SODP Dispatch - 5 June 2025

Join our upcoming webinar!

Are you struggling to balance audience engagement, content monetization, and tech simplicity? You’re not alone. Many publishers face the Goldilocks Tech Trap —tools that are either too clunky or too expensive, leaving growth stalled .

Join us for "Managing Millions: Better Audience Engagement Without the Tech Headaches" , where we’ll show you how to escape this trap and build scalable, profitable systems.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

✅ Turning clicks, scrolls, and headlines into actionable insights for stronger audience relationships.

✅ Streamlining over-complex data workflows to drive growth and ROI.

✅ Quick wins to turn loyal browsers into superfans.

✅ Striking the perfect balance between effective tools and agile systems .

This will be hosted by Vahe Arabian, in conversation with Denis Haman and Richard Fairbairn of Glide Publishing Platform.

📅 Date: June 11, 2025

Time: 2 pm BST 

🌐 Online Event

Don’t miss this chance to transform your audience engagement strategy and future-proof your publishing business.

Sponsored

How to Build Your Own Ad Network: A Step-by-Step Guide

By Lina Lugova 

You’ve already mastered a content game, and you know that your website or app can earn you money. The only question left is how to make the most of your asset? According to Statista, programmatically sold advertising is expected to reach $779 billion by 2028, and getting a piece of this pie seems enticing.

My team and I have helped dozens of ad networks maximize their effectiveness. Today, I’ll describe the main steps so you can build your own ad network. Moreover, if you’re wondering how much it will cost you, you’ll have the answer by the end of the article.

How an Ad Network Earns Money? An ad network is a business that buys ad inventory from publishers (owners of websites or apps) and sells it to advertisers (companies that want to place ads efficiently).

Ad networks can profit in several ways. First, they can buy ad inventory from publishers in bulk at a lower price and sell it to advertisers after segmenting and targeting. The margin between the buying and selling prices is the ad network’s profit.

The second option is earning a commission on ad performance. In this case, advertisers pay for results, such as views, clicks, or actions, and publishers receive a more predictable (although sometimes slightly lower) income. There’s also a third revenue model — via subscription, but it’s less common than the previous two.

💡 What you will learn:

Can You Benefit From Building an Ad Network?

Where Do You Begin?

What to Avoid?

🚀 Reddit Trends

Reddit just launched a new Trends tool, and it is a great news for PRs. Reddit Trends will allow you to track keywords or brand mention on Reddit over time, and you can see the most discussed topics related to your keywords See more ▸

📚 NESS25

The 2025 edition of the annual online event brings together top industry experts to share actionable insights, proven strategies, and hard-earned lessons tailored to news and publishing professionals navigating today’s SEO challenges. See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

🎥 Monetizing video in 2025: what's still working for publishers

When video RPMs fall by more than half, publishers can't afford to stick to passive formats.

Video monetisation is no exception to the accelerating pace of change in digital publishing. According to Google AdSense Publishers' report, publishers have experienced significant declines in their earnings and RPMs (revenue per thousand impressions) since late February 2024, with some claiming drops of up to 70% or more. This signals a critical shift for publishers relying on traditional placements. Passive video strategies can no longer sustain healthy revenue streams.

But amid these challenges, three innovative content formats are not only holding their ground; they’re thriving.

1. Interactive Explainers: Say goodbye to linear storytelling. Interactive explainers are redefining how audiences engage with video content. These dynamic experiences allow viewers to click, pause, explore, and dive deeper into topics at their own pace. The result? Higher engagement, extended watch times, and improved retention, all of which translate into more substantial monetisation potential. When users feel in control of their journey, they're more likely to stay engaged and convert.

2. Shoppable Tutorials: The era of passive product placement is over. Shoppable tutorials offer a seamless blend of education and commerce by embedding real-time shopping capabilities directly within the video experience. Whether it’s a beauty tutorial featuring clickable products or a DIY guide with integrated tools, this format creates a direct path from interest to purchase. For publishers already invested in e-commerce or brand partnerships, this is a powerful way to turn viewer attention into actual revenue.

3. Annotated Archives: Don’t let your old content go to waste. By repurposing existing video libraries with expert annotations, timely updates, and targeted calls to action, publishers can see a remarkable increase in conversions compared to unedited replays. This low-effort, high-impact strategy allows you to breathe new life into evergreen content, without starting from scratch.

Monetisation isn’t about views, it’s engineering value into seconds.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Standard video formats are losing their monetisation power.

• Engagement-driven features, such as interactivity, utility, and relevance, are now key differentiators.

• Smart repurposing of existing content can be just as impactful as creating something entirely new.

Now is the time to start experimenting. Identify where your audience already shows intent, then build immersive, value-driven content flows around those moments. Monetisation is no longer about where you place ads, but about how much value you deliver within the video itself.

Australia’s digital platforms ramp up misinformation safeguards according to 2025 disinformation reports | Mumbrella

Australia’s major digital platforms are doubling down on their efforts to tackle misinformation and strengthen the online content environment, according to new 2025 transparency reports released today under the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation. The reports show platforms are continuing to invest in proactive AI tools, entering into new multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations, and introducing new labels and safeguards around AI-generated content, especially during elections.
Read more ▸

These journalism pioneers are working to keep their countries’ languages alive in the age of AI news | NiemanLab

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, newsrooms have been grappling with both the promise and the peril posed by generative AI. But not every publisher is equally prepared to pursue these opportunities. While newsrooms in the U.S. and Europe innovate and experiment with large language models (LLMs), many newsrooms in the Global South are being left behind.
Read more ▸

AI Agents Are Helping PMG Run Ads on Fox News Without Freaking Out Clients | Adweek

AI agents are helping brands rethink news content as an ad channel. News has long been a no-fly zone for advertisers who are skittish of landing next to stories about war, mass shootings or polemical political figures. But now, agentic AI—the latest digital buzzword—are helping marketers revisit that stance. Digital marketing agency PMG tapped into Mobian’s AI personas—AI agents that simulate a brand’s ideal customer—to launch a campaign for a $10 billion health brand. Read more ▸

Google updated its ranking algorithms for explicit videos and explicit content | Search Engine Land

Google has revamped its search help documentation with revised guidelines for sites with explicit content. The new document covers how SafeSearch works, how Google handles sites with sexually explicit content and numerous best practices on the topic. Google also updated its ranking algorithms to target sites that host explicit videos but don’t allow Googlebot to fetch those videos. Google said these sites may see “a significant drop in ranking.” Read more ▸

Investment in SEO pays off as Capital Business Media doubles revenue | PressGazette

Investment in optimising content for Google has helped Capital Business Media to double its revenue in just two years. Richard Alvin, who founded the UK-based company 21 years ago, told Press Gazette that the company’s expansion has enabled it to hire three more full-time journalistic staff across its 15 print and digital publications, and he aims to hire a further four by the end of the year.
Read more ▸