SODP Dispatch - 19 December 2024

Sponsored
Stay22 Review for 2025

By Kamalpreet Singh

We reviewed Stay22 – AI-based monetization solution for travel affiliates that claims to help publishers increase revenue without impacting their UX

Large corporations are investing heavily in AI-based content personalization and recommendation solutions. Airbnb, for instance, bought a stealth-mode AI-based startup for a reported $200 million to provide a more “personalized experience for its users.”

However, publishers, whether large or small, can rarely afford to invest such amounts in new technologies. Is there any way, then, for publishers to stay relevant?

Stay22 positions itself as a solution to this very problem.

💡 What you will learn:

• What Stay22 is – its pricing and features

• Getting started with the dashboard

• What we love about the solution and where we see room for improvement

Bluesky Isn’t the ‘New Twitter,’ but Its Resemblance to the Old One Is Drawing Millions of New Users

By Casey Fiesler

Bluesky was created in 2019 as a research project within Twitter led by then-CEO Jack Dorsey. It eventually severed ties with Twitter and became an independent company following Musk’s acquisition. The goal with Bluesky was to build a decentralized standard for social media that Twitter could eventually adopt. In that way, Bluesky is comparable to Mastodon in that they both allow for the creation of different servers that interact, and users can move their data and network between servers.

But what does all this mean for your experience on Bluesky?

The Government Is Spending Millions on News, but Crucial Community Media Remains Underfunded

By Bridget Backhaus

The Australian government has launched its News Media Assistance Program, throwing a lifeline to public interest journalism and local news. The announcement, worth $180 million overall, is a welcome pre-Christmas gift for struggling media outlets.

But it largely overlooks the importance of community broadcasting in providing accessible, community-engaged news. The program falls short of meaningfully helping the chronically underfunded part of the media landscape.

🤖 Googlebot verification methods

Google’s Developer Advocate, Martin Splitt, warns website owners to be cautious of traffic that appears to come from Googlebot. Many requests pretending to be Googlebot are actually from third-party scrapers. See how you can distinguish real Googlebot traffic from fake crawlers.
Watch video ▸

📝 Enforcing your robots.txt policies
This piece explains how you can quickly see which AI services are honoring your robots.txt policies, which aren’t, and then programmatically enforce these policies.
See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

➡️ Overcoming reader trust deficit

There is too often this disconnect between what consumers perceive is being done with their data. Publishers have to be mindful of this deficit or disconnect and focus on ensuring that their audience knows exactly what their data will be used for and how, which is often not an easy task.

Studies have repeatedly indicated that consumers value personalization – tailored content over random content. And many of them recognize the reality of the internet – when something is free, it is often paid for by advertisers.

Acquiring first-party data will become significantly easier if you have a clear value proposition to offer your audience. Both The Guardian and Metro offered interesting examples at PubTech2024 of how you can improve user engagement and collect data by focusing on the value proposition in different ways:

• Targeted Emails Based on Engagement Levels

  When a reader visits your website and consumes content beyond a certain threshold, it is usually a reliable sign that they value your content. Instead of sending mass email campaigns, The Guardian started sending subscription promos to anonymous readers who had crossed a specific threshold. This helped boost subscription numbers.
  

• Personalized Content via, for example, Daily Horoscopes

  The Metro offered readers personalized daily horoscope newsletters in exchange for their date of birth. This is an example of an exchange based on a clear-cut value proposition – the publisher gets valuable email and age data, while the interested user gets personalized content.

How 2024 shaped journalism: insights from the Reuters Institute’s work | Reuters Institute

From news influencers to digital platforms, Reuters Institute’s researchers and reporters have explored the future of journalism this year. Here’s what they found.
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Forbes is cutting ties with freelance writers, citing Google spam policies | The Verge

In recent days, Forbes has said it will stop hiring freelancers to produce content for its product review section Forbes Vetted, according to a journalist who has written for the site. In a note shared with The Verge, an editor at Forbes cited Google’s “site reputation abuse” policy for the change.
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The new media, powered by Substack | Substack

Substack partners with The Free Press to build an enterprise offering, including custom branding and large editorial teams support, with a private beta in 2025.
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Time unveils new AI chatbot | Axios

Time unveiled a new AI chatbot alongside its annual Person of the Year announcement. By debuting the bot with one of its most popular stories of the year, Time will be able to gather chatbot engagement data from millions of global readers at once.
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Google December 2024 core update rollout is now complete | Search Engine Land

The fourth core update of the 2024 year, the December 2024 core update, is now done rolling out and complete. It started on December 12, 2024 and completed about 6 days later on December 18, 2024. This update was a typical core update where Google updates its core ranking system to make search results more relevant and helpful.
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