SODP Dispatch - 4 April 2025

Sponsored
A Story of How RollerAds’ Publisher Made $60,000

By RollerAds team

The right partners can make all the difference. We want to share a case study from RollerAds about the importance of working with the right ad network. A publisher switched to RollerAds’ network and immediately saw increased website performance.

It took 5 months to hit a $60,000 threshold, which could have been improved even further, but the partners agreed to take it easy.

It’s time to tell a fascinating story of adaptability, prudence, and dedication! Many publishers hold on to their first ad network, but this approach can handicap your monetization potential. That’s why it’s crucial to monitor the market and attend the conferences to compare the available monetization options. That’s right, the optimization process started with a random meeting at a conference, but let’s do one step at a time…

💡 What you will learn:

• A business trip of a Lifetime

• Case Study Summary

• Preparing for the Main Show

📝 ​AI-Powered Content Strategy

​Discover how to revolutionize your content strategy with AI using AirOps' latest 2.0 workflow builder. In this video, you'll learn how to build powerful AI-driven workflows to enhance your content planning and competitor analysis. See more ▸

✨ ​LocalPod.co

​LocalPod.co is a pilot program that assists independent publishers in transforming their written content, providing a new avenue for audience engagement and revenue generation. By managing both production and ad sales, LocalPod.co enables publishers to seamlessly enter the on-demand audio market at no cost. See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

🤝 Reflections from the LINA Summit

Thursday 3rd of April marked Day 1 of the main program at the 2025 LINA Summit—now in its third year—and I was fortunate to join an afternoon workshop focused on revenue strategies for publishers. I sat alongside James Spink from Interplay and Benjamin Erin from the 8CCC, and together we shared real-world lessons and ideas around building sustainable publisher revenue—beyond the obvious.

We started with intros, then dug into what's actually working—and the hard lessons we’ve picked up along the way. In my contribution, I focused on:

1. The growing potential of first-party data as a revenue stream: one of the key points I shared was the importance of capturing hashed emails—a privacy-first approach that gives publishers a data asset they actually own. What’s exciting is that data companies are now willing to pay a fixed rate for that data, creating an alternative to programmatic that’s more stable and accessible, especially for small to mid-sized publishers.

2. One of our earlier setbacks: launching a subscription product that had solid intent, but ultimately wasn’t sustainable at the time. We moved too fast and underestimated what it would take to make it succeed—we simply didn’t yet have the traffic volume or internal resources needed to support the model. The cost of building and running it was high, and I learned over time that audience loyalty alone doesn’t always translate into immediate recurring revenue. After stubbornly letting it go, I stepped back, reassessed, and repackaged our offerings into a brand partnership model, something more manageable, framing it around short-, medium-, and long-term benefits. That helped us speak more clearly to brand partners about the outcomes they could expect at each stage, and it’s now helped us build recurring partnerships with clearer expectations and delivery models.

James Spink shared sharp insights around monetisation formats, particularly:

• The growing opportunity in short-form video as both an engagement and revenue tool.

• The effectiveness of interscroll ads, which provide a smoother, less disruptive user experience while delivering stronger returns.

• And the continued importance of relationship building—a sentiment we all echoed—whether with your audience, partners, or advertisers.

Benjamin Erin from the 8CCC told a compelling story of how their radio station went from community service to a multi-stream revenue operation. It started with lending out gear for local events, evolved into offering services to event companies, and eventually led to hosting their own flagship event.

They also introduced a school-funded mentorship program and even launched a coffee shop to help subsidise operations, turning their mission into a self-sustaining ecosystem. It was an honest, practical session—lots of learning, a few bruises, and many ideas to take home. I also listened to a lot of other revenue-focused sessions throughout the day.

I was motivated by the entrepreneurial thinking and willingness to share their revenue models (with actual numbers) to help their industry colleagues. Several people also approached me (which helped because I’m an introvert), asking more about SODP’s initiatives and follow-up questions from the workshop session.

Claire Stuchberry and the LINA team have done an awesome job stacking great industry experts and their members, all looking to grow and serve their niche and local communities.

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YouTube is expected to be “officially crowned the new king of all media,” a Wall Street analyst has predicted. According to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, the Google-owned video streaming platform is on course to surpass Disney and soon become the media company with the highest revenue.
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Substack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app | TechCrunch

Substack continues to double down on video amid TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it’s rolling out a scrollable video feed in its app, making it the latest platform to introduce a TikTok-like feed. Read more ▸

Bauer Media completes acquisition of Clear Channel Europe-North | Bauer media Group

Hamburg, April 1, 2025 - Today, Bauer Media Group announces the completion of its acquisition of Clear Channel Europe-North (“Clear Channel Europe”), a significant player in the Out of Home (“OOH”) media sector. This follows the receipt of all approvals required and satisfaction of all regulatory conditions.
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Is the Collapse of SEO About to Cause CPM Inflation? | Adweek

Despite recent market turmoil, the AI revolution continues apace as new breakthroughs in models and architectures get applied across a growing number of industries.
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