SODP Dispatch - 11 July 2024

Will AI Lead to the Death of the Plugin?

By Vahe Arabian

Being a publisher has become more and more involved over the years. Between CMP, SSL, Site Speed tools, ad inserters, specific ad types, SEO strategies and more, publishers must rely on more third-party technologies to get the job done. This can be costly and result in an ever-growing CSS and JS code surplus on sites across the industry.

➡️ There are currently 55,000 WordPress plugins available to install.

Can the rise of AI reduce this third-party reliance, slowing sites to a crawl and allowing publishers more time to focus on content?

WEBINAR: Native Ads: Sustainable Revenue Stream or Buzzword?

with Paweł Mazurek

🗓️ 25 July 2024
🕑️ 2 PM ET | 11 AM PT

Discover practical native advertising monetization strategies to diversify your property’s revenue streams.

Discover how native ads can enhance user experience and boost revenue. Join Pawel Mazurek, CEO of Takeads, as he demystifies native advertising, offers practical strategies, and addresses ad-blocking challenges.

💡What you will learn:

• What types of ads piss off your users?

• What are native ads - and what are they not?

• How to tap into new revenue?

• Native vs. intrusive ads - can they coexist?

• More intrusive ads ≠ increased revenue

• “The elephant in the room” - Ad blocking plugins

  +more

By Vahe Arabian

➡️ How to pick the right ad format

Ads are not going anywhere in digital publishing.

They are a part of the web’s ecosystem. So, it is about how you approach having the right ad format.

There are several different approaches to selecting an ad format strategy as a publisher.

• Platform-centric: the focus here is on picking ad formats optimized for specific platforms like mobile, desktop, social media etc.
  

• Funnel stage alignment: the type of ad displayed will change depending on the stage of the customer journey. A visual ad may be shown to users in the initial stages of the funnel, while those at the decision stage may be targeted with conversion-focused ads.
  

• Audience-centric: the ads are tailored based on how your audience consumes content for that particular topic. For instance, if users interested in health prefer short-form videos, your ad content choice may include premium video ads.
  

• Message adaptive: the choice of ad format will depend on the content and message of a particular ad campaign. Video ads are great for storytelling, while display ads are ideal for quick promos.
  

• Adaptive testing and optimization: this is an experimental approach where publishers test various formats and analyze metrics to optimize ad selections.

🔎 JournalismAI Case Studies

Check out this directory of 130+ AI use cases from publishers around the world.
See more ▸

📊 Google fact-checking tools

In this video, Google explains its digital tools designed specifically for fact-checkers and journalists - helping audiences verify the authenticity and accuracy of online images, videos, and reports.
Watch video ▸

Google’s Now Translating SERPs Into More Languages | Search Engine Journal

Google updated their documentation to reflect that it added eight new languages to its translated results feature, broadening the reach of publishers to an increasingly global scale, with automatic translations to a site visitor’s native language.
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A Beloved Tech Blog Is Now Publishing AI Articles Under the Names of Its Old Human Staff | 404 Media

TUAW, a site that was shut down 10 years ago, was sold to a private equity firm, then to a company in Hong Kong, and has now stolen its old workers' identities and is running their old work through AI summarizers.
Read more ▸

The Washington Post debuts AI chatbot | Axios

For now, the tool is only built to answer user queries about climate. In the future, the Post plans to expand the chatbot to other topics, said chief technology officer Vineet Khosla.
Read more ▸

If Meta bans news in Australia, what will happen? Canada’s experience is telling | NiemanLab

In countries that have demanded Facebook pay local news publishers, the tech giant has responded with threats — and sometimes action. Will a Canada-style ban become the international norm?
Read more ▸

Google Gives Exact Reason Why Negative SEO Doesn’t Work | Search Engine Journal

Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about negative SEO provides useful insights into the technical details of how Google prevents low quality spam links from affecting normal websites. The answer about negative SEO was given in an interview in May and has gone unnoticed until now.
Read more ▸