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The must-read publishing stories you may have missed this week
Less is more
This week, The Fix have published a great piece looking at five lessons we can learn from indie publishers on better serving audiences.
One point particularly stood out for us: less is more. It’s a trend we’re noticing in Europe, with some publishers saying that they are beginning to cut their output, especially of non-unique content.
The results are consistent across publishers. Everyone is reporting higher time spent, more pageviews, and increased overall satisfaction based on the key metrics.
“This is kind of back to roots thinking for bigger publishers that relied on ad-driven revenue from pageviews, when more content meant more pageviews,” writes David Tvrdon. But as reader satisfaction grows in importance as a metric, so too does the notion of quality over quantity.
User adoption of Acceptable Ads is growing fast. It reached 218M users in 2020, with 435% growth on mobile over the last two years. The rising acceptance of Acceptable Ads is important as they can be a powerful solution to the adblock problem.
Publisher insights from Piano’s Performance Benchmark Report
The data presented in the report is collated from thousands of websites and billions of visitors and will be useful for publishers looking to launch or optimize a subscription business.
5 lessons from indie publishers on better serving audiences
The rise and professionalization of independent publishers brings useful insights for news publications in general.
Pandemic sees digital consumption rise 30%+, forming lasting consumer habits
WARC Data’s latest report finds that Amazon, TikTok, YouTube and Twitch are some of the main winners as brands pivot to reach the COVID consumer.
The long game vs. the short gain: Everyday struggle at newsrooms
How much time should your newsroom spend on creating lasting value and how much on peak news events? The answer is less straightforward than this author thought.
How Philly and Boston Magazines pivoted to a reader revenue model
The publications, which both have small editorial teams, had been selling ad revenue and offering several newsletters between them, but not directly asking users to pay for content.
Bullet Comments: The cross-cultural trend publishers need to know
Bullet comments provide a shift in the viewing experience because they allow viewers to become both the consumers of the video content and editors of the content simultaneously.
Why there is still scope for monetization after opt-outs
By looking beyond dominant industry players and harnessing independent solutions, publishers can still maximize yield, even after opt-opts.
“Next golden age of publishing”: A candid conversation with Bo Sacks and the MCMA
“We are in the solution business,” Bo said, and challenged the attendees to think about what the solution is that their publication provides. “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole, “he said.
‘Content with Zero Ads’ is Twitter’s new approach to push subscriptions
The company is pinning its hopes on Scroll, a tool that “cleans” up article pages, by ridding them of pop-up ads and other “clutter”.
See the rest of this week’s stories at whatsnewinpublishing.com