A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

Small Price To Pay: Will Twitter’s Micropayments Plan Help Publishers?

The Magazine Manager Blog has previously written about micropayments as just one of the many options publishers could pursue as part of a balanced alternative-revenue-stream diet. Want to attract the occasional reader who might not purchase a full subscription? Give them a per-article option! Now, Elon Musk’s most recent idea-thrown-against-the-wall to offer publishers a micropayment option may actually have some stick to it, particularly if it is able to accomplish what he hopes is a “win-win for both media orgs & the public.”

 

Navigating Print Frequency Reduction Effectively

With costs rising, many publications are looking for ways to cut down on expenses in order to increase ROI. One such strategy for decreasing expenditure might be a reduction in print frequency, but publications must consider the effects of such a change on their brand and audience.

 

AI Confidential: The Hurdles To Using The Technology for Personalization

Everyone likes personalization, both brands and customers. But there are issues on both sides, judging by The State of Personalization 2023, a global study by Twilio Segment. Of the businesses polled, 92% are using AI-driven personalization despite a host of challenges.

 

How Advertising Strategies and Sentiments are Evolving

Since 2020, the digital advertising industry has prioritized the phasing out of tools and methods that don’t mesh with the paradigm shift toward consumer privacy. The game is changing fast, and publishers and advertisers have had to adapt quickly or risk being left behind. But what solutions are taking shape, and how are they affecting the present and future of doing business online?

The Great Recruitment: How To Hire Great Ad Sales Reps in 2023

Heading into 2023, the forecast was pointing to further global ad spend growth, albeit at a slightly slower rate of change. Growth is good news no matter what year it is. But coming out of the last few years and following so many changes in the workplace, including what many were calling The Great Resignation, perhaps there’s no better time to embark on what I’d like to call The Great Recruitment — an opportunity to bring great, available talent together with 2023’s promising opportunity for the good of your publication.

 

More Publishers Adopt 4-Week Subscription Billing Cycles

A growing number of publishers are using 4-week billing cycles instead of calendar months in order to extract additional revenue from their subscriber bases. Four-week (or 28-day) billing cycles enable publishers to charge subscribers 13 times per year instead of 12, which equates to 8% additional revenue on an annualized basis. It’s an approach currently being used by major news publishers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

 

B2B Budget Freeze-Up: Few Brands Have Greatly Increased Their Marketing Spend

B2B marketing budgets have gone up at least slightly in 2023. But there have been cutbacks in several areas, including personnel, and 66% of marketers are suffering from burnout, according to The State of B2B Marketing Budgets, a study by Integrate. Only 11% of U.S respondents are significantly expanding their budgets over those of 2022. Another 34% say they are slightly higher.  

 

Consumer Trends Report: Consumers are Using SMS and Push and They Demand Personalization

Among the core findings were that more than 40% of consumers say they are willing to share personal data with brands in exchange for better personalization.

Publishers Earning Revenue with Programmatic Ads, Focusing on Further Growth

More than one-third (38%) of the publishing professionals surveyed said they make a “large” or “very large” portion of their revenue from programmatic ads. In fact, 85% of respondents said programmatic makes up at least a “very small” portion as of Q1 2023, up from 78% just six months ago.

 

News Publishers’ Twitter Ad Spend Down 83%, Study Finds

New findings from advertising intelligence platform MediaRadar reveal an alarming 83% year-over-year decrease in news publishers’ Twitter ad spend from January 1, 2022 through February 28, 2023. Since Twitter CEO Elon Musk bought the microblogging platform in October 2022, he has drastically transformed Twitter’s overall relationship with journalists and major news outlets from amicable to unpredictable and unhinged. 

 

AI Spending Will Jump To $154 Billion Worldwide In 2023

Global spending on AI-centric systems — including the software, hardware, and services for these systems — will increase 27% this year to reach $154 billion, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

 

Is Data Helping — Or Hurting?

The number of decisions we make every day is multiplying. In theory, data should be able to help us, but when we are receiving more data from more sources than ever before, it can be overwhelming. To examine the role data plays in our personal and professional decisions and what that means for current approaches to data management and analysis, Oracle partnered with New York Times bestselling author, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, to survey more than 14,000 employees and business leaders across 17 countries.

From Nest To Notes: Will Substack Notes Inspire Twitter Users To Fly The Coop?

Even as Twitter continues its very-public tailspin, it’s been a tough habit to break for many users, particularly those in the media industry. Enter Notes, Substack’s foray into socializing within the platform, where writers can not only share posts, but also comment, add recommendations, share images and links, and more. 

 

“Subscription Acquisition Rates Still Rising”: Key Findings from Zuora’s SEI Report

Zuora, the subscription monetisation platform, has released its latest Subscription Economy Index (SEI) report which finds that subscription-based companies continue to grow through a combination of acquiring new customers, retaining existing ones and expanding revenue with add-ons and packages.

 

Marketing Analytics, Data Infrastructure Spend To Reach $32B By 2026

Lack of reliance on data-driven decisions is the biggest challenge for 29% of the U.S. marketers participating in a study by the Winterberry Group Research, versus lack of centralized data and analytics function across the organization for the 31% of marketers in Europe. 

 

Consumers Want Generative AI Next for Recipes, Roadside Assistance

Shadowing this month’s headlines of AI chatbots gone rogue is a small but growing question mark: Where will artificial intelligence go next? Brands looking to incorporate AI-powered or -assisted products or services into their business will have to first address consumers’ high levels of distrust and concern with AI. But there’s already a healthy amount of appetite for AI products and services — even for the ones that haven’t quite gone mainstream.

How Publishers Publish: The Best Magazine Software In The Industry

When it comes to magazine media and digital publications, reliable software tools are a necessity. From publishing CRM and magazine design, to circulation and subscription management, this ultimate guide to magazine software is an overview of the most popular software tools in the publishing industry.

 

Facebook Report Disparages News: ‘Small and Diminishing Role’ For Publisher Content

A report commissioned by Meta about Facebook’s relationship with news providers argued the platform is not a “must-have” one for publishers. The report claimed links to news stories account for less than 3% of what Facebook users around the world see in their feeds and that publishers’ content therefore “plays an economically small and diminishing role” on the platform.

 

Time Spent With Media Continues To Grow, Even As Ad-Supported Media’s Share Erodes

The good news is the time consumers spend using media continues to grow in both the U.S. and worldwide. The bad news, according to the latest edition of an annual forecast released by PQ Media, is the share of time they are spending with ad-supported media continues to decline.

 

Personalization Pulse Check 2023

A new survey of 2,000 consumers in North America reveals that 41% would like to hear from brands weekly — and 32% say they will shop elsewhere if brands send them irrelevant messages.

• New Report: “Causes For Optimism” In 2022-23 World Press Trends Outlook

This year’s World Press Trends Outlook was recently released, and amid continued and ever-arising challenges in the publishing industry that What’s New In Publishing says “makes for a sobering read,” WAN-IFRA’s report offers some optimism, particularly as “revenue diversification progresses and publishers double down on new revenue sources and editorial products.”

 

• Ted Cruz, Elizabeth Warren, and More Unlikely Senators Propose Bill to Break Up Google and Meta

A powerful and bizarre coalition of Senators have teamed up on a bill that could strike down the digital ad dominance of Google and Meta, though the proposed legislation never mentions those companies by name. The AMERICA Act could radically transform advertising technology, the financial backbone of the internet.

 

• Email Leads In Usage, Acquisition Gets The Biggest Boost This Year: Study

Email marketing is the most-used ecommerce marketing channel, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to The Ecommerce Marketing Mix Report, a study by Klaviyo. Of SMBs polled, 76.51% use email, as do 72.73% of mid-market businesses.

 

• Dentsu Consumer Navigator: Generative AI 2023

Tech companies are racing to develop and deploy their own suite of generative AI-powered tools. But as tech fawns over the applications of generative AI, how are consumers responding? Our latest survey explores the excitement and apprehension of widespread AI adoption by consumers and the potential for it to be used by big brands.

• California Bill Would Require Facebook, Google To Pay “Journalism Usage Fee”

Back in December, after the sudden dropping of a bipartisan bill that would have allowed media organizations to jointly negotiate revenue-sharing agreements with Big Tech companies, there was uncertainty about what the media’s next move would be in this ongoing struggle for fair compensation for the content they create. Last week, a California State Assemblymember took that next step, introducing the California Journalism Preservation Act, which would require platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay a “journalism usage fee” to news publishers in order to use local-based content. 

• The State of Relevant Search and Where It’s Going

Here’s a hard truth: if your search solution isn’t turning around relevant results, it’s hurting you more than it’s helping you. Delivering relevant search is a layered challenge that requires a combination of numerous tools and technologies. 

• AI Startup Finds Ads Have Just 920 Milliseconds To Hook You

Fractal Analytics, a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) for companies like Pepsi, P&G and Visa, has announced a new framework that uses neuroscience to study how people make purchasing decisions based on ads — offering a solution for ecommerce brands to increase their conversion rates. Fractal says the click-through rate (CTR) of banner ads is at an all-time low, and the company believes it is crucial to understand the thought processes behind consumer engagement with digital stimuli.

• [Report] State of Social Conversational Commerce 2023

People today do everything on their phones. They want to engage with brands on social media in more personalized ways. That’s why conversational commerce on social is quickly becoming a major strategic marketing investment for brands.

• Fountain of Youth: Majority of Young Americans Paying For Their News

Who says young people aren’t paying for news? According to a new report from the American Press Institute, 60% of Americans under the age of 40 are paying for or donating to news in some capacity, including 51% of Gen Z (ages 16-24), 63% of younger Millennials (25-31), and 67% of older Millennials (32-40).

• How Can Publishers Sell More Online Subscriptions? Lower The Price, Survey Says

Cost is the most important factor when consumers are deciding when they are more or less likely to pay for an online subscription, according to new research shared exclusively with Press Gazette. Over a third (39%) of Britons and 42% of Americans reported being tempted by a lower paywall price.

• Research: News Companies Are Overly Reliant On Conversions As A Metric

There are many buzzwords flying around in the digital subscriptions industry. “Conversions” is a particularly common one. But do conversions automatically equal more revenue? No, not really, according to Alexander Kreybig, director of strategic services at Piano. 

• Personalization, Relevancy & the Rise of AI

With 74% of customers feeling frustrated when website content isn’t customized, it’s clear that personalization is a crucial aspect of digital publishing that can’t be overlooked.  With today’s generations expecting relevant content from their experiences, it’s down to publishers to employ personalization tactics that increase engagement and drive business success.

• News Feed: Following the Money in Meta’s Journalism Investments

With so much made of Google and Meta’s stranglehold on digital advertising spend nowadays, anyone who isn’t a media professional or lawmaker could be forgiven for momentarily forgetting about what might be considered the duopoly’s original sin in their relationship with the publishing industry.

• Over Half Of Media Workers Fear AI Will Take Their Jobs: Study

Media workers fear that AI could replace them, according to a study by FreelanceWritingJobs.com. Of the media employees polled, 52% worry that AI will make their profession redundant. In contrast, 35% of all Americans have the same concern. 

• Global Advertising & Marketing Spending Forecast 2023-2027

PQ Media’s unrivaled coverage of the global media economy provides you with media spending and growth pacing for 2023 and our expert insights and forecasts for what’s ahead in 2024-2027, including in-depth coverage of both the advertising and marketing sectors; 15 hybrid traditional & digital media silos; 10 overall digital & alternative media platforms; 45 digital & alternative media channels therein; and 11 traditional media platforms.

• The 2023 State of Pipeline Generation

In a perfect marketing world, we would know exactly what levers we have to pull to drive growth. In reality, many of us are still having a hard time coming up with the perfect marketing mix required to hit our targets while keeping acquisition costs low.

• Publishing in the AI Era: Where Is AI-Generated Content Preferred?

I’ve written about ChatGPT on the Magazine Manager blog before, specifically on how it compares to and might ultimately surpass Google in terms of Search. Now, a new survey asked American adults how they feel about AI-generated content, and across a wide spectrum of media, more than half of the respondents prefer their content made by humans.

• 58% of Enterprise Marketers Plan To Use AI For SEO, Study Finds

There has been much discussion around search engine optimization (SEO) professionals creating content from ChatGPT-type models, but who is planning to use this? Some 58% of enterprise marketers plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) for SEO and to create content in 2023, but only 10% actively use it today to drive content generation, according to data from BrightEdge.

• New Vericast Survey Highlights Advertising Paradox

A recent consumer survey by Vericast validated a paradox about personal data that puts marketers in a tough spot. When it comes to digital advertising, consumers want a custom experience – but not at the expense of privacy. The survey found that consumers want to see targeted ads, but they also want to understand how advertisers use the information they collect. 

• 70% of Publishers See Newsletters As An Area For Investment in 2023

Newsletters are having a moment: this year’s Reuters Institute Predictions report showed that almost 70% of publishers saw newsletters as an area for investment. According to WAN-IFRA, 50% of publishers already offer between one and five newsletters, with the other 50% offering more. For publishers looking to expand their lineup, Twipe’s Matthew Lynes has three suggestions for additional newsletter formats.