SODP Dispatch
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SODP Dispatch - 7 July 2023

SODP Dispatch - 7 July 2023

How to improve Core Web Vitals, best CRM solutions for publishers + more news & tips for digital publishers

State of Digital Publishing
July 07, 2023

Happy Friday!

Today, let’s discuss ad revenue and risk management.

Our managing editor, Andrew Kemp, discusses the subject in his weekly Editor’s Note column:

As we rolled into 2023, good money was riding on projections that publisher ad revenue would suffer amid rising interest rates and a deepening cost of living crisis. And it seems those bets have started to pay off.

The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) predicted that global ad spend with published media (digital and print newspapers and magazines) would contract by 7.7% year on year to $47.2 billion in 2023, amid a 2.6% increase in total global ad spend to $880.9 billion.

This followed speculation that the global ad market was heading into a “car cash” of a year.

I myself harbored a somewhat pessimistic outlook, backing publisher efforts to trim the fat. Even if publishing ad spend managed to avoid a recession, publishers would still benefit from more money in the bank.

From what I can see — from admittedly limited data on the subject — that “best-case” scenario vis à vis an ad-spend downturn hasn’t materialized. In one review of the first-quarter revenue of six major publishers — The Arena Group, BuzzFeed, IAC, Gannett, News Corp, The New York Times — only The Athena Group saw its ad revenue grow.

FROM STATE OF DIGITAL PUBLISHING

^ADVERTISING
WHAT IS CPM FOR PUBLISHERS?

Cost per mille (CPM), or cost per thousand, refers to the amount an advertiser pays for every 1,000 ad impressions their ad receives.

With CPM marketing, advertisers can attract the attention of a large target audience through a single display ad. This is why the CPM pricing method suits companies looking to create brand awareness or increase brand recognition.

The CPM pricing model is a firm favorite among digital publishers, with good reason. The model is easy to use and requires relatively low levels of effort from web site owners to convert traffic into revenue.

Keep reading to understand what a CPM marketing campaign is, its different aspects and what advertisers expect from successful ad campaigns.

——— SPONSORED ———

HOW TO IMPROVE CORE WEB VITALS FOR WORDPRESS SITES

Users demand swift loading speeds, smooth interactivity and a visually stable environment and a Core Web Vitals assessment is pivotal to helping publishers understand how their websites’ are delivering on this front.

Google found that bounce probability jumped 32% when page load times climbed from 1 second to 3 seconds. Meanwhile, news sites that passed the CWV test saw a 22% lower abandonment rate than those that failed.

Let’s take a closer look at these CWVs to understand why they’re so important, how to measure them accurately and then weigh up the actionable steps we can take to boost their scores

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BITE-SIZED INDUSTRY NEWS

^{BIG TECH}
Threads: Thirty million join Meta's Twitter rival, Zuckerberg says. Read more

^{DATA & ANALYTICS}
For better and for worse, Apple’s about to make your readers harder to track again. It’s a win for privacy, but also another case of a tech giant independently changing the rules for digital publishers. Read more

^AI
Microsoft partners with LinkedIn to offer free AI skills training and certification amid rising workforce demand. Read more

^ADTECH
AdExchanger has learned that the demand-side platform, which raised $600 million since 2007 and had a peak valuation of more than $1 billion, will file for bankruptcy. Read more

^SEARCH
Twitter makes changes to show content to Google, tweets returning to Google Search. Read more

^{AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT}
MediaNews Group, the local newspaper company owned by Alden Global Capital, has shut down all of its comment sections as of July 1st, due to difficulties in moderating them. Read more