#MediaRevenue - David Clinch

Welcome to my weekly round-up of all things #MediaRevenue. Let me know if I have missed any important stories.

I enjoyed the webinar I did this week on AI citations and the role that they will play in a fair value exchange between news publishers and tech companies. Let me know if you want to watch the recording, or if you have opinions on this subject.

We have had a number of news publishers sign up to hear more about the "money button" current test we are doing of highly-trained advertising AI that is driving significant new advertising revenue, based on attention time management and contextual targeting with first party data, for small, midsized and large publishers. Let me know if you want to join the test.

Also let me know if you want to get involved in a test of new technology to solve the problem of journalists, and journalism, being impersonated online. This relates to the role of AI citations as well.

We also have a new AI-powered news word game for news publishers launching soon, so let me know if you want to sign up for that.

If you need help navigating any of the issues related to the impact of AI on your news organization, let me know: [email protected]

There are LOTS interesting #MediaRevenue stories from this week, including some about the impact of AI-powered paywall technology ->

Coming Up Next on CNN: A Paywall: "The company is planning a so-called metered model, which will require the site’s habitual users to pay after reading a certain number of articles." New York Times.

How Business Insider’s AI-based paywall strategy increased conversions by 75%: "Business Insider’s registration wall strategy also got a refresh, changing it from a metered approach (with the registration wall hitting after five read articles) to it also being left up to AI. Friedman said that registrations increased by 300% as a result of that switch." - Digiday.

Publishers remain focused on (advertising) alternatives despite Google cookies U-turn: "Nuno Brilha, the CMO of attention management platform Insurads, said they were looking into a (...) ad subscription service as part of a recently-launched strategic partnership with Mather Economics and its content and analytics platform, Sophi." - Press Gazette.

Brand safety a ‘con’ costing news industry billions, new research says: "Publishers are needlessly losing billions in revenue because a generation of marketers thinks news is an “unsafe” place to put advertising." - Press Gazette.

Scripps News will lay off 200 as it shutters broadcast news channel: ""Amidst an already difficult linear television advertising marketplace, many brands and agencies have decided that advertising around national news is just too risky for them given the polarized nature of this country, no matter the accolades and credentials a news organization like Scripps receives for its objectivity," Symson said." - Axios.

The Washington Post cuts 25 percent of tech arm, Arc XP: "The Post says it remains committed to Arc XP, which provides services to more than 2,500 global brands, including Reuters, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo and France’s Le Parisien. Petersen declined to say if Arc XP was profitable or to discuss revenue targets." - Washington Post

Spurned by Social Media, Publishers Chase Readers on WhatsApp: "Many digital news publishers have been desperately searching for a life raft. Traffic to news sites has fallen sharply, along with the ad revenue those clicks generate, partly because Google and Facebook decided to make news less prominent on their platforms. Now, some publications have found a glimmer of hope elsewhere: WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app." - New York Times.

NYT to sell audio subscriptions through Apple and Spotify: "Come October, listeners will need to subscribe to The Times' audio content to unlock older episodes of The Times' hit shows, such as "The Daily," "The Ezra Klein Klein Show,""Modern Love," or "Hard Fork."" - Axios.

Vice Debuts a Subscription Product and Relaunches Its Print Magazine: "The publisher hopes to reach 10,000 subscribers by next spring" - AdWeek.

Koch eyes Forbes deal: KED is in talks with a media entrepreneur named Divyank Turakhia to partner on a bid for Forbes that would value the company at roughly 10% less than the $630 million valuation it received for its blank check merger in 2021. - Axios.

Right-Wing Media Sails On Despite Russian Scheme: "Without the protection or the guardrails of an employer, they must compete for traffic with everybody else and have a financial incentive to go to extremes." - Bloomberg.

Bari Weiss’s media start-up valued at $100mn in funding round: "Hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall among those backing venture from former New York Times journalist" - FT.

How Tim Miller and The Bulwark became 2024’s unlikely YouTube stars: "YouTube has been central to its surging popularity: The publication, which had 50,000 YouTube subscribers last September, had 631,000 as of Saturday afternoon and counting." - Semafor.

Daily Beast Hopes to Revitalize Site With New Contributors Like Samantha Bee, Kara Swisher, Dick Costolo: "...the Beast is tapping more than 30 prominent journalists, comedians and thought leaders to serve as contributors." - Variety

Future closes titles and events deemed ‘low to no growth assets’: "The publisher said in a trading update that it is carrying out continuous “portfolio optimisation… to ensure the Group is best positioned to deliver sustainable organic growth." - Press Gazette.

International Fund for Public Interest Media looks to raise $150M: "An international fund that supports independent media on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to raise $150 million by mid-2025 to bolster independent media in low and mid-income countries globally over the next three years." - Axios.

The National Trust for Local News keeps buying local newspapers. Here’s what they’ve learned.: “"What we’re trying to solve for is not necessarily a business model problem. We’re trying to solve for an ownership incentive problem.”" - Nieman Lab.