs-to-cut-costs-blaming-a-relentlessly-challenging-ad-market

Many publishers and publishing startups have leaned into reader revenue. It has given major publishers like the New York Times a solid foundation to build their business on, buoyed publishers like The Guardian and given startups like Defector Media the basis for a sustainable business.

“Good blogs are good for business,” and other lessons from Defector’s third year

Defector Media published its third admirably transparent annual report on Tuesday, and said it'll keep doing so "until the structures and dynamics of a business like ours (i.e., a subscription-first, worker-owned and -operated media company) feel so conventional as to be boring to our subscrib…

www.niemanlab.org/2023/11/good-blogs-are-good-for-business-and-other-lessons-from-defectors-third-year

FT Strategies direct Lisa MacLeod has some straight talk and a strong call to action in this piece.

Why newsroom transformation is key to subscription growth

Quality journalism and reader revenue go hand-in-hand, says Lisa MacLeod, director of FT Strategies

www.journalism.co.uk/news/why-newsroom-transformation-is-key-to-subscription-growth/s2/a1088212

We’re in a pivotal moment in digital media, and you only have to look at the decline of Tumblr. Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, bought Tumblr from Verizon for $3m in 2019, which was pennies compared to the $1bn that Yahoo paid for the quirky blogging site. Keeping to the theme of the decline in ads, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said that most of the ads on the site are programmatic. And sadly, only 0.2% of Tumblr users were subscribers. If they could get that up even to 10% the site would be fine. Increasing subscriptions seems like the most promising opportunity for Tumblr.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg details Tumblr's future after re-org | TechCrunch

This week, WordPress.com owner Matt Mullenweg confirmed his company would be shifting the majority of Tumblr's workforce to other areas at parent company

techcrunch.com/2023/11/10/automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-details-tumblrs-future-after-re-org

An important effort with core principles that should share wide backing:

• Ethics must govern technological choices within the media;

• Human agency must remain central in editorial decisions;

• The media must help society to distinguish between authentic and synthetic content with confidence;

• The media must participate in global AI governance and defend the viability of journalism when negotiating with tech companies.

RSF and 16 partners unveil Paris Charter on AI and Journalism

The first of its kind, the Paris Charter on AI and Journalism defines ethics and principles that journalists, newsrooms and media outlets around the world will be able to appropriate and apply in their work with artificial intelligence. It was created by a commission initiated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and chaired by journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa. 

rsf.org/en/rsf-and-16-partners-unveil-paris-charter-ai-and-journalism

Greg Piechota challenges some long-held beliefs about the economics of digital distribution in a call for publishers to invest more in it. As he says, the cost of digital distribution is lower than print, but it’s not zero. Publisher’s reliance on organic - read free - distribution via search and social meant distorted (my words, not Greg’s) publishers’ expectations of what it cost to reach digital audiences. And I would add that it distorted the true value of these rented audiences. The value of audiences who have a direct relationship with a publisher is higher than those rented audiences. But Greg is making a broader point than simply converting unknown, loosely connected audiences to known contacts. He is also saying that publishers need to invest in their products, and they need to invest in distribution. After all, as he points out, Google paid as much as $10bn a year to be the default search engine on Apple’s devices. The bottom line is that free traffic is gone - if it ever existed - and publishers will need to invest in distribution if they want to survive.

Traffic panic should lead news publishers to revamp online distribution

It’s time for news media companies — which spend two to eight times less on digital vs. print delivery — to rethink their distribution models.

www.inma.org/blogs/reader-revenue/post.cfm/traffic-panic-should-lead-news-publishers-to-revamp-online-distribution

I attended the Audiencers Festival in London a few weeks back, and a session on newsletters drove the point home once again on how valuable they are in engaging audiences, which leads to conversion and retention. The Telegraph has found “if a reader subscribes to their premium product after clicking on a newsletter, they’re 50% more likely to still be a subscriber after 12 months”, Maire Bonheim, Head of Newsletters at The Telegraph, said. It’s great to see data that proves the importance of newsletters to retention.

Questions have always swirled around newsletters with a view that younger audiences don’t read email, and this was raised at the Audiencers Festival. The durability of email newsletters has surprised me, and if anything, newsletters have come into their own as standalone products as well as parts of a modern media product portfolio.

As far as a standalone product, newsletters have proven themselves as the minimum viable local news product. Instead of a network of local news sites, we are seeing more networks of local newsletters. Michael MacLeod, Founder of The Edinburgh Guardian, talked about his experience launching the newsletter, which aggregates local news in Edinburgh. And retention was a major theme again. Only 5% who have subscribed have unsubscribed.

How to make newsletters valuable in a reader revenue model - The Telegraph & The Edinburgh Guardian | The Audiencers

Peter Houston interviews Maire, Head of Newsletters at The Telegraph & Michael, founder of The Edinburgh Guardian at The Audiencers' Festival 2023

theaudiencers.com/operations/how-to-make-newsletters-valuable-in-a-reader-revenue-model-the-telegraph-the-edinburgh-guardian

They have found a tremendous amount of engagement - not just views but also messages. Moreover, most of the users are local to the publication so not just audiences from elsewhere but actually in the US state that they cover.

How a local nonprofit news organization found its readers on TikTok - Storybench

You don’t often run across local news on TikTok, and it’s not because the idea hasn’t hit newsrooms yet. TikTok only recently became a vessel for news outlets to directly disseminate content. The trend started when The Washington Post launched a TikTok account in 2019, eventually becoming a trailblazer in the industry for how to

www.storybench.org/how-a-local-nonprofit-news-organization-found-its-readers-on-tiktok/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-a-local-nonprofit-news-organization-found-its-readers-on-tiktok

This was big news in the UK Wednesday with the largest local news publisher - Reach - cutting 10% of their workforce. Their social-reliant traffic acquisition model has led to major issues with their digital traffic, leading to a 16% decline in their digital revenue. Having worked as a consultant with Reach for almost three years 2016 to 2018, this news is heart-breaking and hit a number of people I know.

Reach restructure: 450 jobs to go, websites to close, print and online teams to combine

Reach redundancies: The UK's largest commercial news publisher has announced plans to cut more than one in ten staff.

pressgazette.co.uk/news/reach-450-redundancies

The media industry continues to reduce its reliance on advertising, and Footballco, a footie-focused media business, is looking to grow its affiliate revenue this year. The only question that I have about putting their eggs in this basket is the impact that changes in search referrals might have to affiliate sales.

Footballco says it will grow affiliate revenues by 300% in 2023 in drive away from advertising

Footballco is driving 50 million page views per month through affiliate content, especially on Goal.

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/footballco-says-it-will-grow-affiliate-revenues-by-300-in-2023-in-drive-away-from-advertising

I have taken to saying that I rotate days using one of the new social media platforms. Hey, it is Tuesday, it must be Bluesky Day. I am happy to hear that I am not alone in feeling a little adrift when it comes to social media platforms. I am in four or five Slacks. I am on Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon, although I haven’t logged into the latter anytime recently more because I struggle to. And I’m still on X, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. Ugh, too much. Too much.

First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere to Go

The collective erosion of X, Instagram, and Facebook marks a turning point for millennials, who are outgrowing a constant need to be plugged in.

www.wired.com/story/first-gen-social-media-users-have-nowhere-to-go

I post this only because it shows how the New York Times is progressing in its work on bundles. They hit 10m subscriptions a year ago, but this is 10m subscribers. 

The New York Times hits 10 million subscribers by using non-news products as an on-ramp

The New York Times announced Wednesday that it has hit a big round number: 10 million subscribers. Feeling a little deja vu? That may be because the Times already hit the 10 million mark more than a year ago. But that was 10 million total subscriptions; this is 10 million total subscribers. (If …

www.niemanlab.org/2023/11/the-new-york-times-hits-10-million-subscribers-by-using-non-news-products-as-an-on-ramp

The death of a pioneer Philip Meyer might be called the Father of Data Journalism, but I think he would want to be remembered as the Father of Precision Journalism. He brought rigour and social science to his journalism and championed that application. For me, it was this data-driven interrogation of a story that was and still is revolutionary. This contribution cannot be underestimated.

Philip Meyer, Reporter Who Pioneered Data-Driven Journalism, Dies at 93

First as a correspondent and later as a professor, he pushed his industry to adopt more rigorous, quantitative methods.

www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/business/media/philip-meyer-dead.html

I am adding this as someone who developed an incredible appreciation for management during my master’s degree. This is one to read and reflect on. Every manager faces fear, but then there is a question of what a manager does with that. This research indicates that some managers are not managing their own emotions. Not only are their employees paying for it, but their businesses are as well.

A third of managers harbor unconscious fear, leading to a $36 billion productivity loss

Fear-based leaders lose an estimated 10 hours a week in productivity for their companies, adding up to about $29,000 a year per leader or $36 billion annually.

digiday.com/media/a-third-of-managers-harbor-unconscious-fear-leading-to-36-billion-productivity-loss