Google Offerwall explained | How Business Post supercharged subscriptions growth
And good news for publishers from the UK Information Commissioner which is looking to ease up rules around the delivery of personalised online advertising
Welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 8 July, brought by JobsInAdtech.
Google appears to have offered an olive branch of sorts to publishers in the form of new advertising and payments platforms.
Offerwall was incorporated into Google Ad Manager on 26 June and enables publishers to try out new monetisation options. These include: micropayments to read particular articles, an advertising wall (whereby readers must watch a video ad in order to unlock free article access) and surveys or customised offers.
Given that (in the best-case scenario) only 10% of news website visitors are going to become subscribers, finding a way to make money out of the other 90% is sensible.
Whether Google’s efforts to help publishers make money outweighs the impact on traffic of AI Overviews and AI Mode remains to be seen. Given Google has a huge vested interest in keeping quality content alive on the open web so that it has stuff to index, summarise and aggregate, you would hope it is invested in making Offerwall work.
Here, Richard Headland explains in detail everything publishers need to know about Google Offerwall.
Today we also find out how Ireland's Business Post has turned things around over the last five years (and in particular the last two) by going all out for online subscriptions.
The Sunday title gone from 3,000 to 12,000 paying online subs in the space of two years and is targeting 40,000.
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On Press Gazette
Google Offerwall explained: Easy way for publishers to test pay-as-you-go and ad-gated access
While individual elements of Offerwall have been available to publishers for some time via other means, having them bundled into one tool does give more scope for head-to-head testing of monetisation options.
Business Post: From ‘shocking’ engagement to 12,000 subscribers
“We’ve done the fundamental shift in terms of the change of workflows, but now it’s really about finessing and advancing the quality and the depth of our coverage.”
News in brief
The Information Commissioner’s Office is looking at letting publishers deliver online advertising to users who have not granted consent "where there is a low risk to their privacy, ie if they "don’t involve the scale and granularity of processing often undertaken with behavioural advertising". (ICO)
The Logic's CEO and editor-in-chief David Skok writes he is "consistently hearing about the steep traffic declines” other publishers are “already experiencing, particularly over the past quarter" and urges more transparent sourcing in AI answers as a minimum step to protect journalism. (The Logic)
News agencies and publishers opposed restrictions put on photos taken at the first night of the Oasis reunion tour saying they can use shots for one year and then rights will revert to the band and management. Initial terms reportedly gave rights for just one month. (The Guardian)
Deputy editor of BBC Newsbeat Julian Vaccari has been appointed editor of Question Time, starting in August. Current Question Time editor Gerry Gay is returning to BBC Scotland News as editor of daily journalism. (BBC)
Also on Press Gazette
How Google AI Overviews is fuelling zero-click searches for top publishers
Radio News Hub: From Huddersfield basement to global success in ten years
Urgent bid lodged with UK regulator to stop Google AI Overviews ‘stealing journalism’
Where do UK ‘decision makers’ get their news? Publishers, social media and AI
President of Canada’s Bell Media says FAST news channel growing quickly
Harvard Business Review ‘bets big’ on $700 a year subscription tier
UK and US publishers back move to block AI scrapers by default
Top UK online publishers: X plummets, Reddit surges, news publishers ranked
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Latest podcast: On the front line of the reality wars with Rob Waugh
Fictional experts and non-existent case studies are conning their way into UK news media with the help dodgy PR companies. It's a lucrative business providing search engine juice to gambling sites and dubious online retailers. And it won't stop until publishers raise their game in terms of verifying the sources they quote, warns reporter Rob Waugh.