Google plan to restrict publisher sharing of reader data | Why Politico is embracing the AI bots
And veteran media consultant Jim Chisholm says it is not too late for publishers to take back control of the content value chain from the tech platfornms
Welcome to this week’s Future of Media newsletter from Press Gazette on Thursday 1 February 2024.
Google’s global ad revenue grew 11% to $66bn in the last quarter of 2023 while online ad revenue for many news publishers declined at a similar rate.
Much of Google’s growth was due to its video revenue (via Youtube) rising by 20% to $9bn.
But many would argue that Google rises as publishers fall because of its monopoly control over search and the user data it retains as a result. Publishers fear this advertising dominance will only increase when it takes control of the reader data which underpins publisher advertising on the open web with the great cookie switch-off you’ve heard so much about.
Jim Edwards has taken a look under the hood of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, the in-house system which will take control of publishers’ reader data, and he has found much to be alarmed about. Specifically, by limiting publishers to following readers across a maximum of five websites there are fears Sandbox will further limit the news industry’s ability to compete with tech platforms like Google and Facebook which track readers over almost the entire internet.
Still on this theme, veteran media consultant Jim Chisholm says it is not too late for publishers to save journalism by taking back control of the content value chain (wresting it away from the tech platforms).
And, on a different note, we have an interview with Politico design chief Max Leroy. He talks us through a decluttered redesign of the publishers’ European website editions and explains why they are embracing, rather than blocking, the crawling of the site by generative AI large language models like ChatGPT.
Sponsored message: Our commercial partners at Affino (the complete publishing platform) believe generative AI is the biggest change to publishing since the birth of the internet. Founder Markus Karlsson argues here that AI, as well as being a huge threat, could be the technology which fixes online publishing.
New from Press Gazette
Google plans to limit ad data sharing to just five websites per publisher
“The impact will be felt on some of these really big publishers that made their move over the years into programmatic, reliant on scale, and going global, who are no longer able to fully control the action around them in the way that they used to.”
Politico embraces generative AI web crawlers with website redesigns
Politico product and design chief Max Leroy explains thinking behind new website designs.
Comment: Why publishers need to wrest back control of content value chain
“There are many ways that publishers can take back control of their audiences, improve direct relationships and claw back the elements of the advertising value chain that have been lost to the intermediaries.”
Our latest podcast
Podcast 64: Why Reach is upbeat about online ads despite the big cookie switch-off
Reach group director of digital Terry Hornsby is at the forefront of the journey away from third-party cookies at the UK’s largest commercial news publisher.
Hornsby told Press Gazette the three pillars that will help Reach grow digital revenues through this monumental shift to the open web, discussed why trusted premium publishers will come out on top and issued a call for more industry collaboration.
Must-reads this week from Press Gazette you might have missed
Sport journalists cut at Record, Scotsman and Scottish Daily Mail
Top 50 UK news websites: Sun extends lead over Mail Online in December
News media job cuts 2024 tracked: Year starts with at least 650 redundancies
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it
Global news industry trends for 2024: Publishers optimistic on new revenue streams
Youtube drives increase in paying readers as Novara Media nears 15,000 donors
How online publishers can turn video into a top revenue earner