SODP Dispatch - 26 June 2025

A Publisher’s Engagement Playbook!

🚀 We’ve launched the first industry research report in partnership with Glide Publishing Platform!

Join global publishing leaders, product owners, data strategists, and tech innovators to benchmark how your team personalizes, engages, and grows using first-party data.

🔍️ What’s in it for you?

• Benchmark CDP Engagement, Adoption & Performance

• Discover Emerging Personalization Trends

• Access Actionable Best Practices

• Learn From Real-World Challenges & Wins

Whether you're using behavioural signals, AI-powered tools, or topic-based tagging, your insights matter. Help shape a report that reflects what’s really driving results across the industry.

👉️ Take the survey now! We need 300 respondents, and the survey closes soon. Be the first to receive exclusive insights.

6 Key Strategies For Digital Publishers Selling Direct Ads

By Dan Barry

I’ve spent years helping publishers sell more ads. I now run Ad Sales as a Service and write Revenews (a newsletter on ad sales). Too many teams struggle with direct sales, scratch the surface, and their strategies are making their lives unnecessarily difficult. So here are 6 crucial things you can do to make ad sales easy.

Direct Ad Sales?

First, let's get clear. Direct sold ads is inventory sold directly to advertisers, bypassing programmatic platforms. They command 5-10x higher CPMs but are more hands-on. It’s a very profitable, but manual revenue stream. 

Ad Sales On Easy-Mode 

✅ Low-Hanging Fruit - Stop chasing your ideal sponsors or Fortune 500 brands straight away. Your easiest wins are:

• Previous advertising partners

• Existing network/sales conversations

• Inbounds

• ICP Readers (hint, use Megahit)

• Cold outbound (with intent signals)

  As a general rule, smaller, high-growth companies are easier to close.

✅ Focus on Current Spenders in Similar Channels - Yes, it might be cool to close a brand you love, that’s never spent in your medium before. But whatever your media format, there will be a large cohort of brands that already spend in similar places. They’re literally 10x easier to close, quicker and easier to handle. Don’t get too creative on targeting until you have the revenue and ad calendar to justify that luxury.

✅ Capture Inbound Interest - You have an online presence, so make the most of it. The best inbound funnels are:

• Easy to find

• Informative but concise

• Qualifying using budget 

• Easy for brands to use

Inbound leads close 3x more than outbound, with a shorter deal cycle and larger deal size. If you’re early, they’re also likely to be understanding of smaller audiences or general scrappiness. The simple fact that it was ‘their idea’ to advertise means that you can treat it like order-taking, and don’t need outstanding sales skills.

✅ Don't Neglect Outbound - Inbound is great, but most growing media companies have a 50/50 split between inbound and outbound deals. Simply put, if you’re not doing outbound well, you’re chopping earnings in half. A lot of enterprise media companies forget this. They develop experienced sales teams that rest on the laurels of 20-year relationships and lose the drive for new business. This keeps me up at night and revenue down. Every salesperson should be blocking off time to do weekly outreach. The key is being strategic, as we’ve already talked about.

✅ Serve, Don't Sell - When you’re pitching a campaign, especially new business, your mindset should be that you are NOT a salesperson. You are a campaign planner, serving the goals of the advertiser. This means you MUST understand the brands.

• ICP

• Marketing goals

• KPIs/targets

• Budget/timeline

• Decision-making process

✅ Overdeliver on Every Campaign - Get creative with campaign ideas, promise 18, deliver 22. Make sure the creative is tailored to your audience. Provide detailed reports, suggest optimizations, and share data from competitors' campaigns. When a campaign performs well, renewals are easier. When it doesn't, explain why and how to improve.

Should Global Media Giants Shape Our Cultural and Media Policy? Lessons From Satellite Radio

By Brian Fauteux

Debates about regulating Canadian content for streaming media platforms are ongoing, and key issues include revising the definition of Canadian content for audio and visual cultural productions and whether big streaming companies would be mandated to follow new Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) policies.

Global streaming companies are fighting regulations requiring them to fund Canadian content and news.

The Motion Picture Association-Canada, which represents large streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Disney, has argued that the CRTC should not impose “mandatory positions, functions or elements of a ‘Canadian program’” on global streaming companies.

The Online Streaming Act, passed in 2023, amended the Broadcasting Act to “ensure that online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content.”

For example, according to the act, online audio streaming services that make more than $25 million in annual revenue and that aren’t affiliated with a Canadian broadcaster will contribute five per cent of those funds to organizations such as FACTOR, Musicaction, the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Indigenous Music Office, among others.

Technology To Enforce Teen Social Media Ban is ‘Effective’, Trial Says. But This is at Odds With Other Evidence

By Lisa M. Given

Technologies to enforce the Australian government’s social media ban for under 16s are “private, robust and effective”. That’s according to the preliminary findings of a federal government-commissioned trial that has nearly finished testing them.

The findings, released today, may give the government greater confidence to forge ahead with the ban, despite a suite of expert criticism. They might also alleviate some of the concerns of the Australian population about privacy and security implications of the ban, which is due to begin in December.

For example, a report based on a survey of nearly 4,000 people and released by the government earlier this week found nine out of ten people support the idea of a ban. But it also found a large number of people were “very concerned” about how the ban would be implemented. Nearly 80% of respondents had privacy and security concerns, while roughly half had concerns about age assurance accuracy and government oversight.

The trial’s preliminary findings paint a rosy picture of the potential for available technologies to check people’s ages. However, they contain very little detail about specific technologies, and appear to be at odds with what we know about age-assurance technology from other sources.

From facial recognition to hand movement recognition

The social media ban for under 16s was legislated in December 2024. A last-minute amendment to the law requires technology companies to provide “alternative age assurance methods” for account holders to confirm their age, rather than relying only on government-issued ID.

The Australian government commissioned an independent trial to evaluate the “effectiveness, maturity, and readiness for use” of these alternative methods.

📚 LearningSEO.io: AI Search Optimization Toolkit

LearningSEO.io offers an AI Search Optimization Toolkit to help SEOs stay ahead of AI-powered search engines and chatbots. As traditional search engines evolve with AI technologies, it's crucial that content not only ranks well on Google but also remains visible to AI-based search engines, such as chatbots and generative engines. The toolkit provides a curated set of tools designed to optimize performance across key AI search areas such as GEO, AEO and LLMO. See more ▸

🤖 AI in the Life of an SEO Professional

SEOs are under more pressure than ever to deliver faster, smarter results. This resource explores how AI is reshaping daily SEO work—eliminating repetitive tasks and unlocking time for strategy. If you're ready to work smarter, not harder, this one's for you. See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

📢 Reuters digital news report 2025: what it means for independent media

This year’s Reuters digital news report confirms the scale of disruption — and opportunity — for independent media.

Audiences are changing in terms of where, how, and why they consume news. Legacy formats continue to lose relevance. Platform-native, mobile-first, AI-visible, and community-embedded content is the future.

Here’s how independent publishers can adapt — and lead.

1. Be Platform-First — But Not Platform-Dependent 

   TikTok is the fastest-growing news source globally. Social feeds, aggregators, and video now outpace TV and direct visits.

   → What to do: Build native content for TikTok, Shorts, and Reels — but also strengthen direct channels like newsletters, push alerts, and community forums. Use each platform for reach, not reliance.

2. Optimise for Interrupt-Driven Mobile Habits 

   Over 50% of under-35s now access news primarily via smartphones — on-demand, in bursts.

   → What to do: Rethink content for short, engaging, mobile-first formats — visual explainers, carousel headlines, audio snippets, or context-driven push notifications.

3. Stay Visible in an AI-Driven Ecosystem 

   AI chatbots now serve news to 7% globally, and 15% of under-25s. But if content isn’t structured or discoverable, independent voices risk becoming invisible.

   → What to do: Use clear metadata, summaries, and schema markup to make journalism AI-friendly, while labelling human-vetted content to maintain editorial trust.

4. Build Local Authority, Not Just Reach 

   As platforms dominate local search and community information, newsrooms must double down on original, timely local journalism.

   → What to do: Reclaim your role as a trusted source by prioritising local explainers, fast-breaking updates, and service journalism.

5. Rebuild Trust Through Transparency & Format Innovation 

   Only 40% globally trust the news, and nearly the same percentage now avoid it. Fatigue, bias, and negativity are key drivers.

   → What to do: Embrace solutions journalism, clear sourcing, and formats that foster connection, such as podcasts, constructive explainer series, or community Q&As.

6. Diversify Like a Product Company 

   Subscription growth is stalling (18% average in high-income markets), and most non-payers say no model would change their minds.

   → What to do: Treat every content and interaction point as a potential product — explore events, memberships, training, branded content, and licensing. One-size-fits-all monetisation is no longer viable.

📌 The takeaway:

Independent publishers need to act like product companies, distribute like creators, and build trust like journalists. That means meeting audiences in their space while reinforcing your editorial strength.

Here is the link to the report: Reuters Digital News Report 2025

How Synthflow AI is cutting through the noise in a loud AI voice category | TechCrunch

The conversational AI market has exploded since ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and is predicted to grow into a nearly $50 billion global industry by 2031, according to MarketsAndMarkets. Synthflow AI is just one of many companies building in this space that hopes to stand out from the pack because of its focus on being enterprise-grade and easy to set up.
Read more ▸

Google AI Overviews rank below Position 1 in 12.4% of cases: Study | Search Engine Land

Google AI Overviews no longer hold the top spot for U.S. desktop search results 12.4% of the time. That’s a significant change from a month ago, when less than 2% of AI Overviews ranked below Position 1, according to new research from seoClarity, an enterprise SEO platform.
Read more ▸

The Mainstream News Battle Hits YouTube: How Fox News, CNN, MSNBC Stack Up | TheWrap

For channels like Fox News and MSNBC, the battle for news-hungry viewers has moved beyond the TV screen. The top cable and network news outlets are increasingly fighting for viewers on YouTube, which has established itself as the go-to hub for all-things television in 2025. Fox News, just as it does versus traditional linear broadcasters, leads the way when it comes to YouTube. Read more ▸

AI Search Currently Drives Less Than 1% of Traffic To Most Sites, Google Is Still Dominant, and Watch The Long-term Risk of Ignoring Google Search | GSQi

AI search is here, it’s growing, and you can’t miss article after article about the death of SEO, organic search, Google search traffic, etc. It’s a little out of control right now… Sure, AI Search traffic from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, etc., will continue to grow, but if you look at the actual data, organic search (and Google Search in particular) still drives a majority of traffic to most websites. Read more ▸

Excessive social media found to harm teenagers’ mental health – but experts say moderation may be key | The Guardian

Australian teenagers who spend between one and three hours on social media a day report similar or better mental health outcomes compared with teenagers using social media less, suggesting moderation may be key, according to a major new survey. The Mission Australia survey canvassed the views of 17,480 young people across Australia aged between 15 and 19, which comes amid the public debate over restricting access to social media for people aged under 16. Read more ▸

Chrome Bakes in AI Mode With Shortcut | Search Engine World

Just when you thought Google couldn’t wedge any more AI into your browser, here comes the latest Canary option: the @aimode command. Now, in Chrome’s address bar (aka. The Omnibox, because why use normal words), you can summon the monopoly’s AI overlord Gemini 2.5 just by typing @aimode and prompting it. That’s right – just typing a query into the search bar and hitting Enter is apparently passé. We’ve leveled up to a whole new default shortcut economy. Read more ▸