None of these are new topics. But the economic and industry changes brought on by the Coronavirus made all of them more immediately urgent. And while we’ll be spending this year exploring in-depth answers to all of these questions, here’s our bird’s-eye view of the top 3 publisher issues for you to keep top-of-mind in 2021.

Identity resolution

Currently, there is no “cure all” solution for the absence of third-party cookies. There are, however, several initiatives aimed at limiting any negative impacts that could be inflicted upon the ad tech ecosystem. These initiatives are open to any publisher to join, and are currently the best way to understand the industry landscape, hear from other publishers, and follow the development of best practices as they emerge. They’re all slightly different, so here’s how each of these groups is aiming to achieve identity resolution.

• IAB Tech Lab’s Project Rearc is focused on achieving addressability through a universal identifier, an authentication solution, and clear-cut consumer privacy preferences
  
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) proposes standardized targeting through browser-based technologies, as proposed and developed by Google’s Privacy Sandbox and members of the ‘Improving Web Advertising Business Group’ of the W3C
  
• Other Universal Identifiers (UIDs), of which there are many. A UID is a shared and persistent ID that recognizes individual readers across different platforms, many of which are driven by encrypted and/or hashed emails (e.g. LiveRamp’s IdentityLink and Unified ID 2.0)

Revenue diversification: eCommerce

The drop in ad spend that followed the COVID-19 outbreak meant that publishers suddenly found themselves scrambling for additional streams of revenue. Our data showed just how effective revenue diversification is at protecting publishers from economic shifts. Over the past year we’ve seen publishers leverage a number of strategies focused on both building and diversifying their revenue streams. Subscriptions, memberships, podcasts and paywalls have all been duly tested and found to be—depending on the publisher—effective. 

One of the biggest global shifts over the course of 2020 was the sheer volume of purchasing behavior that moved online, even as COVID-19 restrictions relaxed. Of course, that increased traffic had merchant ramifications: for all intents and purposes, Amazon has completely dropped affiliate commissions, while Walmart temporarily cut their rates to zero. Similar shifts often happen seasonally, but publishers who diversify their merchants are in a better place to succeed. What’s clear is that eCommerce isn’t going anywhere, and a solid commerce strategy will be key to the continued success of publishers of all sizes.

First-Party Audience Data

For years, ad tech has given third-party data top priority. The primary focus has been to predict intent by following readers/audiences from site to site, mostly without their knowledge. First-party data, on the other hand, places privacy and transparency at the forefront, as it can only be collected by the site itself and not by any outside party. Both privacy and transparency have been regular fixtures in the media landscape, and the likeliness of continued tech regulation and privacy legislation in the US and elsewhere makes first-party data all the more important.

Once third-party cookies are dropped on the Chrome browser, first-party data may well become the new currency of web advertising. All publishers—no matter the size—have the ability to extract it from their readers. However, there is no standard through which to pass these data segments. This shift from third- to first-party data puts publishers in a position to do what they do best and get rewarded for doing it well. By creating unique and engaging online experiences, publishers build trusted relationships with niche audiences that are willing to share their information in exchange for quality content.

The post The top 3 publisher issues of 2021 appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

According to the Network for Good, nearly one-third of all nonprofit online donations are given during the month of December. That means the rest of the year is incredibly important to nonprofits working to get the word out about the value they bring.

Sovrn wants to help.

That’s why we’re introducing a Private Marketplace (PMP) Deal that gives nonprofit advertisers more working media for their programmatic ad spend compared to any other Deal we offer.

From now through the end of the year, nonprofits* targeting the DealID GivingTues_Svn_Nonprofits through any one of eight DSPs offering Sovrn Deals (Amobee, BidSwitch, Centro, Google DV360, Quantcast, RhythmOne, Simpli.fi, The Trade Desk), will access Sovrn’s top supply at a significantly reduced take rate—creating more efficiency and better return on ad spend for their investments during this critical time of year.

Nonprofit work is important—now more than ever—and every penny counts. We hope this small token of our appreciation helps nonprofits reach their goals so they can continue to help the people who depend on them.

If you have any questions or want to talk more, get in touch at advertising@sovrn.com.

*Corporations, funds, schools, or foundations that operate for charitable, educational, religious, arts, or scientific purposes and maintain a 501(c)(3) tax exemption

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This week, Jounce Media released their SPO Fact Pack. Jounce crawled more than 100,000 ads.txt files and 150 sellers.json files to get a better understanding of the size and directness of widely-deployed advertising exchanges. The goal of the report  is to give media buyers the facts they need to make data-driven decisions when it comes to supply path optimization (SPO).

Can we be direct with you?

Looking at the results, we’re proud of our publisher supply team for building one of the largest and most direct programmatic advertising exchanges. 

When it comes to scale, Sovrn covers more than 40% of advertising-supported websites.

More importantly, more than 86% of our publisher integrations are direct. That’s significantly higher than any other exchange of our size, and any other exchange focused on delivering scale in mobile and desktop display. 

What this means for advertisers

If advertisers want scale with direct path to supply, Sovrn is an ideal partner. We curate the best supply on the web, vet it for brand safety, and then deliver direct paths to publishers. DSPs and agencies are placing more importance everyday on finding the most direct and efficient paths to quality inventory. Working with Sovrn makes supply path optimization easy. 

If you want more information on how we can help you reach your campaign goals, get in touch at advertising@sovrn.com. 

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Today, we’re proud to officially introduce the new face of Sovrn. Whether you’re a publisher or an advertiser, you’ll now be able to find whatever you’re looking for, whenever you like. When you visit our website (and we invite you to take some time to explore all the new features), you should have a clear vision of who we are and what we offer. You should have easy access to the tools, service, and support you need.

We recognize that our customers range from the world’s top publishers to ad ops professionals to individual bloggers and writers, and we want Sovrn.com to help guide you towards your goals, no matter who you are. If you want access to Signal, our intelligent viewability technology, it’s only a click away. If you’re looking for help managing your ad operations, you can now instantly schedule a call with our Services team. If you want to access our powerful Commerce products and add a new revenue stream to your business, all of that and more is within your reach.

We’re a forward-looking company, and we know that there’s more to come. We’ve always been focused on the success of our customers. This January, we released our new support site, and this website is an evolution of that focus. In the coming months we’ll be adding even more functionality to our online presence, and we’ll be improving the way you interact with Sovrn. As we do, we want to make sure that you know we’re here to help you along your journey.

Here’s to the present, and to the future to come,

—Your partners at Sovrn

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But what is an interest-based publisher? Isn’t every publisher interest-based in one form or another?

Good point. Content is consumed first and foremost because of interest. When we talk about interest-based publishers at Sovrn, we’re thinking of mid- and long-tail publishers who sit outside the mainstream but provide significant value to their readers. One of our favorite such publishers on the Sovrn exchange is Instructables.com.

Instructables is for people who love to have fun making stuff. It contains thousands of step-by-step, community-powered how-to guides for consumers to create, share, and revel in the awesomeness of making just about anything. The site was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith in August 2005, and is currently owned by Autodesk. Instructables started working with Sovrn in 2016.

According to Lauren Gerber, Yield Manager, Autodesk, the most popular articles on Instructables focus on technology followed by workshops and food. Their audience skews male at 58% and is most popular with the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups. When asked if she had any tips for advertisers who want to make the most out of campaigns hitting Instructables, Ms. Gerber said, “Be authentic and fun.” We think that’s great advice since authentic and fun is a perfect description for the content you’ll find throughout Instructables.com.

Great story, but why should advertisers care about interest-based publishers instead of mainstream sites?

Mid- and long-tail sites give your campaigns several advantages. You’re gaining additional reach. Your ads are less likely to appear near your competitors. You may even find performance advantages to advertising on smaller sites. Think about your own behavior. Are you more likely to pay attention and engage with ads on sites where you feel an attachment to the content or that mega news site where you check in to find out the latest big story and quickly move on to something else?

Sounds good. But aren’t there more brand safety and fraud risks in the mid- and long-tail?

That’s where Sovrn comes in. We know advertisers need to be feel safe when wading deeper into the ocean of the web. That’s why we’ve set up rigorous standards for any publisher who wants to be part of our exchange. Every site goes through a meticulous 25-point inspection by two humans, and we reject far more than we accept. It’s worth it though. We’re one of only five companies to achieve TAG Platinum status for certification against fraud, malware, piracy, and inventory quality.

The bottom line is there’s a lot of upside for advertisers when it comes to interest-based publishers. If you want to hear more about advertising opportunities on Instructables.com or any of the 2,000+ direct, interest-based publishers we work with, hit us up at advertising@sovrn.com.

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Although the event did not disappoint, things felt a bit more subdued than previous years. Perhaps this is in response to the state of the film industry today (I’m looking at you, Hulu and Netflix).

Cannes Lions had a different strategy for the event this year, most notably, to breathe new life into its original purpose: celebrating creativity. In the increasingly digital world that we live in today, everyone is able to tell their story. In recent years, minority filmmakers have broken down barriers to entry and given a voice to those whose stories had never made it to prominent festivals like Cannes Lions.

Cannes Lions is adapting to the changes in film, media, and advertising industries; specifically in relation to digital storytelling. If you weren’t there to see the changes yourself, don’t worry. Here are our 5 key takeaways from this year’s festival:

Key players in the creative industry are placing increasing importance on corporate social responsibility. The Palau Pledge, a travel campaign that doubled as an environmental conservation effort, emerged successful, winning three Grand Prix on the final night. Host/Havas wanted to inspire a true and lasting change in behavior, leading them to create a campaign that would transcend culture and nationality. The Palau Pledge asked tourists visiting Palau to sign a “pledge” on their passport to be environmentally conscious during their stay. It seemed Cannes Lions aligned, introducing the Sustainable Development Goals award, created in partnership with United Nations. All proceeds from submissions for the award were donated towards sustainable development causes.

No one wants the dreaded ‘Social Network’ label. ‘Social Network’ seems to have morphed into a dirty term, with companies like Twitter & Reddit opting for the more conservative ‘news’ label. This seems somewhat understandable, as any company considered a social network is then compared to Facebook… a daunting comparison. Reddit’s new COO Jen Wong stated that “the difference between Reddit and social media is the entry point. Your entry points to Reddit are your passions and interests, and your entry point to social is your friends and family.” The rejection of the ‘social network’ label at the festival is telling – about the state of the industry and the general feeling about social generated traffic.

Cannes Lions 2018 took a step back and renewed focus on creativity, the original intention behind the festival. The past couple of years have been a spectacle of bright colors and tech slang, competing for money and creating a facade. This year, the festival expanded to include the entire media ecosystem, including tech companies and social media platforms, only adding to the air of a renewed creativity. Awarded campaigns were creative, used outside-the-box techniques and touched on social, economic and environmental issues. Responding to disruptions in the industry, the festival incorporated less platform defined, more innovative media, and reoriented around purposeful creativity.

Many of the winners at Cannes Lions took a new, modern approach to the idea of storytelling. Cannes Lions represents the industries biggest celebration of creativity on it’s biggest stage. Winners not only represent the industries future direction, but also aims to push both clients and agencies to bigger ideas, craft, and execution. One of our favorite campaigns was ‘Evert_45’ by N=5, done for KPN, a Dutch landline, and mobile communications company. The initial idea behind the campaign was to connect young people today with people that were young during WWII and help to pass on their stories. Initially, N=5 and KPN collaborated on strategies to share stories of the past through the channels and with the language of today, to successfully engage younger generations. The idea developed and became Evert_45, an immersive campaign based on first-hand accounts of ordinary Dutch people from WWII. For a more modern twist, N=5 collaborated with influencers and took a phased approach played the campaign out as an ongoing series on Instagram, YouTube, and evert45.com.

The consistent theme of the week was the need to tackle diversity and discrimination, with red carpet protests lead by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. There were multiple red carpet protests to bring attention to the inequality and lack of representation that has plagued the film industry. French black actresses, lead by Aïssa Maïga, walked the carpet together to protest racism in French cinema. 82 women including Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, and Salma Hayek protested gender inequality. Kristen Stewart took her shoes off on the red carpet to protest the Cannes dress code that says women cannot wear flats. At a film festival, you might expect the main stories to be the films. However, this year many of the biggest stories, the ones that engaged people all around the world, took place off-screen, where brave protesters called attention to issues that we all can relate to.

The mission of Cannes Lions resonates with all of us here at Sovrn. We pride ourselves in helping storytellers do more of what they love and less of what they don’t. The filmmakers at Cannes Lions create films by the people, for the people. The sponsors’ messages were reflective of the times we live in. The ultimate takeaway for us, that each and every publisher and storyteller can learn from, is that engaging, relevant, relatable content has the biggest impact.
 

The post Cannes Lions 2018 – The Importance of Strategic & Creative Storytelling appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Sovrn is committed to supporting unique content from enthusiastic content creators online. Our business is built on solving problems for content creators, helping them make money, understanding their audiences and distributing their content.

The threat of changing Title II classification puts this at risk by allowing ISPs direct capabilities to block websites, slow sites down to give some sites an advantage over others, and split the internet into “fast lanes” for companies that pay and “slow lanes” for the rest.

Related: Sovrn CEO Walter Knapp on ‘Why Net Neutrality Matters’ 

Net neutrality is the single most important attribute of the internet. Allowing ISPs to control how we consume the internet is deeply concerning both philosophically and economically. The web is not owned by any one of us; it is shared by all of us. That is why net neutrality is so important.

How can you help?
FCC chair Ajit Pai presented a plan this year to gut net neutrality, and on December 14 the FCC voted in favor of that plan, ending FCC support for net neutrality. Congress, however, has oversight over the FCC and can slow this down or force the plan to be abandoned.

Join us by writing and/or calling your congressional representatives and senators, telling them you support net neutrality. The website Battle for the Net makes this process easy, providing emails, phone numbers and sample scripts.
Vital for publishers and users
In an opinion piece for WARC, Sovrn CEO Walter Knapp explains why net neutrality is so vital for publishers and internet users alike:

“Net neutrality allows smaller, independent publishers who are experts in their field and passionate about their subject area to create high quality niche content that can be accessed equally by all,” he writes. “If the 2015 regulations are reversed, a powerful few will be able to take control over how people consume, share and converse online. This is deeply concerning for the future of free speech.”

Additional resources

• • Read Sovrn CEO Walter Knapp’s piece on “Why Net Neutrality Matters.”
  • The best way to take action and show your support for net neutrality is to write and/or call your congressperson. The website Battle for the Net makes it easy to figure out who and what to say.
  • On Tuesday, December 12, the group Fight for the Future is asking us all to help “Break the Internet.” Here’s how you can do it.

• For even more background on the issue, check out Rand Fishkin’s Whiteboard Friday video on “Why Net Neutrality Matters for SEO and Web Marketing”:

Net Neutrality – Whiteboard Friday_1

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For years, Sovrn has been leading the fight for better online advertising.  We co-chaired the groundbreaking IAB Online Ad Fraud Committee, we’ve consistently ranked at the very top of 3rd party quality rankings, and recently we were one of only two supply platforms to undergo a rigorous independent 3rd party audit of our anti-fraud and anti-privacy practices in the US. We are also in the process of being audited in the UK by JICWEBS for Brand Safety and Anti-Fraud.

Why do we do this?
The “Who We Are” statement from the Coalition for Better Ads sums it up nicely: Advertising helps support valuable free content, robust journalism and social connections across the internet.

We believe in publishers and content creators.  They create the stories that inform, engage, and connect us together.  Better advertising means better results for advertisers, more alignment with the quality content publishers produce, and ultimately a better audience experience.

Membership in the Coalition for Better Ads,  viewability and audience engagement solutions like Signal, and helping publishers understand ad blocking with investments technology like Optimal are just some of the ways we are helping publishers succeed and do more of what they love.

You can read more about the Better Ad Standards here.
 

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Wrapped in the challenges above, we at Sovrn, see opportunities. Opportunities require investment. Our action to prioritize and focus our expenses today ensures that we can continue making investments to solve important problems for our core customer base of independent publishers.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve invested in expanding our Data processing and Yield management infrastructure, we released an easy-to-implement Header Bidding option to level the playing field, and we completed 3 acquisitions to solve important issues such as Viewability, Ad Block Mitigation and Content Distribution. In each of the past 2 years, we’ve grown revenues more than 50%, and in that time we hired over 200 people, all while remaining profitable and maintaining a strong balance sheet.

In order to sustain profitable growth, and keep making focused investments, today we consolidated our workforce in North America by 14%. Our UK office continues to grow meaningfully ahead of its targets and we will continue to invest actively in that market.

We believe that every interesting company solves important problems for someone else. At Sovrn we are deeply committed to solving important problems for independent content creators.

To learn more about how we help independent publishers do more of what they love, contact us any time.

The post Our Commitment to Independent Publishers appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Update:During a November event in Palm Springs, Knapp was also recognized as a national finalist in EY’s 2017 U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year awards, in the Media, Entertainment and Communications category.

Excellence and Extraordinary Success
The EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards are given to leaders who have demonstrated “excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, vision, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. To qualify, entrepreneurs must be the founder or an executive who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business early in its life cycle or during its growth.”

Knapp’s competition in the Media category at the Denver ceremony included Alexi Venneri from Digital Air Strike, Andrew Clurman from Active Interest Media and JB Kellogg from Madwire.

Sovrn also congratulates the winners and finalists in the Emerging, Healthcare, Hospitality, Products and Manufacturing, Restaurant, Technology and Family Business categories.

See the full list of winners and finalists from the Mountain Desert Region. The list of national winners is also available on the EY website.

If you’d like to know more about Walter Knapp and how you could work with Sovrn, get in touch!

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The business of marketing and its sibling advertising have been central to business growth and success for as long as we’ve been a consumer-driven economy; which is to say a really long time.

The Takeaway

Why have so few supply-side participants completed 3rd party anti-fraud audits? Why have so few gone through the certification process? Why aren’t more of the largest online marketers and advertisers voting with their dollars and demanding certification? It’s time for all participants in the advertising supply chain to step up to the plate.

With each wave of new advertising or marketing technology, the opportunity has always existed for some to game, defraud, or simply take advantage of others in order to make a quick buck. Our industry is not immune as Rob Norman recently pointed out:

“Programmatic is flawed if it uses bad data, accesses bad inventory or is deployed without foresight and without rules that keep brands and consumers safe. But programmatic technologies are doing far more good than bad; without it, brands simply cannot find their target audiences. This is true today and will be even truer tomorrow, and history shows that industries cannot resist automation.”

Certain individuals and certain nefarious businesses have clearly enriched themselves by doing bad things. And in the end, they’ve never built anything that endures, much less hit the mark of creating a customer.

The pursuit of authentic consumer attention is what every marketer is after. Our collective efforts to build a trusted and transparent supply chain from the consumer and content through to an intended action have never seen more potential – yet, when we look hard enough, it’s clear that we’re still falling short of the mark. The question is: why? And what can we do about it?

Opportunity: Verified Trust.
Trust is something one earns over time. It starts by being truthful and transparent. And the only way to know if something is truthful is when it’s verified either directly or via an accredited independent 3rd party.

A few years back Tom Phillips and John Battelle brought a concerned group together at the IAB Annual Leadership meeting. That fateful lunch sparked a series of events that would give way to the influential TOGI (Traffic of Good Intent) working groups at the IAB. I was asked to serve as co-chair to the Solutions Group where we laid the groundwork for what eventually would become the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG).

This work accomplished 3 vitally important steps:

1. We developed a clear set of definitions for what constitutes online advertising fraud.
2. We documented a set of best practices for identifying and eliminating this traffic.
3. We outlined a verification process that would require accredited 3rd party audits.

The first two were simply table-stakes. The third step is the real teeth from my perspective.
Shortly after we completed our work at the IAB, TAG was formed as a truly independent entity with deep legal expertise and, importantly, cross-industry support. TAG has built on the IAB’s work and followed through with the critical verification step of 3rd party audits.
Why then, have so few supply-side participants completed these 3rd party audits? Why have so few gone through the certification process? And why aren’t more of the largest online marketers and advertisers voting with their dollars and following the lead of P&G’s Marc Pritchard? He is demanding that “any entity touching digital media must get TAG-certified during 2017 to help ensure they are free from fraud.”
Opportunity: Measurement that Matters.
Clearly, as an industry, we can count. Instead of being fixated on vanity KPIs, let’s finally turn the page on the lowly “impression” and focus on metrics that matter: consumer engagement, context, and the outcome of that consumer attention. Viewability is the first step down this road, but just that, a first step. The next step is Time. Time + Viewability is edging closer. Lastly, we move on to Engagement. Each of these steps can be verified and validated with industry standards, data, and transparent reporting. There is absolutely no reason to not expose the entire supply chain to accredited 3rd party measurement of these metrics.
Step up to the plate:
I’m the CEO of a mid-sized and growing business. We have roughly 250 employees and have been consistently profitable for the past couple of years. More importantly, we work with thousands of professional independent publishers representing tens of thousands of interesting and engaging websites and reaching nearly a billion consumers each month. We made the right decision to tackle multiple independent 3rd party audits and accreditations across our entire network because we know that this is the absolute best way to ensure our publisher partners get the money they deserve for their work.
Any responsible supply-side participant that drags their feet or ignores these industry requirements is doing nothing more than leaching from the common asset of consumer trust. Any marketer or advertiser that doesn’t vote with their wallets is just feeding the problem. This is within our control to solve, so let’s get on with it already.

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First off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you help publishers? Since you are based in the U.K., our customers in Europe may be familiar with you but not our customers in the U.S.

PH: TheMediaBriefing is about five years old now. The business started just as the name suggests, as a way of giving publishers quick information and analysis on where the market was going. We wanted to add in a layer of commentary and opinion, and that really came at the same time as the conference side of the business. Now, TheMediaBriefing keeps media executives up to date two ways. The first is a website and daily newsletter in which our reporters and contributors comment on the state of the media – where it’s going, what’s changing, what’s new, giving their opinions and analysis.

And then the other part of that is our conferences, particularly the Digital Media Strategies conferences, one in London, just last week, and the other in New York, I guess in September. The idea there is not just to talk about what’s going on, but get people together and let them talk to each other.

And then you are also the founder of Flipping Pages, it looks like it’s a consultancy for publishers to help them integrate their digital marketing strategies across platforms.

PH: Yeah. So, I started that ten years ago as a blog. I was working full time at that point, but I started the ‘Flipping Pages Blog’ blog just because I hated turning-page technology so much. At the time it was all Flash and turning-page was the only way, other than a website, it was the only way you could do digital publishing.

I could see massive potential for the technology, but I thought the implementation was just awful, so I started the blog basically to vent on what I didn’t like about it and to talk up I thought was good about it. And the blog did reasonably well and people got interested.

You help lots of publishers build their digital presence. What do you see are the typical downfalls in building integrated digital content and amplification strategies?

PH: I think the biggest downfall is the same in any business. It’s when people forget reality, the common sense. Or I guess they just forget the rules they already know.

So magazine publishing is particularly my interest, but in any kind of publishing, there’s some fundamental rules. I studied journalism in the States, way back in — I don’t know — 1992 or something and the professor taught me about the three-legged stool. The idea that any publishing business relies on content, readers, and revenue.

If you’ve got a stool that’s made up of those three legs, then you’re balanced and you pay attention to the balance. But if you don’t pay attention to one of those legs and if you’ve got crappy content, or if you don’t pay attention to your readers, or don’t focus on what your readers’ needs are, or you don’t make any money, then you’re screwed.

I don’t think that’s any different in digital than it was in print. People get confused by the technology – I think one of the biggest downfalls is just not remembering what it is we do for a living.

Following up on the downfalls, what are 3-4 best practices you recommend for your clients to build a robust digital audience?

PH: The best practice in any publishing organization has got to be to pay attention to those three legs of the stool. That’s the fundamentals. Whether it’s your content meeting your readers’ needs, whether it’s being careful with your readers and making sure to take care of them, or whether it’s chasing the revenue, those things are always important.
More and more the reliance on the development of a niche or a niche position is pretty important. There’s so much generic content out there, that the only way to really differentiate, to survive and be able to charge money for content and justify advertising revenue, is if you can really hold down an audience and serve them really well.

Consumer publishers have probably got quite a lot to learn from B2B publishers there. B2B publishers have always been really, really good at serving a niche. They’ve always been really good at figuring out what the audience really cares about. Consumer publishers, I think a lot of times, have just thrown stuff at the wall to see what would stick and I think they’re having to change that.

Part of that’s about branding. Part of that’s about content. The problem is just about identifying the audience and really focusing in.

Once you’ve got a niche, think really hard about your distribution. This is more important now than ever before because of the platforms that people can use. If you’re producing content and you stick it on a website, or if you’re producing content and it’s only in print, then you’re going to have a tough job. So it’s about social media. It’s about figuring out different formats, whether that’s audio, or video, whether that’s going on Instagram with images, or Pinterest, or whatever. You need to make sure your distribution strategy sits well with the audience, with your revenue and with your advertisers.

The last thing in terms of best practices is to have a business model for each of your different content formats.

One thing you said was to target the social media platforms. And combined with just the digital media trends that you’re seeing in 2017, how do you think the social media, the digital amplification strategies should change for publishers in 2017?

PH: I think the big one is that publishers can’t just worry about scale any more. Up until very recently, all people cared about was scale. We just finished this report on creating content strategies in Europe. And I think it was really interesting to see how some of the publishers were looking at social scale as a platform for developing subscription revenues. We saw a report not long ago about earnings from Facebook Instant Articles – the earnings are just not as good as people wanted them to be.

The notion that we should be able to make enough from advertising, or just from subscriptions, that we shouldn’t have to get involved in all this other stuff is not true anymore. The whole point of the social distribution is it’s a jumping-off point for a portfolio approach to revenue ideas.

TheMediaBriefing just published their State of the Media Industry for 2017. What are some digital media trends that you expect to see with digital content in 2017?

PH: The big one for me was email. When we ran the survey for the State of the Media report, email scored really quite low on the list of priorities. But if you look at all the issues that people are dealing with in the industry, email scores really, really high. Whether it’s 2017, whether it’s 2018, email will have this kind of resurgence and people will get much more serious about it.

Thank you so much for sharing just what you’ve seen in the industry and advice that you have to publishers to keep on track and build their audience and revenue. Are there any other last, or any other final words that you think that we haven’t covered that you would like to share?

PH: I think events are gonna get bigger. I think audio is gonna get bigger. Actually, ironically, if Facebook starts running audio or starts doing music, then they’ll probably go nuts with it.  We’ve just done this paid-content report, so I think subscriptions are a big deal. And interestingly, I think people think about subscriptions as separate from advertising but I don’t think they have to be. If you get the advertising right and make it not intrusive in a subscriber environment, then your targeting is phenomenal.

Peter, thank you so much. This was a ton of information to take in and so helpful for our publishers who are deciding their content strategy for 2017.

About Peter
Peter Houston is Editor-at-Large for TheMediaBriefing, a London-based conference producer and publisher of themediabriefing.com, a website covering developing media strategies. Peter is in charge of TheMediaBriefings’ content strategy; from helping set the focus for regular market analysis to building out our industry reports programme. He also owns Flipping Pages Media, providing consulting and training for media and marketing businesses making the transition from legacy print to multi-platform publishing.

Follow Peter
Twitter: @Flipping_Pages
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/phousty

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Thank God the Election’s Over

’80s Pop Playlist

Autumn Acoustic

Campfire Playlist

Pool Party

Songs of Summer

Sovrn’s UK Adventure

Turn Tunes

Creativity Boost

Independent and Influential

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