SODP Dispatch - 7 August 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 in a week. Be the first to receive exclusive insights.

Mastering Content Engagement: Key Metrics and Strategies

By Leo Maurer

Publisher success boils down to attracting, keeping and growing audience numbers. And that depends on producing killer content.

The publishing world is incredibly competitive, with audiences demanding to be wowed with each piece of new content. Successful content must be visible, memorable and shareable to stand a chance in an increasingly crowded content arena. Every new piece needs a catchy headline, stellar SEO, eye-grabbing visuals and compelling storytelling.

This makes content engagement a critical metric to understand, given that it defines how effective publishers are connecting with their audiences. Let’s take a closer look at the vital elements of content engagement, dissecting what it means, the best ways to measure it and techniques to enhance it.

What Is Content Engagement?

Content engagement measures a piece of content’s effectiveness at getting the audience to interact, share and take a relevant action. It extends beyond pageviews and likes to encapsulate a range of behaviors, including clicking on links, commenting and sharing posts. The ultimate goal is to create engaging content that sparks these various forms of interaction.

These interactions serve as valuable touchpoints, providing real-time insights into audience preferences and behaviors. More than just statistics, they offer a window into how audiences experience content, allowing publishers to refine and improve their strategies accordingly.

🧭Elements of Audience Engagement

Elements of Audience Engagement is a mindset, an introduction, and a toolkit. It is grounded in the belief that in a digital information ecosystem, prioritising audiences, their needs and habits, is journalism’s most resilient foundation for growth and impact, enabling newsrooms not just to survive but to adapt with purpose. See more ▸

🤖 AI Monetization Layer Framework V1

Off the tail of last week's AI Monetization Layer POV, I've drafted up a V1 framework that goes even deeper into each bucket, the sub-buckets in each, there are 10 in total in the V1. Inside the framework, I've broken down each of the 10 sub-buckets with an explanation of what it is, why you as a pub might or might not want to consider it, and some thought-starting tips for each. See more ▸

🔍 Edge of Search 2025

The 2025 edition of this in-person conference brings together leading search marketing professionals to share real-world strategies, future-focused SEO skills, and proven frameworks. You will learn how SEO really works, sharpen your search skills for what’s next, and boost the performance of your digital team with insights built for action. See more ▸

By Vahe Arabian

🏷️ Why branded search is the real metric that matters

Page views won’t future-proof your publishing business; branded search will.

AI-generated content has opened new doors for publishers. However, many are still relying on legacy metrics, such as page views, sessions, and impressions, to measure success. These numbers can indicate reach, but they don’t tell the full story, especially when it comes to long-term brand value.

If you're not tracking branded search, you're missing the signal that really matters.

Branded search reflects earned relevance. It shows that your audience isn’t just discovering your content; they’re seeking you out deliberately. That’s the kind of loyalty that fuels subscriptions, partnerships, and lasting growth.

Page views can spike for the wrong reasons: clickbait headlines, trending topics, or even AI-generated content that’s overly generic. But branded queries come from people who already know you. They signal authority and familiarity. They’re also a strong indicator that your content, AI-assisted or not, is resonating at a deeper level.

If your AI strategy focuses solely on traffic volume, it risks becoming just noise. But if it supports your brand’s credibility, tone, and voice, it becomes a tool for amplification.

Don’t let your team get lost in shallow performance data. Instead, create systems that connect AI content to brand trust:

• Monitor branded search volume in Google Search Console. Track month-over-month changes and look for patterns around key content or campaigns.

• Segment return users engaging with AI-generated content. Use analytics platforms like GA4 or Chartbeat to see whether AI outputs are encouraging deeper engagement.

• Track direct visits, scroll depth, and engaged time. These are stronger indicators of trust than bounce rate or session count.

3 tactical shifts to amplify branded search 

1. Use branded keywords naturally: Mention your brand 3–5 times per 1,000 words where it fits. Include bylines that reinforce institutional expertise (e.g., “By [Name], State of Digital Publishing”).

2. Transform generic content into brand-owned frameworks: Instead of “5 SEO Tips,” write “SODP’s 5-Point Local SEO Audit Framework.” Brand your approaches and repeat them across channels.

3. Prioritise transparency and quality in AI workflows: Clearly label AI-assisted content. Include editor’s notes or expert reviews to signal trust. Don’t hide the human touch, highlight it.

Here are the takeaways

• Branded search is a forward-looking metric. It tells you whether you’re building something worth remembering.

• Page views show trends. Branded queries show trust.

• AI should support your editorial vision, not dilute it.

• Winning in publishing today requires more than content volume; it requires content value.

This journalist was fired from the largest broadcaster in the Philippines. Then he took his show to YouTube | Reuters Institute

Filipino journalist Christian Esguerra lost his job as an anchor at ABS-CBN only a week before his son was born. At the time ABS-CBN was the Philippines’ largest broadcaster and Esguerra had gotten into the crosshairs of corporate management, following his vocal criticism of then-president Rodrigo Duterte and his allies. Under Duterte’s rule, ABS-CBN was shut down in 2020 and taken off free-to-air television, the first time the channel went dark since the dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos. As the company faced increasing pressure to self-censor, Esguerra was on the line. Read more ▸

YouTube steaming to ad revenues of $50bn, recasts TV to creator economy as UK broadcasters claim ‘reach fail’, top 200 channels dominated by kids - and Peppa Pig | Mi3

YouTube last week officially ousted the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster ITV as the video platform now second only to the BBC in audience size, according to the tech and media regulator, Ofcom. YouTube’s ad take is pumping everywhere – it raked US$9.8bn in the June quarter, according to its latest earnings results – up 13% year-on-year. And the Google-owned platform has been increasingly vocal on its ambition to target legacy broadcasters for bigger brand budgets and recast TV as swerving rapidly to the creator, influencer and user generated content economy. Read more ▸

Aussie advertisers abandon traditional media for digital options: Guideline SMI | Mumbrella

Australian media agencies are spending more ad dollars than ever before, however traditional radio and television campaigns are being left behind, in favour of digital advertising opportunities. This is according to the latest figures from Guideline SMI, which show that Australian advertising agencies delivered a record level of ad spend in the last financial year, breaking the $9 billion mark for the first time, and jumping by $212 million from the prior year. Read more ▸

Google Ads Callouts & Structured Snippets: Bigger ads, better results? | Search Engine Land

You’ve set up your Search campaigns, you’ve got your headlines and your descriptions, and your final URL. So your ad is done, right? Not necessarily! Assets (formerly known as Extensions) are an optional but powerful addition to your Google Search campaigns. This article will explore two types of assets that every business can use: Callouts and Structured Snippets. What are “Assets” in Google Ads? Before we dig into Callouts and Structured Snippets, it’s helpful to understand the bigger picture. Read more ▸

A Cash Infusion from Chatbots? | Columbia Jornalism Review

In late December of 2023, when the news emerged that the New York Times had filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, Bill Gross was at home in Pasadena, feeling somewhat indignant. Gross, who is sixty-six, is a grandaddy of the internet: in 1998, he founded GoTo.com, which introduced the idea of allowing advertisers to bid for placement in search engine results—an auto company, for instance, could bid to appear high up in the results for “best car.” Read more ▸

Google Says AI Clicks Are Better, What Does Your Data Say? | SEJ

Google’s latest blog post claims AI is making Search more useful than ever. Google says people are asking new kinds of questions, clicking on more links, and spending more time on the content they visit. But with no supporting data or clear definitions, the message reads more like reassurance than transparency. Rather than take Google at its word or assume the worst, you can use your own analytics to understand how AI in Search is affecting your site. Read more ▸