SODP Dispatch - 13 November 2025

Publytics Review for 2025

By Sreemoyee Bhattacharya

Publishers no longer count on generic analytics. The question has shifted from "how many clicks" to "who is clicking, what drives subscriptions, and where are they coming from right now."

Real-time analytics represents a USD 5.3 billion market by 2032, growing at 25.1% annually. Yet adoption remains low. The barrier is not sophistication—it's trust. Publishers understand the value of granular, real-time data but hesitate because of legitimate privacy concerns.

Publytics positions itself as the answer to this tension: accuracy without surveillance.

Built as a direct alternative to Google Analytics, the platform targets content-rich publishers who need depth without sampling and real-time insights without compromising GDPR and CCPA compliance. Currently serving over 1,500 publishers including Brocardi.it, Money.it, and Comingsoon.it, the platform makes specific claims about speed, accuracy, and publisher-first design.

This review examines whether those claims hold.

🎯 PubTech 2025: Smarter Workflows, Safer Platforms, Stronger Connections

17-18 November 2025 | 4 PM & 5 PM CET | 10 AM & 11 AM ET | Online Event

Starts in four days! AI is moving from experimentation to becoming embedded in news operations. Meanwhile, misinformation, deepfakes, and unsafe ad placements have pushed brand safety to boardroom priority, while zero-click environments make it harder to control content discovery. Over two days, industry leaders and technologists will gather for targeted sessions and practical workshops. Topics include Next-Gen PubTech trends for 2026 with IBM's Anabelle Nicoud, automation blueprint workshops, brand safety in synthetic content, privacy and digital identity strategies, zero-click world optimization, and designing future publishing stacks with Stanford's Eric Ulken. The event features 10+ panelists and expects 300+ digital publishing professionals from around the world.

Register here ▸

💂 PubTech Dinner London 2025

Monday, November 17, 2025 | 6:30 PM GMT | Cornus Restaurant, London

We're bringing together senior publishing leaders for an intimate dinner on product, design, and AI innovation. Mel McVeigh, who led transformation at Condé Nast and now advises global media organizations, will share how publishers can unite product and design teams to build scalable transformation roadmaps. This is a high-trust, off-the-record conversation—no pitches, no slides, just honest discussion about what's working and what's not. The format is simple: dinner, drinks, and the kind of strategic conversations that don't happen in public forums.

Reserve your spot ▸

🤖 Test If AI Understands Your Brand

Google Labs released Pomelli, an experimental AI tool for social media campaign generation. Man of Many's co-founder tested it and found accurate brand voice output—but only because their messaging is consistent across owned platforms.

The real value is diagnostic. If AI misunderstands your brand positioning, humans likely do too. As AI increasingly mediates content discovery, publishers who can't articulate brand essence consistently will struggle.

Try Pomelli here ▸

By Vahe Arabian

🎙️ Transcripts Are Not Content

Most publishers treat podcast transcripts as finished content. This is a mistake.

Publishing raw transcripts as articles, email courses, or member features might seem efficient. It's actually lazy. Transcripts are raw material, not publishable content. Without transformation, you get rambling structure, poor search performance, weak engagement, and conversion rates that don't justify the effort.

The difference between republishing and transforming determines ROI.

Smart publishers don't reformat transcripts. They extract insights and rebuild them for specific channels with intentional value addition.

• For shoppable articles: Don't embed product links in transcript text. Build comparison content around the product discussion—add specifications, expert analysis, competitive context. Optimize for purchase intent, not conversation flow.

• For email courses: Don't section transcripts into five messages. Identify the core framework from the episode and structure a learning progression with templates, exercises, and outcomes. Transform spoken insight into instructional design.

• For member features: Don't post lightly edited Q&As. Add data analysis, visual context, or expert commentary that elevates the base conversation. Members pay for curation and enhancement, not transcription.

• For sales enablement: Don't overlook internal applications. Convert interview insights into objection-handling guides, competitive positioning documents, or client conversation starters that give sales teams substance.

Five principles for high-return repurposing:

1. Transcripts are inputs, not outputs. Spoken language requires restructuring for readability and comprehension.

2. Each format needs specific value addition. Context, data, expert perspective, or visual elements that justify the format choice.

3. Structure determines consumption. Clarity, scannability, and intentional flow matter more than preserving conversational authenticity.

4. Optimize per channel. Search intent for articles, engagement hooks for email, exclusivity signals for members, utility for internal teams.

5. Respect your audience. Publishing unedited transcripts signals that convenience matters more than their experience.

The goal is not content volume. The goal is channel-appropriate assets that compound value across editorial, audience, and revenue functions.

Phishing remains primary threat to publisher security | The Fix

Grégoire Pouget, co-founder of digital security NGO Nothing2Hide, identifies phishing as the dominant threat to publishers and journalists. Hackers target entire newsroom staff simultaneously, exploiting the statistical likelihood that someone will surrender credentials. Once inside information systems, attackers escalate access privileges progressively. Pouget recommends publishers reduce dependency on US platforms like Google and Microsoft—both subject to Patriot Act data disclosure requirements—in favor of encrypted alternatives including Proton Mail and Tuta for sensitive investigations. The challenge is not budget but behavior change: implementing two-factor authentication and device separation between personal and professional use requires overcoming institutional resistance.

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A future proof media plan | Adweek

Papa Johns SVP Shivram Vaideeswaran structures media investment across four categories: paid, creator, aggregator, and owned social. The brand's approach targets cultural attention moments rather than direct product consideration—integrating into sneaker drops, celebrity news, and sports through creators with existing credibility in those spaces. Timing defines relevance: Papa Johns activated Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce engagement rewards within 24 hours through its loyalty program. Beyond that window, the activation would signal clout-chasing rather than cultural participation. Vaideeswaran expects future creative to fragment into multiple message versions targeting specific consumer segments rather than single universal campaigns.

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LION Publishers releases three-year sustainability audit findings | LION Publishers

LION's Sustainability Audit program served 357 independent news organizations from 2022-2024, providing assessment, coaching, action reports, and up to $20,000 in funding. Organizations that completed the program showed 60 percent median revenue growth year-over-year. The most critical factor: dedicated revenue generation staff. Organizations with revenue staff had median revenue 700 percent higher than those without—in early-stage operations, founders dedicating significant time to revenue efforts created this foundation. Seventy-seven percent of organizations showed measurable infrastructure progress, though the greatest weakness remained lack of business operations systems for legal, HR, and management processes. The milestone separating developing from stable organizations: three or more established revenue streams.

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Daily Mail expands crime content into 160 million annual podcast views | Press Gazette

The Daily Mail employs 20 editorial staff producing crime content that generated 24 million video views in October alone across TikTok and YouTube. Head of podcasts Jamie East attributes growth to court reporting depth—The Trial podcast provides daily trial updates requiring legal expertise and physical courtroom presence that armchair crime podcasters can't match. The operation launched a subscription tier at £3.99 monthly for early episode access, with the Charlene podcast driving the highest subscriber conversion since launch. Crime content now consolidates under The Crime Desk brand with dedicated newsletter and homepage. East emphasizes journalistic standards: if coverage doesn't surface new evidence, retelling existing stories serves no purpose beyond exploitation.

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Microsoft makes Clarity mandatory for ad monetization | Search Engine Land

Microsoft now requires all third-party publishers to implement Clarity—its behavioral analytics tool—to remain eligible for paid impressions in Microsoft Advertising. Publishers must install Clarity and enable Consent Mode to track user interactions while maintaining privacy compliance. Ad traffic from non-Clarity pages will be filtered as nonbillable, effectively cutting monetization for noncompliant publishers. The move ties analytics implementation to revenue access, forcing transparency standards across Microsoft's ad network. For publishers monetizing through Microsoft Ads, Clarity adoption is no longer optional—it's infrastructure.

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