How publishers should respond to two huge Google changes happening this year
Google SGE and Privacy Sandbox present two seismic shifts in the publishing landscape. But Reach's digital chief says he is ready for cookie switch-off
Welcome to this week’s Future of Media newsletter from Press Gazette on Thursday, 25 February 2024.
Google makes around five times as much in UK advertising revenue (£10bn a year give or take) as every newspaper and magazine (print and online) in the country combined.
In the space of around 20 years the news industry (in its broadest sense) has gone from the dominant force in UK advertising to a plucky underdog.
This is a situation that many fear will accelerate this year for two reasons: the introduction of Google Search Generative Experience (which threatens to answer reader questions directly rather than directing them to online sources) and the replacement of third-party publisher cookies on Chrome with Google’s in-house Privacy Sandbox.
The introduction of SGE, and its equivalents on other platforms, is a potential “extinction-level event” for many publishers according to US publishing consultant Matthew Scott Goldstein. He has explained how he thinks publishers should respond to generative AI-driven search here.
On the subject of the great cookie switch-off, James Rosewell of the Movement for an Open Web explains why he thinks publishers should fear the Sandbox and what they can do to stop it being introduced.
Meanwhile, the UK’s biggest online news publisher Reach is focusing on what it can change rather than on the actions of Google and regulators. Digital director Terry Hornsby explained why the three pillars of the Reach advertising strategy - first-party data, contextual advertising and industry IDs - mean he is feeling upbeat about 2024.
New from Press Gazette
Reach reveals ‘three pillars’ that prepare it for end of third-party cookies
Reach’s group director of digital is “upbeat” about the publisher’s advertising strategy for the year ahead despite the phasing out of third-party cookies and what some are calling an addressability crisis.
Comment: Why news publishers should fight to stop rollout of Google Privacy Sandbox
“It would seem counterintuitive for Google to be allowed to enact a massive land grab just before it is broken up on competition grounds so there is also potential for regulators to prevent its rollout until they have made their decisions.”
Comment: Publishers must ditch Google search addiction or die
“Google’s decision to halt traffic to publishers will be a pivotal blow, potentially propelling the industry into a downturn.”
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
Huffpost UK increases payment terms to 60 days amid ‘cash flow’ issues
Publishers mull ‘consent or pay’ in response to ‘reject all’ cookies button policy
Top 50 news websites in the US in December: USA Today remains fastest-growing top ten site
Yalda Hakim says Sky News are ‘insurgents’ as she leads primetime hour of foreign coverage