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Axios CEO considers AI and the future of media

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-31

The co-founder and CEO of leading digital news publisher Axios, Jim VandeHei, has written a column outlining the thinking around AI that is informing the decisions the company is currently making. He said AI will transform the future of media on a scale a...

ArticleAdvertising

Five advertising trends that are changing media buying

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-26

Writing on the International News Media Association’s Advertising Initiative Blog, Mark Challinor says the way advertisers buy media has changed. Challinor, INMA’s advertising initiative lead, acknowledges that, post COVID, advertising predictions are rea...

ArticleAudience Development

The power of audience and community in digital publishing

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-24

Writing recently on her blog, former LA Times audience engagement editor Adrianna Lacy highlights two of the central concepts in effective digital publishing strategy. She says, whether you are a publisher looking to expand revenue through increased reach...

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Will Google turn digital publishing upside down with AI search?

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-22

Google announced a raft of releases at its I/O 23 developer conference, mid May. From changes to its Maps functionality to a new ‘Magic’ photo editor and composer, the tech giant unveiled a host of AI-driven features designed to improve customer experienc...

ArticleAudience Development

The best times to post to social platforms in 2023

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-17

The annual analysis of the best times to post to the major social platforms has been released by social media management firm Sprout Social. The report is based on a year’s worth of engagement data from Sprout’s 34k+ users. This year, for the first time, ...

ArticleAudience Development

Publishers are starting to see Reddit as an opportunity

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-12

Clocking up more than 1.6 billion monthly visits from 430 million monthly active users across more than 100,000 communities, Reddit offers a significant audience development opportunity for publishers. And a recent article in What’s New In Publishing says...

ArticleAudience Development

Facebook referral traffic to publishers has ‘plummeted’

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-10

Press Gazette is reporting that Facebook referral traffic has ‘plummeted’ on the back of Meta’s continued turn away from the news industry. The scale of the fall is highlighted by data shared with the industry title by publisher analytics firm Chartbeat a...

ArticleContent

Advice from IFJ 2023 on building a future-proof editorial operation

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-05

At the 2023 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, thousands of journalists discussed everything from democracy to audience engagement. They also honed in on the future of journalism and The Fix has drawn up a list of five focuses for publis...

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Publishing leaders should focus on the strategic impact of generative AI

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-03

The rising hype around generative AI technologies since the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT has been staggering. The publicity surrounding a range of AI applications has swung from awe to horror as people wonder just what the future for the technology mig...

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Senior editor says the notion of peak subscriptions is ‘laughable’

Spiny Trends / 2023-05-02

The idea that publishers have reached peak subscriptions is not new. We wrote about it on Spiny Trends more than a year ago. Reports of slowing growth and subscription fatigue continue, but at least one senior editor thinks that the idea that we have reac...

ArticleAdvertising

Using attention metrics to create personalized advertising

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-26

The dominance of mass-market advertising may be coming to an end as one-size-fits-all advertising isn’t as effective as it used to be. The fragmentation of digital audiences across a growing number of platforms has placed an increasing emphasis on persona...

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Publishers using generative AI to support SEO efforts

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-21

Generative AI chatbots like Microsoft’s OpenAI or Google’s Bard have been portrayed as a threat to publishers’ established search traffic. The worry is that the chatbots will answer search queries without referring people to the sites that host the conten...

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Newsletter publishers are diversifying beyond the inbox

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-19

Newsletters have become an important entry point for media startups. However, a single channel is probably not enough for publishing success and Digiday has been speaking to a collection of newsletter publishers that are planning to expand beyond the inbo...

ArticleData

How publishers can learn from mistakes

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-18

The one sure thing in digital publishing is that change comes fast, especially around customer behavior. To remain successful, publishers must adapt quickly, even if that sometimes means getting things wrong. Swedish newspaper group NTM recently shared ‘f...

ArticleAudience Development

Meeting reader needs drives engaging audience experiences

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-14

Over recent years, there have been many studies done around reader needs, each trying to help publishers define the engagement drivers that will bring audiences back to their content. From Belgium-based Mediahuis to the UK’s BBC, content producers have re...

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Google’s March 2023 core update causes search volatlity

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-06

Google’s March 2023 core update, rolled out over 13 days between March 15th and March 28th, appears to have been significant, resulting in ‘notable ranking fluctuations’ in Google Search results. Writing on Search Engine Land, Barry Schwarz said: This up...

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What is the real value of Facebook to publishers?

Spiny Trends / 2023-04-05

A report commissioned by Meta about Facebook’s relationship with news providers said that publishers’ content “plays an economically small and diminishing role” on the platform. It reported that news links account for less than 3% of posts people see in t...

ArticleContent

Newsletters and podcasts seen as complementary for publishers

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-31

There are many similarities between newsletters and podcasts, not least they share the same low cost of entry; all a publisher needs is a phone or a computer. Peter Kafka, writing on Vox, put it like this: “Newsletters, it turns out, are just like blogs a...

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Google Trends portal refreshed for 2023

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-31

Google has given its Google Trends website a facelift. As well as a fresh new look, the update introduces almost real-time trends, updated every hour on the homepage with links directly to related news articles. The site shows what is trending across Goog...

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Search giants release next-generation AI tools

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-24

The hype around generative AI seems to have lasted forever and frantic release schedules will see it continue for some time. Mid-March saw the release of next-generation AI tools from three of the world’s biggest search players, Google, Microsoft and Chin...

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New report benchmarks social media reach

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-22

Social media usage is higher than ever, but publishers might not be making as much of the opportunity to reach their audiences as their competitors. A new report from publishing automation firm Echobox spotlights benchmarking data from some of the biggest...

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How SEO automation can save publishers time and money

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-20

SEO can be a repetitive business, with the same tasks coming up again and again and again. SEO automation of routine work that is currently performed manually can save publishers’ resources that could be better spent improving overall strategy and impleme...

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Shifts in the programmatic market could benefit publishers

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-15

The programmatic market could be moving from an open marketplace model, where everyone transacts with one another, to a more controlled, curated, environment. Curated marketplaces are seen as opening up ‘premium’ opportunities for publishers and advertise...

ArticleAdvertising

Six digital advertising trends gaining momentum in 2023

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-09

When it comes to creating and supporting effective advertising strategies, publishers need to be proactive in taking on the new technologies driving digital advertising trends. Writing for INMA, the association’s advertising initiative lead Mark Challinor...

ArticleData

Norwegian DPA joins stance against Google Analytics

Spiny Trends / 2023-03-08

In a privacy complaint against Google Analytics, Datatilsynet, the Norwegian DPA (data protection authority), has reached the preliminary conclusion that “the use of Google Analytics was in violation of the GDPR's transfer rules.” Norway joins a...