SODP Dispatch - 5 September 2024

Announcing 2nd Annual PubTech2024

We are excited to share the news that you can now register for PubTech2024 – second annual virtual event for digital publishing and news media professionals.

Product innovation and data-driven decision-making are the two main themes of the event.

5 days, 5 sessions - register for the entire event or individual sessions

🗓 18-22 November 2024

➡️ Confirmed presenters include:

• Jiji Ugboma – Associate Director, Engagement Strategy, SHE Media

• Darci Dutcher – Director of Product Design and User Research, Financial Times

• Rebecca Ruane – Head of Reader Revenue Insight, The Guardian

• Clara Soteras – Director of SEO & Product, ElNacional.cat

• Sofía Delgado – Audience Growth Director, Metro.co.uk

• Michele Bavitz – Head of Account Management, Theorem

• Harry Brockbanks – Yield Strategist, Ezoic UK

  +more announced soon 

Busting 10 Common Myths About Native Advertising

By Saida Ayupova

Publisher ad revenues are taking a hit due to the rising use of ad blocker software and plug-ins in recent years. Can native ads help boost publisher revenues going forward?

Native ads are online ads that seamlessly blend with the content displayed on websites. They are designed to match the look, feel, and overall function of the media in which they appear, making them less intrusive than traditional banner ads.

At least 90% of the time, native ads are pay-per-click advertisements. They are recommended for performance digital advertising because native ads’ main purpose is to drive leads and sales. They can also generate brand awareness.

🔒 Webinar Recording: Gen AI x Comms Q&A Webinar

Understand how generative AI is changing the way media and communications professionals work.
See more ▸

🤖 AI Assistant
This AI extension can be used to summarize documents, write emails, generate content ideas, and so much more.
See more ▸

Google August 2024 core update rollout is now complete | Search Engine Land

Google’s August 2024 core update is now done rolling out. It started on August 15, 2024 and completed 19 days later on September 3, 2024. This update caused a lot of ranking movement and changes to the overall Google Search results.
Read more ▸

Here’s how 7 news audience directors are thinking about Google’s AI Overviews |  NiemanLab

Despite an initial statement from Google that it would scale back the feature in late May, three months post-launch it’s clear that AI Overviews are here to stay. On August 15, Overviews was released in six more countries, including the U.K., Japan, India, and Brazil. Searches in Japanese, Hindi and Portuguese have also begun surfacing Overviews.
Read more ▸

Digital news consumption has gotten harder to measure | Axios

It's become nearly impossible to reliably capture what's going viral online, without manually tracking engagement on posts.
Read more ▸

Google Confirms It’s Okay To Ignore Spam Scores | Search Engine Journal

Google’s John Mueller answered a Reddit question about how to lower a website’s spam score. His answer reflected an important insight about third-party spam scores and their relation to how Google ranks websites.
Read more ▸

How Business of Fashion, founded by a fashion outsider, became an industry staple with over 100K paying subscribers and an international staff of about 100 | Columbia Journalism Review

Started in 2007 by Imran Amed, a forty-nine-year-old former McKinsey consultant, it has since developed a reputation for being required reading.
Read more ▸