SODP Dispatch - 15 August 2024

REPORT LAUNCH: Gen AI x Comms

We have an exciting announcement – the launch of The 2024 Gen AI x Comms Industry Impact Report.

This is the second edition of the report by our friends at Media Collateral. For the 2024 edition, we partnered up with them to bring the findings to our community.

Understand how Gen AI is reshaping media and communications work. Gain actionable insights to navigate the shift.

This report includes qualitative insights from APAC media and communications professionals.

➡️ Bonus: Media Collateral and SODP are hosting a panel discussion with the contributors: 29 August, 4:00 PM AEST. You can sign up when you download the report.

Engage directly with the experts, ask your questions, and be part of the conversation that shapes the future of our industry.

Building a Tech Stack as a WordPress-Based Digital Publisher: Tips and Best Practices

By Vahe Arabian

WordPress has one of the biggest libraries of plugins and add-ons. However, using too many of these can cause a website to bloat, eventually impacting performance. The solution is for publishers to take a minimalist approach to building their tech stack, such that they can effectively track performance without impacting performance.

How B2B Publisher CEE Legal Matters Monetized Offline Events

By Vahe Arabian

CEE Legal Matters (CEELM) is a print/online B2B publication that caters to the legal industry in Central and Eastern Europe. They publish news, analysis, and opinions that are of interest to lawyers.

Despite being an authority publisher with excellent online engagement and traction, monetization remains a challenge. This is why the publication started focusing on offline corporate events for the legal industry as an alternative route to monetization.

Man of Many Q&A: Using AI to Complement – Not Replace – Human Creativity

By Andrew Thompson

Scott Purcell is a Co-founder of Man of Many. With a special focus on lifestyle content, Scott has collaborated with leading international brands like Apple, Samsung, IWC, and TAG Heuer. Under his guidance, Man of Many triumphed as the Best Media Platform at the B&T Awards, 2023, and clinched the titles for Best Engagement Strategy, Website of the Year, and Publish Leader of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards, 2023.

▶️ Merlina AI Chrome Extension

This AI extension can be used to summarize documents, write emails, generate content ideas, and so much more.
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🔍️ Website Authority Checker
The free tool shows your website’s “authority” as calculated by Ahrefs (i.e., Domain Rating).
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Google AI Overviews gains new citations and links, plus more |  Search Engine Land

Google is also expanding access to AI Overviews to United Kingdom, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, while also expanding Search Labs AI Overview experiment features and access.
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Independent journalist era takes off | Axios

Substack is on track to more than double its politics and news subscribers in 2024, executives told Axios. The number of Substack journalists in news and politics making more than $1 million has doubled over the past year — and is now in "double digits," the company says.
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Google affirmed three factors that can increase Googlebot crawling | Search Engine Journal

Google’s Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman discussed three factors that trigger increased Googlebot crawling. While they downplayed the need for constant crawling, they acknowledged there a ways to encourage Googlebot to revisit a website.
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Publishers Are Redoubling Their Presence on Reddit As the Platform Rises in Search Visibility | Adweek

Some, such as Yahoo, Puck, and New York Times Opinion, have launched new Reddit accounts in the last several months. Others, such as Rolling Stone, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Independent, the AP, and Newsweek, have restarted existing accounts or dedicated more resources to them.
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How Getty beams those incredible Olympic images around the world within seconds | Axios

Photography giant Getty is relying on an array of technology, including private 5G networks, to ensure its images from the Paris Games reach media customers almost as soon as they happen.
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