SODP Dispatch - 9 May 2024

Teens See Social Media Algorithms as Accurate Reflections of Themselves, Study Finds

By Nora McDonald

Social media apps regularly present teens with algorithmically selected content often described as “for you,” suggesting, by implication, that the curated content is not just “for you” but also “about you” – a mirror reflecting important signals about the person you are.

The prevalence of the “for you” message raises important questions about the impact of these algorithms on how teens perceive themselves and see the world, and the subtle erosion of their privacy, which they accept in exchange for this view.

Gen AI Impact Report

By Media Collateral and SODP

Late last year, Media Collateral surveyed 227 communications professionals throughout the region, and found 74% of those were already using Gen AI in their work.

For 2024, we are partnering up with Media Collateral to bring the findings to our community of digital publishing professionals.

Your Input Is Critical

Please take the time to fill out the 2 minute anonymous survey to share your experiences, and gain access to the upcoming report's advice and insights + enter a raffle to receive FREE 1-year access to our Publisher SEO course.

By Vahe Arabian

🤝 Brand Partnerships in Digital Publishing

Strategic pivots with value-driven exchanges to address solution gaps and revenue diversification are paramount for sustained monetization and relevance in digital publishing.

In September 2022, amidst significant industry changes, we experienced a pivotal moment in our journey toward brand sponsorships at SODP.

Back then, some clients, such as We Are Explorers and Boss Hunting, faced negative impacts on their traffic. However, what stood out was their ability to thrive despite adversity, thanks to their robust brand partnership pipelines and prestige. Their consistent focus on brand partnerships, coupled with their busy schedule (as all pubs have), made them less open to adopting new approaches to monetization. This observation catalyzed a paradigm shift at SODP.

Originally focused on building a subscription offering as the primary revenue stream, our slow traction prompted a strategic reassessment. Inspired by our client's success in securing brand partnerships and training, which showed us that we did not need to be large to begin, we decided to offer brand sponsorships ourselves.

We recognized the imperative to diversify our monetization strategies, leading us to pub tech reviews and best listicles into our content strategy and modularizing our media kit offering.

Moreover, we reevaluated our collaboration approach, shifting from free content-led partnerships towards performance-driven models to provide value to partners while ensuring SODP's sustainability (and we have case studies to show).

As we continue our journey, we're committed to providing insights, resources and our experience to the SEO and digital publishing community while forging meaningful brand partnerships.

Here are key takeaways from our experience:

1. Learning Resources for Sales: For those looking into branded sales training, visit The Meta Branded Content Project and Broadstreet

2. Advertising Revenue Maturity Model: If sales on a particular product are struggling, it's beneficial to go back to the advertising revenue maturity model and address your product/solution gaps.

3. Adapting with Agility: One must be able to adapt swiftly to industry shifts and strategically pivot when necessary by diversifying revenue streams

4. Value-Driven Collaboration: Collaborations with partners should prioritize mutual benefit, emphasizing value delivery and performance/revenue-oriented strategies.

5. Continuous Innovation: Exploring industry gaps and innovations is imperative to maintaining relevance and achieving success. Never give up!

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Google begins enforcement of site reputation abuse policy with portions of sites being delisted | Search Engine Land

Sites like CNN, USA Today, LA Times and others are seeing their rented subdomains and subfolders dropping in rankings after they were hit by manual actions.
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OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries | Search Engine Journal

OpenAI content deal will enhance ChatGPT with the ability to show real-time content with links in response to queries. OpenAI quietly took steps to gaining more search engine type functionality as part of a content licensing deal that may have positive implications for publishers and SEO.
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Survey: Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News | Pew Research Center

Pew’s latest study finds: 48% of US adults prefer websites or social media for local news; 15% paid for local news in the last year; 63% believe local outlets do well financially.
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News industry divides over AI | Axios

Major news outlets are taking opposite approaches toward future-proofing their businesses against the threat of AI — some are opting to partner with AI firms, and others are suing them.
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X Adds AI-Generated News Summaries for Premium Subscribers | Social Media Today

X has launched new news summaries, powered by its Grok AI engine, which will use X posts to come up with real-time summaries of the latest trending conversations in the app.
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