SODP Dispatch - 21 November 2024

As AI and megaplatforms take over, the hyperlinks that built the web may face extinction

By Dana McKay and George Buchanan

All of the laws that have created the internet have relied on links. The social contract is that a search engine can scrape your site, or a social media company can host your words or pictures, as long as they give you, the person who created it, credit (or discredit if you’re giving bad advice).

The link isn’t just the thing you follow down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, it’s a way of giving credit, and allowing content creators to profit from their content.

Tomorrow (Friday): Gaining a Competitive Advantage through First-Party Data Panel

We fast approached the last day of PubTech2024 - our second annual virtual event for digital publishing and news media professionals.

If you haven’t grabbed your pass, make sure to do so. We have a fantastic panel scheduled with:

• Rebecca Ruane from The Guardian

• Sofía Delgado from Metro

• Robin de Wouters from FEDMA

📈 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 ▸

🤖 Machine Learning Crash Course by Google
Google's fast-paced, practical introduction to machine learning, featuring a series of lessons with video lectures, interactive visualizations, and hands-on practice exercises.
See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

➡️ Setting up and optimizing editorial workflows

Successful publishers don’t just have a content creation process. They have also documented their processes, thereby making it easier to ensure quality content and transfer the existing knowledge pool to new staff.

An editorial workflow encompasses the processes that determine how a publication creates, edits, publishes and manages content. While the term “editorial” may conjure up images of writers, sub-editors and editors working to create content, these workflows can affect so many other team members – e.g., content strategists, SEOs, social media teams, production managers, photographers, etc.

Having a streamlined editorial workflow in place is a key step toward helping businesses realize their content strategy goals.

How to Establish and Optimize Editorial Workflows

1. Identify and Document. There are many ways to collect a list of steps and their associated actions. One of the simplest ways is to create a “living” cloud-based document that the whole team can readily access and update. Be patient. The documentation process can be a journey of discovery for the entire team and it is one that should be pursued in granular detail. Start with identifying the overarching phases of the editorial workflow and then delve deeper.
   

2. Ownership. After a process has been documented, the team needs time to fold it into their schedule and then identify gaps in the workflow. This step empowers each team member to work on identifying the shortfalls in their own capabilities, such as time management. Have checklists that the editorial team has to follow. If possible, divide each step into checklists so that the process is clear and there’s a proper handoff between colleagues.
   

3. Feedback. Give the team time to adopt the documented processes, but then schedule a time to secure feedback. It’s not enough to understand where the bottlenecks are, it’s important to understand why they’re appearing. Those responsible for the task can provide valuable insight into fundamental problems and guide the development of practical solutions.
   

4. Opimize. As workflows are documented and adopted, structural problems will slowly begin presenting themselves. This is a good thing. Publishing companies need to find as many “edge cases” as possible before sharing the solutions with the entire team. This will reduce the likelihood of having to create bespoke, siloed solutions in the future.

Google Search Console Finally Drops The Page Experience Report | Search Engine Roundtable

Over a year and a half ago, Google told us they would be dropping the page experience report from Google Search Console in the "coming months." Well, it took many "coming months" for it to happen and now the page experience report is no longer available within Google Search Console.
Read more ▸

Google is further cracking down on sites publishing ‘parasite SEO’ content | The Verge

Google is tightening its rules against “parasite SEO” content, or articles and pages that often have little to do with the site’s focus but that exploit the website’s Google ranking.
Read more ▸

ANI sues OpenAI for alleged violation of intellectual property rights | Hindustan Times

Indian news agency ANI has sued OpenAI for using its “original news content” in an unauthorised manner, possibly becoming the first Indian publisher to drag an AI company to court for violating its intellectual property rights.
Read more ▸

Newsletter platform beehiiv launches multi-million dollar journalism fund | Axios

Beehiiv, a newsletter startup taking aim at Substack, says it's making a "multi-million dollar investment" to create a new "beehiiv Media Collective" of journalists on its platform. Journalists that have recently joined the beehiiv platform include former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, Emmy-winning journalist Catherine Herridge and tech reporter Ryan Broderick.
Read more ▸

X users jump to Bluesky - but what is it and who owns it? | BBC

AI-powered search engine Perplexity says it’ll begin experimenting with ads on its platform starting this week. The site will be showing ads in the U.S. to start, and they’ll be formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions,” (e.g. “How can I use LinkedIn to enhance my job search?”). These ads will be positioned to the side of answers and labeled as “sponsored.”
Read more ▸