SODP Dispatch - 17 April 2025

Join our upcoming webinar!

Are you struggling to balance audience engagement, content monetization, and tech simplicity? You’re not alone. Many publishers face the Goldilocks Tech Trap —tools that are either too clunky or too expensive, leaving growth stalled .

Join us for "Managing Millions: Better Audience Engagement Without the Tech Headaches" , where we’ll show you how to escape this trap and build scalable, profitable systems.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

✅ Turning clicks, scrolls, and headlines into actionable insights for stronger audience relationships.

✅ Streamlining over-complex data workflows to drive growth and ROI.

✅ Quick wins to turn loyal browsers into superfans.

✅ Striking the perfect balance between effective tools and agile systems .

Hosted by Denis Haman , CEO of Glide Publishing Platform Denis champions a “lean publisher mentality,” empowering media organizations with scalable, user-friendly CMS solutions.

📅 Date: April 29, 2025

🌐 Online Event

Don’t miss this chance to transform your audience engagement strategy and future-proof your publishing business.

Audience management’s Goldilocks problem: how publishers get caught between tech that doesn’t work, or is too complex to use

By Nedim Dedic

When it comes to audience management, one thing we at Glide see with so many publishers we speak with is that they are caught in a “Goldilocks problem” with their audience and content technology.

At one end of the scale, they have built up a web of ill-fitting, generic tools that lean on one another to do basic things the publisher wants. On the other hand, they have expensive enterprise systems that need major investment in staff and resources and are often financially out of reach for small and medium-sized publishers.

Too often, news and media publishers end up stuck with an assembly of tools that “sort of” work, but not well enough to give them the edge they need, and at a hidden cost to the business in lost revenue.

The “first-party data” wake-up call

We’ve known for years that first-party data is key to the future of digital publishing: every publisher or news media business that uses Glide Headless CMS is on that journey.

With the uncertainty around the future of third-party cookies, Google search, and declining referral traffic from social platforms, publishers are prioritising direct audience relationships. Yet, many are still scrambling to make sense of the data they already have.

📈 Youth: A Newsworks Study

This study by Newsworks looks into how advertisers can connect with young news readers through established news media and where online your will find nine out of 10 highly engaged 15-29-year-olds. See more ▸

💰 The Digital Revenue Playbook for Local News Publishers

This playbook explores digital revenue opportunities for local publishers, whether you represent a legacy print newspaper looking to generate more digital revenue or startup digital-only news outlet trying to build a sustainable business. See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

🍪No cookies, no problem: your new monetisation playbook

Google has begun phasing out third-party cookies, signalling a significant shift for publishers and advertisers. This change necessitates reevaluating strategies to maintain audience insights while respecting user privacy.

As third-party cookies become obsolete, several alternatives have surfaced:

• Privacy Sandbox: Google's initiative introduces APIs like Topics and Protected Audience to enable interest-based advertising without individual tracking.

• Publisher-Side and Server-Side Tracking: Leverage first-party data collected directly from user interactions on your site.

• Universal IDS and Identity Graphs: Anonymised identifiers track behaviour across platforms, balancing personalisation and privacy.

• Fingerprinting: Uses device traits for identification (effective but ethically debated).

Navigating this shift demands balancing innovation with ethics. While alternatives like Privacy Sandbox and server-side tracking fill gaps, success lies in combining these tools with user-centric strategies. Prioritise solutions that respect consent and transparency, like first-party data and contextual ads, to sustain relevance and trust. This isn’t just compliance; it’s a chance to rebuild audience relationships on ethical grounds.

Here are the key takeaways for publishers:

1. Invest in First-Party Data: Grow repositories via registrations, subscriptions, and direct engagement.

2. Embrace Contextual Advertising: Align ads with content, not just user behaviour.

3. Prioritise Transparency: Clearly explain data use and obtain explicit consent.

4. Adopt Privacy-Centric Tech: Choose tools that balance insights with compliance.

Adapting to a cookieless world turns challenge into opportunity; ethical practices foster deeper trust.

Your Audience Doesn’t Need You Anymore | Adweek

“Why does your audience need your brand?” This was the question a veteran executive asked me when I first became editor in chief. It’s the same one editors have had to answer for a century and a half. It was a gorgeous day in that heady top-floor dining room, the city glinting beneath us, and I didn’t want to kill the mood. But the truth was: They don’t.
Read more ▸

Search behavior, decoded: What platform preference really tells us | Search Engine Land

When we talk about search, we usually focus on what people are looking for – keywords, queries, and intent. But in 2025, there’s a more powerful question to ask: “Where are they searching – and why that platform, in that moment?”
Read more ▸

The New Media: How brands are replacing legacy niche media | Stacker

Disruption in media is in vogue again. Seasoned broadcast journalists are leaving to start their own Substacks and Youtube channels. TikTok is threatening everyone. And podcasters’ role in the 2024 election feels like “the story” of last year. Read more ▸

Google’s Powerful AI Video Generator Veo 2 Just Got a Lot More Accessible | Gizmodo

If you’ve watched a lot of those horrible AI movie trailers and other weird and disturbing but occasionally cool AI videos than you might already be familiar with Veo 2. The video model from Google is shockingly capable of creating realistic video clips from practically nothing.
Read more ▸

AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% | Arhefs blog

We analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview in the search results correlated with a 34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking page, compared to similar informational keywords without an AI Overview.
Read more ▸