Monday 11th January: Why a 'brand safe' president could be good news for publishers

January 11, 2021

Good morning! Here to kick off your week with the latest stories is Esther.

Many analysts are forecasting a 'Trump slump' in the hopes that a Biden presidency will prove just a shade less dramatic and controversial than the past four years. This would mean less traffic to publisher sites, and some have even suggested subscribers will drop off without the constant hype (I don't agree but that's for another time).

However, there's a silver lining that could see more money in publisher's pockets even if traffic tails off. Some news publishers are hoping that a more 'brand safe' presidency will bring more advertisers back to news as a category.

If nothing else, the reduction of Trump-related content will ease the blunt effects of advertiser blocklists, many of which still have the President at the top of their lists of content that they don't wish to advertise beside.

It won't be a magic solution to all our problems, but there are signs that advertisers are showing increasing willingness to advertise next to news content. Now there's an incentive to work towards a less toxic media environment...

Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading national daily, succeeded in reaching 245,000 digital subscriptions despite a tough media environment in the country. This case study explores how they broke the vicious cycle of discount acquisitions to grow more sustainably.

Success stories are great for lessons. Failure stories are even better. Here, Jack Rivlin, founder of The Tab (a network of local university news sites) talks about his journey selling the company after an unsuccessful attempt to crack the US. His candid analysis of his mistakes is refreshing.

In their relentless pursuit of engagement and profits, these platforms created algorithms that amplify hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. Facebook’s own research revealed that 64 percent of the time a person joins an extremist Facebook Group, they do so because the platform recommended it.

This week's podcast:

Sara tells us about her process for writing a thoughtful, informative newsletter, whether Axios’ ‘smart brevity’ model can work for local news, and what lessons she’s taken from covering media companies that she applies to her own work.

We're just 11 days in to 2021 and we've already had to spend our first episode of the year in discussions about Trump, Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg. If you can spare a few quid, ease our headaches with a virtual coffee and keep us powering through to next week.