Category results for "Perspectives"

Thanks to AI technology, anyone can quickly create a website and populate it with content that looks legitimate enough to sell advertising. The proliferation of made-for-advertising (MFA) websites, or sites created solely for the purpose of selling ads without much consideration for content quality and user experience, show little sign of waning as long advertisers are willing to invest in them.

That investment is becoming more significant. A recent report by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) revealed that brands are diverting as much as 15% of their ad spend toward MFA sites. When money is spent on MFAs, publishers and advertisers lose. Not only do MFAs earn revenue that could be invested in premium media company, advertisers sacrifice campaign performance by serving ads to less engaged audiences alongside content that might risk their brand safety.

Some advertisers and ad tech companies are taking steps to identify and remove MFAs from their inclusion lists and platforms, but what can media companies do to differentiate themselves? It’s important to first understand the impact MFA sites have on the industry, why advertisers invest in these sites and how publishers can demonstrate why their “made-for-audiences” websites are a better bet for advertisers’ investments.

What are made-for-advertising websites?

While an industrywide definition for MFA sites does not yet exist (though the ANA is expected to release one in October), MFA websites typically exhibit:

Low Quality Content: SinceMFA sites are built to maximize ad revenue, content quality often takes a backseat. Some MFA sites rely on AI tools to create articles that are not fact checked or verified such as fabricated news, clickbait articles, conspiracy theories with spammy links or other content that doesn’t align with advertisers’ brands or target audiences.
Poor User Experience: Since the goal of MFA sites is to generate as many ad impressions as possible, this often leads to websites riddled with redundant ad placements, false navigation buttons, pixel stuffing and ad stacking – all factors that lead to a poor user experience.
Paid Traffic Acquisition: MFA sites often rely on paid traffic and other incentivized methods engineered to attract as many visitors as possible rather than carefully cultivating engaged audiences through organic means.

MFAs vs. premium sites: what’s the difference?

While MFA sites’ cluttered, clickbait appearance are visible to the human eye, these sites can be challenging to identify in the programmatic ecosystem.

MFA websites look desirable to tech platforms and advertisers because they have low invalid traffic (IVT), high viewability and low CPMs. But a key difference between MFA and premium websites is their audiences.

While premium publishers’ audiences have a keen interest in their content, MFA sites often resort to techniques that favor quick clicks over lasting engagement. A human visitor might land on an MFA site after clicking on an enticing headline, but they often drop off the landing page after the first interaction.

The value of made-for-audiences websites

What can media companies do to stand apart from MFAs and demonstrate their commitment to cultivating valuable engaged audiences? Here are a few tips to help your made-for-audiences site get advertisers’ attention:

1. Prioritize User Experience: Elevate your website’s user experience by streamlining webpages, eliminating ad redundancy and decluttering ads. Prioritize your audience by striving for lower ad-to-content ratios, which enhances UX for subscribers and encourages return visits.

2. Deliver Genuine Value: Create content that engages visitors and keeps them coming back for more. Encourage advertisers to focus on meaningful KPIs such as cost per engagement and conversions, rather than superficial metrics like clicks and impressions.

3. Attract Quality Audiences: Focus on organic traffic acquisition strategies rather than paid or incentivized traffic. Not only can paid strategies make your site look like an MFA site, but these tactics can also invite bot traffic and fraudulent activities.

4. Participate in Industry Initiatives: There are several initiatives developed to help quality publishers stand apart from lesser quality sites for their commitment to quality and transparency. The Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) highlights the good work publishers are doing by certifying them for their adherence to industry standards for ethics and content creation. Another program, Trust.txt, establishes connections between publishers and trusted industry associations so that advertisers and tech platforms can identify these quality publishers.

5. Engage in Audits: Digital website audits conducted by a trusted third party help demonstrate to advertisers and readers that your website is doing everything possible to consistently attract quality traffic, deliver ads accurately and efficiently and minimize fraudulent activity.

6. Follow Industry Standards and Best Practices: There are several programs developed to verify publishers’ implementation of industry standards and best practices for ad fraud, brand safety and privacy. The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), IAB Tech Lab and Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) have programs to certify publishers for implementing industry standards into their business practices and ad delivery systems – steps MFA sites are unlikely to take.

By executing these strategies, media companies can stand apart from made-for-advertising websites and demonstrate the value of a new kind of MFA: “made-for-audiences,” which provides advertisers with engaged audiences eager to learn about products and services that align with their interests and lifestyles.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of September 21, 2023

September 21, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

The New York Times | Britain Passes Sweeping New Online Safety Law (3 min read)
Wired | Inside the Senate’s Private AI Meeting With Tech’s Billionaire Elites (10 min read)
The Wall Street Journal | People Are Streaming Pirated Movies on TikTok, One Short Clip at a Time (5 min read)
The American Prospect | Q&A: Tim Wu on the U.S. v. Google Trial (12 min read)
Press Gazette | Survey reveals global newsroom adoption of AI at early stage but set to increase (6 min read)
Deadline | Traditional Media Ad Revenue Will “Stagnate Or Decline” In 2024, Major Agency Predicts, With Strikes Posing Threat To Already-Shaky TV Ratings (2 min read)
Axios | The right newsroom jobs for AI, and the wrong ones (5 min read)
Digiday | DCN explores the future of TRUSTX, including a partnership with tech-giant Akamai, as dealmaking (slowly) heats up (6 min read)
The Verge | George R.R. Martin and other authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement (2 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of September 14, 2023

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of September 14, 2023

September 14, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

The New York Times | Cable TV Is on Life Support, but a New Bundle Is Coming Alive (5 min read)
Poynter | Newsroom AI guidelines ‘lack teeth,’ study finds (2 min read)
Digiday | Media companies’ diversity reports reveal fewer employees are willing to disclose their demographic data (4 min read)
The Hollywood Reporter | What Disney Got, and Gave Up, to Make a Deal With Spectrum; Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro Talk Details (5 min read)
Axios | Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa acquitted on tax evasion charges (1 min read)
PressGazette | Ten major trends in news consumption publishers need to be thinking about (8 min read)
Digiday | Why Google on trial is the pivotal moment that could shape the future of online advertising (4 min read)
Adexchanger | How Brands Can Learn To Stop Worrying About Brand Safety And Love The News (4 min read)
Bloomberg | Washington Hopes to Rein in AI Before It Becomes Another Social Media (2 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of August 31, 2023

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 31, 2023

August 31, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

Wired | The Anticlimactic Death of the Streaming Wars (4 min read)
Financial Times | The damning verdict of viewers on US cable TV (4 min read)
Insider | AI is killing the grand bargain at the heart of the web. ‘We’re in a different world.’ (10 min read)
Bloomberg | UK Needs Tough Rules on AI Using Copyrighted Data, Lawmakers Say (2 min read)
The Verge | Can news outlets build a ‘trustworthy’ AI chatbot? (5 min read)
The Washington Post | Following Elon Musk’s lead, Big Tech is surrendering to disinformation (14 min read)
Bloomberg | Movies, TV Shows Available on Streaming Jumped 39% in Two Years (1 min read)
Yahoo! Finance | In a first, the SEC says NFTs sold by an L.A.-based entertainment firm are securities. Here’s how that could ripple throughout the industry (1 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of August 24, 2023

Five plain truths about AI

August 24, 2023 Jason Kint, CEO – DCN

“The rise of AI is an existential threat for media companies.”

“The rise of AI is a disruptive opportunity for media companies greater than the Internet itself.”

I overheard both statements in the last week. How can both be true at the same time?

While I may not be able to square that circle, I do know that DCN has spent the last decade focused on the future and not shying away from difficult questions like these. And, for the past six months or more, we have been among those immersed in the impending upheaval and unprecedented opportunity heralded by everyone from AI doomsayers to evangelists.

While the questions about the future of AI in the media are far from answered, there are a few plainly obvious truths emerging as we explore the full potential of AI.

The Large Language Model (LLM) data sets on which generative AI is being trained have been built upon what may well be the most extensive violation of copyright in history. The power and promise of AI to reshape industries is rooted in intellectual property that is a necessary ingredient in the equation. That bad math, that bad faith, must be recalculated and recalibrated in order for AI to evolve in a way that aligns with the true spirit of this extraordinary innovation.
Many challenges of the last decade remain constant in the AI era. Market power and abuse is a profound problem. It would be naive to rely on the generosity of trillion-dollar companies to silo negotiations to train tech companies’ large language models from the impact and the needs of the whole of the media business.

Consider the way in which Google has historically argued that it doesn’t detract from media sites’ revenue because it drives traffic to them. On the contrary, it is well understood that “search results” have become overwhelmed with advertising and offer “snippets” (scraped and trained by publishers’ sites) that often satisfy the user without having to click through. Generative AI takes this so much further, by allowing the search engine to compile information from a multitude of sites—without necessarily crediting any of them, much less driving traffic.
Privacy concerns around LLMs need more attention. Somehow the excitement and ready access to real-time output has swept this under the rug. Recent history should have taught us better.

Clearview AI, infamous for scraping billions of images across the internet without consent to fuel facial recognition, is the subject of a new book, Your Face Belongs to Us. And we learned in unsealed court docs earlier this year that Facebook used data brokers to train its machines to microtarget ads when they were forced to stop buying data outright. LLMs create a deep new well of data that is being opaquely collected and that will inevitably be exploited in ways consumers would not expect—or approve of.
Generative AI will increasingly be used for storytelling, whether in the fields of news or entertainment. However, responsible and successful media organizations recognize its limitations and human hands will still shape the creative output of these tools. As long as this storytelling involves humans at any point in the creative process, this content will require protection under the law. Otherwise, the devaluation of creativity and truth will be inevitable.
The sustainability of the free press is an essential ingredient for democracy. A free press supports an informed public, which holds the powerful accountable. Healthy competition and capitalism have unlocked opportunities and efficiencies that media companies have benefited from, and there’s no reason to believe that the AI era will be different. However, given the unhealthy dominance of the big technology companies, the last decade has been perilous for the press.

Therefore, any conversation around the future of AI must be anchored on the needs of an informed public, which starts and ends with an ecosystem that supports professional local and national newsrooms.

Given what we have witnessed over the past decade in the proliferation of mis- and disinformation, which has leveraged technology and vacuums in trust, the generative power of AI must give us pause. With power comes responsibility, and these are tools that we must use, and govern, wisely.

As someone who is listening, reading and thinking about what’s next as a full-time job, the acceleration of AI and its impact on media has got me on the edge of my seat. I’ve witnessed firsthand what media organizations have accomplished with AI for decades, and eagerly anticipate continued innovation. I also respect and acknowledge the efforts of media organizations to defend their work product, their creative output, the reporting, writing, photography, cinematography… as so much more than a mere data set.

We know our work. We know our worth. And we know our audiences and respect their values, which is why they value us. While the questions and innovations will keep on coming, there are unequivocal truths that should guide us as we continue to build a strong media ecosystem.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 24, 2023

August 24, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

The Verge | Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright (12 min read)
Wall Street Journal | America’s Tech Giants Rush to Comply With New Curbs in Europe (7 min read)
Bloomberg | Media Companies Are Ready to Sell. Does Anyone Want to Buy? (5 min read)
PressGazette | Why publishers are investing in non-news verticals to grow revenue (6 min read)
The Financial Times | British media and creative industries quizzed over AI risks to copyright (3 min read)
The Wrap | Hollywood’s Diversity Progress Remains Sluggish, USC Study Says (4 min read)
The Hollywood Reporter | AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause (4 min read)
Insider | Sorry to report: Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown has been very successful in adding new subscribers (2 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of August 17, 2023

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 17, 2023

August 17, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

AdExchanger | Streaming Profitability Is More Than Just Subscriber Growth (3 min read)
Bloomberg | Warner Bros. Discovery Considers Adding Sports Tier to Max Service (2 min read)
Digiday | Here is why Wall Street’s reception to the CTV narrative is cooling (3 min read)
Hollywood Reporter | News Corp. CEO Says “Negotiations Are Well Underway” With AI Companies for Content Payments (2 min read)
Tech Policy Press | The Value of News Content to Google is Way More Than You Think (8 min read)
The New York Times | The Dream Was Universal Access to Knowledge. The Result Was a Fiasco. (15 min read)
Vox | How two pop culture Twitter accounts turned into the internet’s wire service (13 min read)
WNIP | How the New Statesman won podcast commercial strategy of the year: Podcast of the week (30 minute listen)

DCN’s must reads: week of August 10, 2023

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 10, 2023

August 10, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

Vulture | The Looming Catalog Crisis (11 min read)
PressGazette | News is second most popular type of social media video – Ofcom (4 min read)
Tech Policy Press | The Value of News Content to Google is Way More Than You Think (8 min read)
ANA | Why the Advertising Industry Needs Standards on Spammy “Made for Advertising” Sites (6 min read)
NiemanLab| People share misinformation because of social media’s incentives — but those can be changed (4 min read)
Digiday | The rise of discerning publishers: Ad tech vendors face increased scrutiny (4 min read)
Guardian | Google says AI systems should be able to mine publishers’ work unless companies opt out (3 min read)
USA Today | Will AI deepen distrust in news? Gannett, other media organizations want more regulations. (4 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of August 3, 2023

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 3, 2023

August 3, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

Axios | Signs of optimism shine through the bleak ad market (4 min read)
AdExchanger | Why Black-Owned Publishers Like Programmatic Guaranteed (4 min read)
New York | How Will Artificial Intelligence Change the News Business? (14 min read)
Tedium | A Dylanesque Negotiating Strategy (5 min read)
Vox | The AI rules that US policymakers are considering, explained (21 min read)
The Washington Post | Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company. (7 min read)
PressGazette | News copyright theft ‘through the roof’ as 700,000 articles taken down in six months (3 min read)
MediaPost | U.S. Ad-Supported Subscriptions Surpass 100M (2 min read)
Medill | Local News Can’t Be ‘Damsel in Distress’ (17 min read)

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of July 27, 2023

July 27, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

CJR | AI, the media, and the lessons of the past (8 min read)
The Verge | Google will switch on its cookie-replacing tools for Chrome developers next week (3 min read)
WSJ | The Rise and Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer (5 min read)
Semafor | Publishers want billions, not millions, from AI (4 min read)
Financial Times | UK to tighten rules over illegal content on internet platforms (3 min read)
The Fix | Newsroom diversity initiatives have stalled. Here’s what Mother Jones does to fight the trend (8 min read)
Vulture | How a Strike Over Streaming Could End Up Killing Network TV (9 min read)
Digiday | Meta wants Threads to keep a light tone, but some publishers say the audience is ready for news (8 min read)

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of July 20, 2023

July 20, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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

CBC | The media industry is in turmoil, and that’s not changing anytime soon (9 min read)
Digiday | Ad tech industry gears up to combat MFAs (6 min read)
The New York Times | In Hollywood, the Strikes Are Just Part of the Problem (6 min read)
Axios | Media summer apocalypse (3 min read)
Wired | The Future of Children’s Television Isn’t Television (13 min read)
Vox | The hottest new job is “head of AI” and nobody knows what they do (8 min read)
Stratechery | Hollywood on Strike (16 min read)
The New York Times | The Gatekeepers of Knowledge Don’t Want Us to See What They Know (5 min read)

DCN’s must reads: week of July 13, 2023

July 13, 2023 | By Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCNrecommended reading

Perspectives | Video

How video providers can create a compelling CTV ad experience

July 17, 2023 Emmanuel Josserand, Senior Director, Brand, Agency and Industry Relations – FreeWheel

Audiences can now choose from a veritable buffet of advanced TV channels. Viewers can feast on their favorite shows via broadcaster catch-up services, online social video aggregators, free ad-supported streaming services (FASTs) and Smart TV apps, video-on-demand, and addressable linear. According to the recent Streaming Video: CTV Uncovered 2023 study from AudienceXpress, 46% of UK connected TV (CTV) viewers surveyed also tuck into free streaming platforms daily to watch content.

So, how can broadcasters and premium video providers ensure the advertising experience captures these viewers’ attention? The latest consumer insights from AudienceXpress reveal current audience preferences to inform best practice; here are the biggest takeaways from the full study.

What’s on the CTV menu for UK audiences?

Understanding viewing habits is imperative for premium video providers when creating their content offerings. Almost U.K. CTV participants in the AudienceXpress study, for instance, state they watch more free ad-supported streaming platforms than live broadcast TV. To capture this audience, some broadcasters are diversifying their business models to include different platforms and models.

Viewers appear to prioritize accessing premium content over using specific platforms or channels; 59% of UK CTV audiences surveyed tune in to free on-demand platforms, including FASTs, when nothing on traditional TV channels grabs their interest. While these ad-supported advanced TV platforms are rapidly gaining traction among viewers, it is important to note that the AudienceXpress study also found that broadcasters’ live TV (37%) and catch-up services (35%) continue to attract a significant proportion of viewers, reaffirming that the main driver of platform success is content. As such, media buyers are looking to connect with viewers across all touchpoints, with advanced TV channels enabling them to drive incremental reach and capture the attention of elusive audiences.

Sharing personal data leaves a bitter taste for many viewers

According to the Streaming Video: CTV Uncovered 2023 study, only 26% 26 U.K. respondents with a CTV screen are comfortable sharing their personal data with brands in exchange for more personalised TV advertising. Data sharing seems to be on top of mind for U.K. viewers. (This could possibly be a ripple effect from major web browsers’ removal of third-party cookies.) Although this shift does not impact the TV and premium video advertising ecosystem directly, it requires media owners to keep privacy-conscious viewers front of mind when refining their advertising operations.

Audiences’ views on data privacy will continue to shape the future of premium video advertising and many remain cautious about how their data is used. For this reason, TV and premium video providers need to uphold audience trust. They can do this by being transparent about data practices. They must also clarify why advertising is critical for making premium content more accessible to video-hungry viewers and for funding new, quality productions, as well as leveraging data to cook up a compelling and relevant advertising experience.

With that in mind, which elements of advertising resonate best with U.K. CTV viewers?

Create an appetizing ad experience

Despite being apprehensive about sharing data, audiences still appreciate some degree of targeted advertising. Almost one third (32%) of U.K. CTV participants in the AudienceXpress study prefer ads that harmonize with the context of the content they watch, one in four prefer ads based on their geolocation, and one in five like ads relevant to their personal interests.

Capturing attention could likely be the ad industry’s top priority as many advertising environments become saturated. In fact, ad volume can make or break the viewing experience with seven in 10 UK CTV respondents feeling there are too many ads on social video aggregators. It is important that TV and premium video providers continue to carefully manage their ad volumes using advanced digital capabilities to further enhance the advertising experience through frequency capping and ad podding.

Nearly six in 10 U.K. CTV respondents also affirm that when accessing free premium video and TV-like content on their CTV screen, they would prefer pre-roll style ads with no ad breaks afterwards. It is necessary for TV and premium video providers to account for this and balance sustaining a quality ad experience with helping advertisers meet their KPIs and attracting greater spend.

In addition, almost three-quarters of these CTV viewers surveyed indicate that they pay more attention to advertising on premium on-demand TV platforms compared to social media or video aggregators. Through ensuring their advertising experience is contextually relevant and features long-form ads with high-impact creative, TV and premium video providers can secure high levels of attention that increase the value of their inventory.

As the advertising landscape is rapidly evolving, TV and premium video providers need to continually taste-test how their advertising experiences and business models align with audience habits. With in-depth insights of the current market, they can plate up successful offerings that meet the expectations of viewers and media buyers, define best practices for advanced TV advertising, and secure an essential valuable delicacy — audience attention.