The Media Minute 2.8.23

If there was a Venn diagram showing people looking for a solid news aggregator in one circle, people looking for a social media alternative in another circle, and people looking for an entry-level experience into what AI learning is capable of in a third circle, the ensuing, massive intersection would be the all-too-timely bullseye that the founders of Artifact are hoping to hit.

Google plans to bring AI-like features to search similar to the large language-model technology in ChatGPT, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s Q4 2022 earnings call Thursday.

“In the coming weeks and months, we’ll make these language models available, starting with LaMDA, so that people can engage directly with them,” Pichai said.

With publishers reporting that Q1 advertising revenue is tracking 10% to 25% down from forecasts and with RPMs (revenue earned per 1,000 pageviews) from open marketplace programmatic ads down even further — between 20% and 55% year over year — finding silver linings is more important than ever. And based on four publishers’ experiences so far this quarter, it looks like events might be that small saving grace.

You can get a subscription for almost anything these days, from movies and music to software and socks. On his German-language podcast Subscribe Now, Lennart Schneider talks to decision-makers from a variety of industries about their experiences and challenges in the subscription space. Formerly at German weekly Die Ziet, Schneider recently wrote about the key subscription insights that he thinks publishers can transfer to their own reader revenue strategies.

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