Tuesday 7th May: Publishers’ Privacy Sandbox testing enters a 'holding pattern' 

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The depreciation of the third-party cookie is Rasputinian in how long it’s taken to actually die. Feels like the bloody things have been being ‘phased out’ for about as long as The Simpsons has been airing. Well, after yet another delay in their removal from the digital ecosystem in late April, Digiday has taken a timely look at how publishers are responding to the can getting kicked down the road — and what that means for their use of the Privacy Sandbox tool.

“Four out of five publishers who spoke for this story told Digiday that they welcome the delay to fully depreciate third-party cookies from Chrome, especially if the alternative solutions — including Google’s Privacy Sandbox — aren’t up to snuff. And they encourage Google to make improvements based on the reports issued by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that will ultimately produce a solid solution.”

You can’t argue with the assertion that Google really needs to take the time to make sure the Privacy Sandbox works for publishers as well as its own business (however likely that is). As a result of the latest delay, however, publishers are holding off investing many more resources into the solution. And who can blame them?

Some harrowing statistics in this article, published on World Press Freedom Day. Last year a survey of female journalists found that “75% had experienced a threat to their safety and 25% said they had experienced sexual violence or harassment connected to their jobs”. That’s an absolutely unsustainable environment, and will only ever prevent great journalists doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

This is another gutting read, this time for what it means for the UK public. Fiona O'Brien, UK bureau director for the RSF told journalism.co.uk: “that threats to journalists, both online and offline, are only likely to increase in the polarised and politically charged climate of an upcoming general election. She calls on a ‘robust and coordinated response’ from government, law enforcement agencies and social media platforms” to fix the issues. Consider how polarised our news landscape is already and ask yourself if we can really afford to let it get worse.

This has been a long time brewing! Some of the messages Condé employees have been sharing — messages of support or their own emails to Anna Wintour — have made clear the extent to which those journalists feel undervalued. And let’s be honest, it’s true across the entire industry. It’s bizarre to me that media bosses think they can underpay their primary workers and end up with better business outcomes.

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