• 70% of digital publishers personalize content for visitors, study finds

7 out of 10 online publishers personalize the content they deliver to visitors, according to a survey of 200 publishers by Digiday this month.

• How to Sell Print to the “Digital-Only”

Print can be a tough sell to those prospects who say, “We only do digital”. But fear not! There are ways to overcome that obstacle.

• Podcasts Reap Engagement. It’s Time for B2B Media to Dive In

As members of the B2B media sector, we’re always on the hunt for new ways to engage our audience – especially the millennial generation.

• Want to fight fake news? Come intern for the International Fact-Checking Network

Fake news stories, false memes and conspiracy theories are rampant on nearly every social media platform.

• ‘Hard to back out’: Publishers grow frustrated by the lack of revenue from Apple News

Last year, Apple News brimmed with promise for publishers, offering an engaged, high-quality audience that seemed to do nothing but grow.

• Digital Publishing: When Using Social Media Photos in Your Stories, the Best Thing to Do is Ask for Permission

During a New Jersey wedding back in June 2017, Jonathan Otto snapped a picture of the new bride being congratulated by none other than the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

• Publishers are out of sync with buyer priorities, could 2019 ad revenues be at risk?

A new report by Integral Ad Science has found a significant gap between this year’s buy and sell-side priorities: most brands (83.3%) and over half of agencies (54.6%) want consistent measurement, yet only 43.8% of publishers agree.

• Million Dollar Idea: Buyers Guides!

The next installment of our Million Dollar Idea series comes from niche publisher Jeff Peterson of Peterson Publications.

• As video revenues grow, Hearst looks to capitalize with Clevver Media acquisition

As publishers maneuver through the challenges posed by digitization, many are building on their strengths and brand value to evolve in new directions.

• Stop Blaming Profit Motives for All of Journalism’s Woes

“It’s that newspapers and outlets are being decimated and dismantled by hedge funds, venture capitalists, and tech companies in search of profit. In short,

• ‘Hard to back out’: Publishers grow frustrated by the lack of revenue from Apple News

Last year, Apple News brimmed with promise for publishers, offering an engaged, high-quality audience that seemed to do nothing but grow.

• How Early Newspapers Used Extortion as a Business Model

After buying The Washington Post in 2013, Jeffrey P. Bezos visited the newsroom and answered questions from employees in a town-hall-style meeting.

• How collaboration benefits magazine media

Collaboration in the magazine and news media industries has hit a high point this year, internally and externally, across regions and borders.

• 12 Digital Revenue Ideas That Work!

At the Niche CEO Summit a few months ago, niche publishers gathered from all over the country to share best practices and new creative strategies.

• Don’t Settle for Last-Touch Attribution in Marketing Campaigns

Last month, I talked about factors marketers should consider for attribution rules.

• Tough Sell: Condé Nast Aims to Replicate Paywall Success Across Portfolio

News that Condé Nast intends to implement some form of a paywall on every brand in its digital media portfolio—which attracts more than 100 million total unique visitors each month—was quickly supplanted in the media-news cycle last week by ensuing bloodbaths at Buzzfeed and HuffPost, two of the internet’s most prolific purveyors of free content, as well as the century-old newspaper publisher Gannett, about as “legacy” as legacy media gets.

• Advertising opportunities for publishers, as CPGs come under threat

Packaged goods are typically the biggest spenders in advertising. Not only is a CPG (FMCG in the UK) company’s brand and product mix massive, but the competitive threats from e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands are significant and growing.

• Renault board blocks payouts to Ghosn worth 10 million euros

Renault said Wednesday that its board has decided not to pay out the equivalent of two years of salary to ex-CEO Carlos Ghosn which would have been due to him under a non-compete clause in his contract.

• Successful business models for magazine media

As well as having the necessary business acumen, publishers and editors must be passionate about their titles. Mary Hogarth explores key strategies for a sustainable magazine.

• The New Native Advertising Narrative

Native has been a standard practice in digital advertising ever since it eclipsed the awkward banner ad, after readers migrated from desktop to mobile in the early 2010s.

• How publishers use influencers to grow commerce businesses

Publishers seeking to grow commerce revenue are increasingly looking to influencers, not just as sources of marketing and distribution, but as creative partners as well.

• The Top 12 Media Tech Stories We Published in 2018

From examining the tools needed to capitalize on the subscription boon to exploring how publishers might adapt to voice-driven web experiences, we covered digital media technology from a lot of angles in 2018. Below is a rundown of the top technology posts we published in 2018 from the standpoint of what saw the most audience engagement and what stories best tell how technology shaped the media business this year. Enjoy.

• With new ownership, Fortune seeks to diversify revenues

In 2019, as Fortune looks to diversify its revenue, it will cast its lines for many different kinds of fish.
Armed with new funds promised by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon, who recently acquired Fortune from Meredith for $150 million, the business publication will be developing several paid products at both consumer and professional price points, Fortune CEO and president Alan Murray said.

• Publishers have finally fallen out of love with platforms, but it has been a hard lesson to learn

In a year dominated by headline-grabbing failures from Facebook, many news and magazine brands have learned the hard way that third-party platforms ultimately only have their own interests at heart.

• Content amplification: A guide for publishers

Every day, when I log into Twitter, open up LinkedIn, read my email, browse Trending or HN or Pocket, I’m in a perpetual statement of harsh, unrelenting judgement.

• Condé Nast Is “Paradise Publishing” Lost

Press accounts estimate that Condé Nast lost $120 million in 2017 (the company’s fiscal 2018 will end on January 31) with losses in print advertising and circulation revenues insufficiently offset by digital or such multimedia ventures as CNX, Spire and Condé Nast Entertainment. All sought to monetize the often award-winning journalism in Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, Glamour, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue.

• Quartz shrinks UK commercial team, citing revenue ‘slow-down’ due to Brexit

In the past year, Brexit and GDPR have stirred up unusually choppy water for publishers in the U.K. Now, their currents are claiming some casualties.

• The Top 12 Media Tech Stories We Published in 2018

From examining the tools needed to capitalize on the subscription boon to exploring how publishers might adapt to voice-driven web experiences, we covered digital media technology from a lot of angles in 2018. Below is a rundown of the top technology posts we published in 2018 from the standpoint of what saw the most audience engagement and what stories best tell how technology shaped the media business this year. Enjoy.

• With new ownership, Fortune seeks to diversify revenues

In 2019, as Fortune looks to diversify its revenue, it will cast its lines for many different kinds of fish.
Armed with new funds promised by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon, who recently acquired Fortune from Meredith for $150 million, the business publication will be developing several paid products at both consumer and professional price points, Fortune CEO and president Alan Murray said.

• Publishers have finally fallen out of love with platforms, but it has been a hard lesson to learn

In a year dominated by headline-grabbing failures from Facebook, many news and magazine brands have learned the hard way that third-party platforms ultimately only have their own interests at heart.

• Publishers rediscover their oldest revenue line in subscriptions, memberships and donations

As dreams of Facebook-fuelled riches turned to nightmares, the publishing industry went back to its roots this year, asking digital audiences to pay for the content they’ve become used to getting for free.

• Get Organized for 2019 Selling Now!

According to Hubspot, only one-third of a salesperson’s day is actually spent selling. Why? It’s probably about not being as organized as a salesperson needs to be. Organization definitely is the mundane part of the job compared to the adrenaline of selling. But it is SO important for your long-term success.

• Salon tacks back to subscriptions in an effort to revive revenue

More than a decade ago, Salon bet that readers would be willing to pay for an ad-free, subscription version of its site. Today, with its chip stack diminished, Salon is making a similar wager.

• 3 Smart Ways Publishers Can Better Capitalize on Data

Most publishers are putting a greater emphasis on gathering and analyzing audience data so they can serve well-qualified leads to advertisers. For example, Conde Nast is enabling advertisers to market against audience content engagement analytics, incorporate their own first-party data, and build lookalike audiences through Conde Nast’s Spire data management platform.

• Finding Growth in Niches: 2018 Book Biz Mergers and Acquisitions

In a year of mostly niche acquisitions in publishing, the biggest deal involved yet another example of consolidation in the printing industry: Quad/Graphics’s all-stock offer to buy LSC Communications. The purchase, valued at $1.4 billion, will unite the country’s two largest book printers and is expected to close in mid-2019.

• Why online retail has to drop its addiction tactics

I stopped wearing my Apple Watch a few months back. The notifications had become overwhelming, and I just needed a break from the constant pull for my attention.

• Magazines Power Shop for E-Commerce Revenue This Holiday Season

Last year’s predictable flow of holiday gift guides and affiliate links from major media brands has become a downright tsunami of deal brokering in the weeks before and after Black Friday.

• 6 Tools for Reader Connection (and Revenue)

Niche magazine publishers have a built-in advantage over publishers of mass-appeal magazines: Their readers aren’t just mildly interested in the content they offer. They’re passionate!

• Google and publishers edge closer to reaching common ground for GDPR standards

Google and publishers have made progress on discussions around some of the blockages to the adoption of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation framework, sources close to the situation have claimed.

• Publishing industry trends that will shape our future, from FIPP Insider London

From titles changing hands at accelerating speed as media companies race to consolidate and capture larger audiences within their focus markets, innovating to adapt to the demands of new platforms and diving into AI – these were some of the major publishing industry trends identified by James Hewes, president and CEO of FIPP at the FIPP Insider event in London yesterday.

• Why publishers shouldn’t skimp on market research

A good idea for a magazine cannot make a successful transition from concept to publication without in-depth research. Mary Hogarth reveals the value of investing in market research.

• How Publishers Are Venturing into Subscription Video on Demand (AKA OTT)

Over the past decade, video has become a standard component of the content mix for media brands. Most publishers have ramped up their video-making and monetization capabilities, increasing quality and volume of in-house video production and hosting them on their own sites and distributing on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and many more.

• Publishers muscle in on ad agency turf: Condé Nast unveils its Creative Studio Network

Mired in losses (Condé Nast Publications lost $120 million in 2017 whilst Condé Nast International lost $50 million in its last reported figures for 2016), Condé Nast has experienced another ‘annus horribilis‘ with the announcement of the departure of its CEO Bob Sauerberg.

• 6 Phrases that Sum Up 2018 in Publishing

What a crazy, up-and-down year this has been in publishing!

• Tighter Budgets and Relegated Roles Can’t Hold Down Smart Editors

NEW YORK – The Grand Ballroom of The Yale Club in Manhattan was packed with some of magazine media’s brightest minds on Thursday to celebrate Folio:’s list of the top 100 innovators, entrepreneurial thinkers, and industry-disruptors from over the past year.

• Digital-native publishers settle in to face legacy constraints, with a side of reader revenue

“It was around this time last year that things were starting to look a little dicey for the media industry’s once breathlessly-hyped digital unicorns,” Joe Pompeo wrote for Vanity Fair this week.

• Viral publisher First Media joins Snapchat with repurposed Facebook video

First Media — the millennial women-focused publisher behind brands like Blossom, So Yummy and Blusher — has finally made the leap to Snapchat. But its strategy is unlike that of Snapchat Discover publishers of years past.

• MediaPitch: Naytev Is Helping Publishers Automate & Optimize Social Content

Consumers today have more choice in how, where, and when they access content than ever before.

• The battle for ad revenues: Could a publishers’ combine take on the duopoly?

Digital media firms are struggling, many have missed their revenue targets, reduced their workforces and have been trying to generate revenue from e-commerce.

• Successful Memberships: What Publishers Can Learn from Others

For our industry to thrive, we need to diversify our revenue. We have to reduce our reliance on advertising and look for ways to generate reader revenue. And in 2018, there’s no better model than the membership program.

• Tighter Budgets and Relegated Roles Can’t Hold Down Smart Editors

A couple of months ago, out of the blue, I received a large FedEx carton filled with recent issues of W, the fashion and culture magazine owned by Condé Nast. They were accompanied by a handwritten note from Stefano Tonchi, the book’s celebrated editor-in-chief.

• Post-print, Nylon looks for its digital footing

In the year after Nylon Magazine shuttered print and laid off its 12-person print staff, the online-only magazine is trying to figure out new strategies for jump-starting audience growth and engagement online, from new tactics on who it features on its digital covers to relying more heavily on influencer marketing.

• 70% UK publishers look at video content as top priority for 2019

Videos have a compelling way of stimulating engagement, yielding results like click-throughs, shares, lead generation, and sales. Video content is among the more effective tactics for getting exposure to a brand, as well as generating revenue.

• How is Scan-Based Trading Working Out for You?

Scan-based trading (SBT)—wherein the wholesaler is paid only for copies that go through the register, and unsold inventory is not recorded as either sold or returned—has been implemented in an estimated 70% of U.S.

• 3 years to a million paying supporters: Guardian’s alternative model of growth without paywalls

With revenues from print circulation and advertising in steep decline, and the duopoly gobbling up most of what comes from digital advertising, news outlets are increasingly being forced to go behind a paywall to sustain themselves.

• Selling Native Advertising? Here’s What You Should Know

Recently, MediaRadar published a trend report about native advertising. Every day, we see custom content weaving its way into just about every form of consumable content. Native continues to be one of the most popular methods in which advertisers can engage with their audiences digitally.

• Facebook donates millions to fund 80 local newspaper jobs in the UK

As part of Facebook’s ongoing Journalism Project, which launched in 2017, the social network is donating £4.5 million ($6 million) to fund 80 local newspaper jobs in the U.K. over the next two years.

• Is it finally time for media companies to adopt a common publishing platform?

Media companies are each independently trying to solve the same technical problems, rather than focusing on competing with Facebook. Is the usual answer to “buy or build?” changing?

• Glamour to Cease Publishing Regular Print Mag in Condé Nast’s Latest Digital Shift

After nearly 80 years, the monthly print edition of Condé Nast’s Glamour women’s magazine is ending. Glamour’s last regularly published print edition, the January 2019 issue, is scheduled to hit newsstands next week, the company announced Tuesday.

• “Giant sneaking in the back door”: Publishers may have reasons to celebrate as Amazon challenges the duopoly

In September 2018, eMarketer reported that Amazon had become the third largest ad seller in the United States. The firm expects Amazon’s ad revenue to grow by more than 50% per year through at least 2020. The duopoly’s share is expected to reduce from 57.7% in 2018 to 55.9% in 2020, while Amazon’s is expected to increase from 4.1% to 7.0%.