What’s going on with Google traffic to publishers?
Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter camp and want to subscribe, then you can click on this handy little button: Let’s jump into it… What’s going on with Google traffic to publishers?I keep seeing reports of wild fluctuations in search traffic. Some publishers claim it’s plummeted, yet I’ve spoken to plenty who say they haven’t seen any meaningful change in recent months. This Digiday piece indicates that search traffic overall is mostly flat, though some specific categories are getting hit:
Over the last few years, many publishers have moved aggressively into product recommendations that are monetized through affiliate links, but they mostly resorted to pulling in reviews and information about products from other websites — as opposed to acquiring and reviewing the products themselves. In response, Google has pushed through algorithm updates that punish websites that merely repackage content around products. This most recent dip might simply boil down to lazy publishers reaping what they sowed. “Link tax” laws are just legislative rent seekingThe various "link tax" laws that would force tech platforms to pay publishers are nothing more than legislative rent seeking. It's basically the public policy equivalent of mobsters forcing local businesses to pay for "protection." Ken Doctor does a good job of laying out the flaws with these laws in a Nieman Lab piece:
ICYMI: How a podcast for entrepreneurial parents generates $200,000 a yearSarah Peck explains why she didn't chase scale when building her Startup Parent podcast. The marketing brilliance of Spotify WrappedSpotify Wrapped is probably one of the most successful marketing campaigns in business history. The Guardian published a good profile of the team responsible for the feature:
When once-great news publishers become zombie websitesThe Discourse Blog’s Jack Crosbie wrote about what it’s like to watch a media organization you used to write for die and then be resurrected again, usually in some diminished form:
I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcastOne of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets. In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:
Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. ) Programmatic advertising will not save youDigiday surveyed publishers about their programmatic ad revenue, and while the industry continues to increase its reliance on programmatic ads, its consistently fails to make any revenue gains from the tech:
Translation: Programmatic continues to underperform expectations. Publishers keep hoping that something will click and programmatic advertising will unleash a flood of revenue. It's never going to happen. It's a race to the bottom. The more revenue programmatic pulls in, the more low-quality publishers it attracts, and the more that revenue is diluted and funneled away from the high-quality publishers. It’s a vicious cycle where the premium publishers always lose. Substack moves in on Patreon’s turfSubstack continues to move in on Patreon's turf, launching all sorts of new tools for paywalled videos and podcasts. On a related note, this writer moved her subscription base from Patreon to Substack and was able to quadruple her subscriptions on the latter:
Do you sell a product targeted toward marketers, media executives, or professional creators?What a coincidence! That’s exactly who reads my newsletter. You can find out how to reach them over here. Want a daily dose of media industry news?I only send this newsletter out twice a week, but I curate industry news on a daily basis. Follow me on one of these social platforms if you want your daily fix: You're currently a free subscriber to Simon Owens's Media Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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Friday, December 1, 2023
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Tuesday, November 28, 2023
PLUS: It's time for publishers to outsource their subscriptions to Facebook
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Tuesday, November 21, 2023
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PLUS: Why so many publisher ecommerce verticals produce such mediocre results
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