Friday 12th July: Engaging and converting audiences during big events

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With half the world heading to the polls and a packed sporting schedule for the summer (for Europe at least), news teams won’t have much of a chance to down tools before the year is up. But at least these kinds of big moments are predictable, unlike the lurching chaos of the Trump and Covid period.

With that in mind, Madeleine White at The Audiencers takes a look at how publishers around the world are taking advantage of big events to develop online audiences.

The key here will be keeping the relationship going once the hype around these events fades. Will people welcome a chance to switch off after a summer glued to news updates, or will those habits have become ingrained?

If you missed the opportunity to sun yourself in Cascais attend FIPP’s industry-leading conference, they’ve written up a report of the key takeaways. There is, of course, a lot of AI, but also print, inclusivity, generational targeting, sustainability and more.

At best, old domains are left to fester. At worst, they’re turned into gambling sites, or my new favourite term, AI-generated ‘splogs’. “If companies we used to work at are going to let go of old domains, it only makes sense that former employees scoop them up before spammers get the chance to ruin it,” Ernie Smith writes.

A recommendation of our own to finish this week! We recorded all the sessions at our recent Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summit, and they’re now available to view on-demand (we’re charging for access because paying speakers and hiring a camera crew doesn’t come cheap). We’ll be doing some write-ups too over the coming weeks.

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