SODP Dispatch - 5 December 2024

Sponsored
The Web’s Largest List Owners Are Winning While Traditional Sites Fall Behind

By Tyler Bishop

Publishing is experiencing a dual economy where two halves appear to be headed in different directions. On one hand, publishers with email and user lists are experiencing record growth and revenue. On the other hand, the largest cohort of publishers is experiencing unprecedented challenges and regressing visit numbers that match falling revenue. The outlook for both may not change for a while.

💡 What you will learn:

• How the two publishing economies differ and why

• What makes sites with direct audience better prepared for the future

• Compounding benefits of audience relationships
  + more

📖 PubTech2024 - ebook of learnings

At the end of November, we hosted our second annual PubTech event for digital publishing and news media professionals. You can now access the ebook of learnings + video recaps and slides.
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🛠️ SEO Schema Visualizer
SEO Schema Visualizer is a free Chrome extension that visualizes the JSON-LD schema markup of any webpage with a single click.
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By Vahe Arabian

➡️ How smaller publishers can use AI to level the playing field

I’d like to share a piece of advice that stood out to me during Day 3 panel of PubTech2024 on SEO & LLM in the age of AI. The panel featured Jiji Ugboma(SHE Media), Harry Clarkson-Bennett (The Telegraph), Clara Soteras (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), and Jay Wilder (deepset). More specifically, the discussion on how small publishers can leverage AI tools to level the playing field.

Small publishers can adopt AI tools faster since they lack red tape or bureaucratic frameworks that larger organizations often have in place. Agility comes at a cost as it can also increase the risk of mistakes, particularly while deploying AI for content creation.

“AI can be and should be amazing for content creation, but only when it is applied properly and with people who really know what they are doing,” cautioned Harry Clarkson-Bennet. While it certainly has some novelty value, interest in AI-generated content can wane quickly when compared to programmatic content.

The panelists preferred using AI tools as co-pilots or productivity enhancers, handling mundane and time-consuming tasks in the content creation process. Smaller publishers can also leverage AI creatively to increase user engagement and CTRs on their websites. Examples include:

• Wedding website that helps generate custom wedding vows using AI

• AI-generated games and trivia

• Using AI-generated headlines for content and AB testing

• AI tools that can generate realistic podcast audio from text content

Jay Wilder offered a word of caution: “You have to review the (AI-generated) content and make sure that it really reflects who you are in terms of brand identity.”

Surprising data: 15% of Google searches are driven by only 148 terms | Search Engine Land

That’s just one of many striking insights from a new analysis of nearly 332 million queries for more than 320,000 unique query terms released today by Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, based on data provided by Datos.
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Popular Tech News Site The Verge Goes Behind a Paywall | Gizmodo

The Verge, a tech news site founded in 2011 and owned by Vox Media, erected a paywall for the first time. Some of The Verge’s content will remain free but original reporting, reviews, and feature stories will all get pushed behind the paywall.
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Bluesky Emerges As Traffic Source: Publishers Report 3x Engagement | SEJ

Bluesky, a decentralized social network, recently shared that it’s become a growing traffic source for online publishers. Bluesky doesn't penalize link sharing, making it attractive for publishers and SEO professionals.
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News outlets push vertical video to the homepage | NiemanLab

Short vertical videos, a staple of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, are increasingly making their way on to news sites. The format is a hit with audiences, but more than two-thirds of that viewing still takes place on platforms, not publisher websites. Publishers are trying to change that.
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Ad tech deals soar on upbeat forecasts | Axios

The recent M&A uptick stems from a comeback in digital ad spend and increased attention on the companies supporting these media channels to simplify the market.
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