Articles by: "Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN"

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of February 24, 2022

February 24, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The Wall Street Journal | Inside Facebook’s $10 Billion Breakup With Advertisers (10 min read)
Report for America | Report for America spotlights important new trend – creation of ‘Community News Funds’ (3 min read)
Axios | Digital giants eye magazines to spur growth (4 min read)
The New York Times | Why Podcasts Are Becoming Netflix (4 min read)
Digiday | Why news publishers are using non-news content to hook readers and turn them into subscribers (5 min read)
The Guardian | TechScape: how Spotify may have just quietly changed podcasts forever (8 min read)
The New York Times | Why Apple’s Fight in the Netherlands Matters (4 min read)
Reuters | Two U.S. Big Tech antitrust bills backed by publisher trade group (2 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of February 17, 2022

Industry-Research

Digital media behaviors between older and younger generations converge

February 21, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Some differences between generations seem irrefutable while others seem little more than the function of age and maturity. Without doubt, we have observed the many impacts of digital transformation on Millennials and Gen Z. Yet, while the rise of digital ubiquity is certainly one of the most profound impacts on culture (and certainly media usage), we also saw the pandemic accelerate and impact a slew of trends. In an interesting twist, it appears that it may have sped up some digital media consumption convergence between older and younger generations.

The IPA’s Commercial Media Landscape report offers a high level view of the media landscape today. The report looks at reach, share of time, time spent, and usage patterns across the day of all commercial media properties in order to illuminate where shifts are occurring. In particular, it delves into how adults in Great Britain spend their media day and examines the differences between age groups.

Convergence

One of the most striking findings of the fourth edition of the report is the changing nature of the relationship between the media consumption habits of 16- 34s and people aged 55+. Previous editions of the IPA’s report found steady declines in the correlation between the habits of these two audiences with a trend towards divergence. In a striking turn, the fourth edition finds a marked shift towards eventual convergence.

This seems to be driven by the fact that the 16-34 age group is nearing peak digital penetration as their patterns of consumption level out. At the same time, for those aged 55 and over, the advancement of technology usage brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in rapid digital media uptake.

Consumption

Online Video has seen the most significant growth of any media channel over the last five years, and it now commands a greater share of media time than Live/Recorded TV for 16-34s. As with 16-34s, the reduction in time spent with Commercial Live/Recorded TV for 35-54 was one of the largest shifts from 2015 to 2021. In 2015 Commercial Live/Recorded TV took a 42% share of the curated commercial media day for 35-54s. By 2020 pre-lockdown this had fallen to 29%, and again to 26% in 2021 post-lockdown.

For those 55+ Commercial Live/ Recorded TV and Newsbrands (Print) saw increases in reach, share and time spent during and post lockdown. On the other hand, Social Media was the clear winner for 16-34s.

For commercial media in 2021, more time is now being spent with digital rather than nondigital channels. For all adults, the split has grown from 58:42 towards non-digital in 2015 to 46:54 in favor of digital in 2021. For 16-34s in 2021, 78% of all curated commercial media time was spent with digital channels.

As is to be expected, share shifted the most among 16-34s, from 76% commercial in 2015 to 64% in 2021 post lockdown. And although 16-34s are seen as the subscription spear-headers, they actually spent almost two thirds of their media time in commercial spaces, which is greater than the average adult.

Overall, the report finds significant evidence of increasing digital media usage for 55+. In the 2021 post-lockdown era, Smartphone, Tablet and PC Laptop combined now account for 33% of their total commercial media consumption time for this group, up from 19%. As the report points out, those over 55 had to quickly adapt to stay in touch, shop etc., which made them more confident about digital media and devices.

Conclusions

The areas of difference are still significantly greater than commonalities. Unsurprisingly, the report does reinforce some of the expected generational differences in media consumption.

According to the authors, “although it is encouraging to see an increase in similarity between these two audiences, it should not be missed that a correlation of 18% still represents an 82% dissimilarity between the two audience’s time spent with media properties and a hope of one-size-fits-all media plans in reality would be more aligned to one-size-fits-none.”

However, it does find a greater degree of convergence than might be expected. While this was likely accelerated by the pandemic, the report ultimately suggests that, for 16-34s, their level of digital media usage has become so high, there is very little room for additional growth. However, for 55+ there was — and will be — continued room for growth in digital media usage. So, while it is critical to innovate and experiment to attract younger audiences, it is important not to overlook the growth opportunities across generations.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of February 17, 2022

February 17, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

Press Gazette | Why publishers are starting to ditch Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (10 min read)
Adweek | Long Before Lawsuits, Publishers Have Puzzled at Google’s Ad Auction Irregularities (5 min read)
Digiday | ‘Not just Black history. American history’: How publishers are using Black History Month to cover the past that isn’t being taught in schools (5 min read)
The New York Times | Sarah Palin’s Libel Claim Against The Times Is Rejected by a Jury (7 min read)
The Financial Times | California to adopt UK-style child data law in global push against Big Tech (3 min read)
The New York Times | Google Plans Privacy Changes, but Promises to Not Be Disruptive (3 min read)
Pew Research Center | Nearly a quarter of Americans get news from podcasts (2 min read)
Poynter | Sarah Palin suffers a one-two punch in her battle against The New York Times, and that’s good for journalism (3 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of February 10, 2022

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of February 10, 2022

February 10, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The Financial Times | US streaming giants feel squeeze of regulation in Europe (7 min read)
Axios | Amazon finally reveals the size of its massive ad business (2 min read)
The New York Times | Local Papers Find Hints of Success With Online Subscriptions (7 min read)
Journalism.co.uk | What does Google’s new ‘page experience’ metric mean for publishers? (4 min read)
Digiday | The Rundown: Google, Meta and Amazon are on track to absorb more than 50% of all ad money in 2022 (4 min read)
The New York Times | Spotify’s Joe Rogan Problem Isn’t Going Away (9 min read)
Stratechery | Digital Advertising in 2022 (20 min read)
The Cut | Because Your Algorithm Says So Examining our (sometimes toxic) relationship with our AI overlords. (12 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of January 27, 2022

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of January 27, 2022

January 27, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

Politico | Is the Media Doomed? (27 min read)
Bloomberg | Venture Investors’ $1.4 Billion Bet on News Faces a Reality Check (2 min read)
AdExchanger | Even If Targeted Online Advertising Isn’t Banned – Take Note Of Which Way The Wind Is Blowing (5 min read)
Ars Technica | Google drops FLoC after widespread opposition, pivots to “Topics API” plan (4 min read)
Axios | Wall Street braces for new streaming reality (3 min read)
Medium | We’ve spent two years studying readers’ & listeners’ needs of The Atlantic (12 min read)
Columbia Journalism Review | Saving journalism: worldwide interventions (10 min read)
AdExchanger | The Industry Is Still On Tenterhooks About A Universal Opt-Out Signal Under CPRA (4 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of January 20, 2022

Industry-Research

The consumer complications caused by streaming’s success

January 25, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Remember cable television? How about consumers’ desperate plea for skinny bundles? Certainly, there is an entire generation (or two) that is entirely unfamiliar with historic issues around bloated offerings from traditional cable companies. However, for a few years there, things seemed better for consumers of all ages. Streaming afforded viewers the opportunity to handpick only the services they wanted. And even better: They didn’t have to sift through, or pay for, those they did not.

However, according to new Accenture research, consumers increasingly find streaming to be complicated, expensive, and difficult to use. In a survey of 6,000 consumers in North America, South America, Europe, South Africa, and Asia Pacific, the research identified room for improvement in how consumers navigate and search across various providers, the types and pricing of bundles they’re offered, and the relevance of the recommendations they receive.

Too much of a good thing

The proliferation of streaming services has given consumers options galore. It has enabled them to explore archives of their favorites and access a deep well of niche and enthusiast content. However, as many have feared, the research confirms that it has also created incredible complexity. With each additional service, consumers must manually browse through multiple platforms and screens just to find something to watch.

The survey found that 60% of consumers globally consider the process of navigating these different services “a little” to “very” frustrating. Nearly half (44%) spend more than six minutes trying to find something they want to watch.

Payment problems

Paying for more services is also a growing problem. In fact, many consumers are approaching their upper limit on the amount of money they’ll spend for streaming services. According to Accenture’s survey, 33% of consumers globally say they will “somewhat” or “greatly” decrease spend on media and entertainment across subscriptions and one-time purchases in the next 12 months. And, while Accenture doesn’t specifically mention this, it is likely that the inefficiency of having to pay for so many services, and tracking total spend is something consumers would like to simplify as well.

Discovery dilemma

Lastly, the research finds that discoverability is not just an issue of the sheer number of streaming platforms consumers must manage. Because each experience is siloed, consumers’ preferences do not sufficiently inform algorithmic recommendation engines so that they provide accurate suggestions.

Furthermore, the reliance on the algorithm to pitch shows doesn’t allow consumers to tune the model, except through actual show selection. A majority of global consumers said they’d like to be able to take their profile from one service to another to better personalize content (56%); and they’d be happy to let a video-on-demand service know more about them to make recommendations more relevant to them (51%).

Old problems in new platforms

The three issues consumers have with the current streaming experience and ecosystem all point to their desire to have far greater control over their experience. They want easier navigation and to pay for only what they want. For streaming to continue to grow and fulfill its potential, Accenture believes a big change to the ecosystem is needed: the addition of a smart aggregator that sits across multiple platforms and dramatically increases viewers’ control over the content they watch. Sound familiar?

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of January 20, 2022

January 20, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

NiemanLab | Can U.S. journalism truly serve global audiences? Not if it treats them like an afterthought (7 min read)
Bloomberg | Netflix Needs New Subscribers. Its Korean Playbook Is Its Secret Weapon. (8 min read)
Axios | TV networks overhaul measurement system amid streaming surge (3 min read)
The Verge | US competition enforcers launch overhaul of merger approval process (2 min read)
NiemanReports | Newsrooms Are Unionizing Pretty Much “Nonstop.” Here’s Why (14 min read)
Poynter | Internationally too, journalists and others are debating government subsidies and how to deal with Big Tech
PressGazette | Almost seven in ten people worry they are being lied to by journalists according to latest Edelman trust survey (3 min read)
Politico | Journalism Is Broken and I Alone Can Fix It! (6 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of January 13, 2022

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of January 13, 2022

January 13, 2022 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

Bloomberg | Podcasting Hasn’t Produced A New Hit in Years (9 min read)
The New York Times | Cable TV Is the New Landline (5 min read)
Deadline | With Tentpoles Bound To Surge The 2022 Box Office, The Great Theatrical-Streaming Day & Date Experiment Goes Out Like A Dud In 2021 (15 min read)
The Financial Times | Streaming wars drive media groups to spend more than $100bn on new content (3 min rad)
Harvard Kennedy School | Research note: Fighting misinformation or fighting for information? (15 min read)
The New York Times | A Facebook antitrust suit can move forward, a judge says, in a win for the F.T.C. (5 min read)
NiemanLab | “Traffic whoring” or simply optimizing? Finding the boundaries between clean and dirty metrics (10 min read)
Digiday | How publishers experimented with NFTs in 2021 (5 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of December 16, 2021

Advertising | Perspectives

Media tech execs reveal their 2022 playbook

December 27, 2021 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

As we head into 2022, we find ourselves living in that mixed blessing: interesting times. Like every industry, we’re rocking in the wake of pandemic-era changes. From staffing challenges and workplace transformation to a consumer base whose priorities and expectations have profoundly shifted, media executives have plenty to manage. Needless to say, it is important that we enter the new year with an informed perspective to be ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

We reached out to some of our supporter partners here at DCN and asked about the biggest challenges and opportunities they see as we start off the new year. (DCN supporter partners are companies that do business with premium publishers and are aligned with principles of quality and trust.) Many of them echoed the big trends we’ve been watching. They also offered insights that should prove useful to anyone in the business of digital media.

Industry trends to watch in 2022

Innovation and diversification will accelerate

As we move into 2022, one significant trend that started this year, and will continue, is finding the balance between subscriptions and advertising in order to maximize revenue.
The next step for publishers in 2022 is looking at their business models holistically. Every business will need to find the right balance between subscriptions and advertising to maximize revenue.

—Matt Broad, Director of Optimization Services, Piano

Diversifying revenue streams is the mantra for 2022. This necessitates quick experiments, risk optimization, and data literacy; the precursor to which is an iterative mindset.

—Abhishek, Dadoo, CEO, Fewcents

Recognizing the full potential of video as a primary format is one of the biggest opportunities we see for digital media companies as we head into the new year. This strategic move will not only allow publishers to reinforce their brands and diversify their revenues but build even more valuable and durable relationships with existing and new audiences.

—Andrew Rosenman, Global Product Marketing Lead CTV/Video, Smart AdServer

The biggest opportunity is to harvest advertising from segments of the market that are not just healthy, but those that are lurching forward in leaps-and-bounds. The biggest threat is still running your Before Times playbook, assuming (wrongly) the market has rebounded in mostly same way that you remember. The ad market is like a chameleon. Some parts do look the same shape, but the colors have changed quite significantly.

—Todd Krizelman, CEO, MediaRadar

New strategies and technologies will help publishers navigate the shifting data flow

One of the biggest challenges for publishers heading into the new year is the continual evolution and tightening of data privacy policies. Consumers are also becoming more mindful of their data. Therefore, we predict that new privacy regulations will follow the lead of the GDPR and require publishers and their partners to provide consumers with more transparency and control on how their data is used.
By adopting technologies like privacy-focused universal identifiers, publishers can solve different challenges, including privacy compliance, with one solution. Privacy-first IDs ensure compliance with the latest regulations, protect media owner’s data from leakage – and consequent audience depreciation – while enabling them to monetize their traffic effectively when traditional identification methods will be phased out.

—Jessica Werner, Senior Director of Publisher Development, ID5

The challenge is moving an entire industry to a new way of buying media. Advertisers have over 100 ‘post-cookie’ solutions to choose from – not all are equal. There will also be more consolidation and growth in CTV.
The opportunity lies in education, publishers need to encourage testing and learning as we head into 2022. The chaos we’ve seen over the past year is about more than third-party cookies, it’s about how we use data ethically and responsibly in all aspects of digital advertising. Advertisers and agencies will move out of the testing phase and begin to select partners and solutions that are sustainable and use data ethically.

—Michael Ogunjobi, Customer Success Lead, Americas, Permutive

Going into 2022, one of the key challenges remains the fragmentation of the ecosystem and the difficulties of measuring cross-platform TV viewing and campaign performance.
By leveraging new data and technology capabilities, such as linear addressable, media companies will be able to scale up and facilitate access to their CTV and VOD inventory. This will bring benefits to both sides of the transaction – return on ad spend for brands and optimized yield for broadcasters and other media providers. It is truly an exciting time for premium video and advanced TV.

—Stefanie Briec, Director – Demand Sales, UK & International, FreeWheel

In a market where most publishers are looking to monetize an increasing number of consent-less impressions and with increasing pressure on privacy enforcement, the future belongs to publishers who will find ways to maintain their revenues without collecting personally identifiable information.
This future must be anticipated right now, and our industry should stop holding onto the old world. So, the main focus for publishers should be to find solutions that do not rely on cookies or IDs, but that are still able to qualify 100% of their inventory.

—Fabien Magalon, Chief Supply Officer, Ogury

As the digital advertising industry continues to look ahead to a world with fewer shared personal identifiers, we can expect publishers and brands to turn more and more to AI-powered predictive insights as a way to get to know their audiences next year. As user-level targeting shrinks, and audience-level and contextual targeting grows, AI-powered predictive technologies will help to drive a new age of privacy-compliant targeting.

—Jürgen Galler, CEO and Co-Founder, 1plusX

Heading into 2022, audience, identity, and the challenge around associated data ownership and execution will remain at the forefront of media owner’s minds. Media companies will be navigating a complex and evolving landscape of regulation and regional policies, along with a diverse set of audience, contextual, and identity solutions.

—Leon Gurevich Head of Product & Client Services, IPONWEB

As we look toward 2022, a big challenge within the media industry will be continuing to refine and advance the way we approach audience creation. With challenge, of course, comes opportunity. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity to combine traditional audience approaches with advanced contextual strategies that support quality reach and empower publishers and advertisers to value supply appropriately. The ability to then verify reach and measure the success of those audiences is a critical step for both advertisers seeking ROI and publishers showcasing value in the efforts to further optimize yield.

—Dave Constantino, VP Client Development, Oracle Advertising

Media companies will focus on excellent experiences for the win

Publishers shoot themselves in the collective foot, because horrid ad experiences mean less consumer engagement: less homepage visits, less sharing of emails, fewer pageviews per session, fewer session, etc. At a time when publishers need to build tighter relationships with their audiences, we’re pushing them away with giant piles of junk ads (as well as constant prods to enable push notifications, sign up for newsletters, etc.). There’s a huge opportunity in the ad quality arena.

—Gavin Dunaway, Product Marketing Lead, The Media Trust

The biggest challenge is the acceleration of digital from linear channels and the ability for brands to manage a fragmented media environment. Our mixed reality future—part digital, part physical—will change the way business is done from now on. The opportunity for brands, agencies, and publishers is to smooth chaotic user experiences, by embedding insight into every media exchange.

—Laurel Rossi, CMO, true[X] + Gimbal

Over the past years, we’ve seen non-traditional publishers start to double down on advertising, and it’s a trend we expect to accelerate in 2022. Non-traditional publishers take any number of forms, [which] include retail and commerce companies and utility-based sites and apps such as rideshare. Many of these have enormous volumes of traffic, deep customer engagement and the golden goose: first-party data. With non-traditional publishers, it’s vital that it’s vital that ad experiences do not take users out of their walled gardens or detract from the primary experience.

—Justin Choi, CEO, Nativo

The word of the year is quality, which presents both a challenge and opportunity. Brands are increasingly aware of the impact of their media spend, not just on society at large but on the attention that high quality environments can deliver.

—Eric Shih, Chief Supply Officer, Teads

Automation will help level the playing field

We will continue to see self-serve technology impact advertising as we move into 2022. Self-service allows advertisers to manage every aspect of their campaign whenever they need, without talking to a salesperson. Not only does this give users more control, but it also saves time and resources. Self-service generally uses a low-cost technical automated platform to replace the manual tasks in the ad booking process, and that automation allows sales teams to work more efficiently and focus efforts on growing their bigger accounts.

—Peo Persson, Co-Founder and EVP Sales, DanAds

The biggest opportunity for digital media companies is to boldly tackle customer churn across the entire customer journey. Strategic partnerships and subscription bundles are an excellent place to start. Consumers today are ready for easier, more convenient ways to get all the digital content they love in one place.
Digital media companies need a complete retention approach. Start by getting smarter and more creative with subscription partnerships and bundles. And ensure you get the revenue you deserve by using subscription intelligence, automation, and revenue recovery.

—Roy Barak, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Vindicia

Scaling ad revenues by increasing bandwidth via automation integration. Digital media companies will need to leverage automation to streamline their Order-to-Cash workflows and digital processes. This will enable scale while greatly reducing error margins, increasing internal bandwidth and, of course, increase ROI.

—Jay Kulkarni, CEO and Founder, Theorem Inc.