Press Gazette’s Post

This summer — or the past several years for that matter — has been anything but peaceful in the world of #digitalmedia. And amid all of the breaking news, a slew of new vocabulary terms emerged with or without clear definitions. Fear not, though! Here’s the latest guide to what people are actually saying when they talk about the ever-changing media industry. Story by Kayleigh Barber

A really interesting article in the FT and some stats at the run up to Christmas... “The real pivot, however, is the skyrocketing increase in online media spend at 16 per cent — the highest uplift since last year of any medium. This reflects the massively accelerated advances in precision targeting, predictive models and the payback of personalisation.” Salocin Group has Join the Dots and Edit in its Group to enable Brands to leverage the best media and channel to market using our Data Science and Ai capabilities, to create long term connected customer experiences. https://lnkd.in/ePfexcmE

👀 Secret Google & Meta Ad Deal... The Financial Times has reported that Google allegedly allowed Meta to target 13-17 year olds, which goes against policy, to promote Instagram via YouTube ads. I think the title and intro of the article are a bit inflated, so here's a breakdown of the situation: 1. Targeting "Unknown" Age Category: Google offers an "Unknown" age category that is available to all advertisers. It's reasonable for anyone to assume this category includes minors under 18. 2. Policy Loophole: If Google wanted to have a real policy preventing personalization to minors, targeting the "Unknown" category would not be possible. Google has the data on the ages of users in this bucket - they've purposely allowed for a loophole in their own policy because closing it would reduce ad revenues. 3. Industry Collusion: Is it shady that Google and Meta actively talked about this? Yes. But, this practice is not unique. It's common for advertisers in restricted categories to push the boundaries to reach their audience because targeted ads work. Google reps working with brands are incentivized to get them to spend more, if this targeting got more money from Meta, obviously Google will leap at the chance. 💰 This is capitalism baby. 💰 What do you think - should there be stricter regulations on ad targeting for minors? If so, how should it be implemented? Read the full article here (sorry for the paywall): https://lnkd.in/eK_tgPjj #DigitalMarketing #Privacy #TargetedAds #AdvertisingEthics

My 🔮prediction🔮 for 2025: The end of ad-dependent media is coming faster than we think. https://lnkd.in/dVBvcdjN

What now for news publishers as the cookie crumbles?: News UK and Reach plc are both going down the 'pay or consent' route, whilst developing their own in-house first-party data solutions #digitalpublishing #journalism #onlinepublishing

This was a great interview, but I was rather surprised that one critical point about LLMs was missed. After Lisa Ryan shares how much effort Hearst’s writers put into content like helping runners build a marathon training program, Brian Morrissey mentions he tried asking Perplexity the same thing and “It’s pretty good” (acknowledging he otherwise would have gone to Runner’s World). The conversation then was “What can you do with that type of competition?”, but the key element being missed is “Where are these LLMs getting all their data to train on?” This isn't competition, it's the new corner store down the street sending people into your store to steal all the goods and change the packaging. Given that LLMs without any input would not exist, or be “smart”, and given that most of these LLMs (most notably Perplexity), are taking data without any compensation (and typically no attribution of any kind either), it’s critical for publishers to take action and protect their IP. AI takes other publishers’ content and packages it up. It’s fair to say some will even “improve” their algorithm to “correct” output in cases where it is trained off of a limited bit of specific content and they want to obscure that fact. But all of this ignores the key point that no publisher should be allowing LLMs to access their IP without an agreement, including compensation. Compare LLMs to search. While the relative benefits to publishers from search to the search engines themselves can seem out of whack, the reality is that there is a clear opportunity for the publisher to benefit, and for their own brand to be seen and valued. Search is effectively a distribution platform. LLMs are not. They are about providing answers quickly, using publishers content to do so. So it is clear, I think LLMs will help us all be much more productive. But publishers need to make sure there are clear rules, all bound by contracts, about how their IP can be used and how they will benefit from it. Simply allowing it to happen will lead to many worse problems than publishers already face today. https://lnkd.in/eqgPC_ef

How can publishers / journalists keep up with social media and retain a sustainable financial model? It's a tough time for publishers, even more so independents, and the latest Behind Local News email highlights the challenges posed by social media. Referral traffic from all channels is down, and of course most publishers models will have a strong bias towards driving traffic to their websites to gain display advertising revenue, sign-ups for subscriptions etc. Mix that with the 'anything goes' approach seemingly now being adopted by Facebook/Meta and X/Twitter, it's going to put even greater strain on the financial model for the genuine, trustworthy and authoritative publications out there. https://lnkd.in/ez7ZBc_9

Thank you to the Local Media Association for the opportunity to talk about the importance of distinguishing quality media for advertisers and agencies. If you're wondering how AAM can help your organization - let me ask you one simple question: Is your company trying to grow its advertising revenue? If the answer is yes - then let's chat. #advertising #digitaladvertising #media

Valuable insights into the future of media! Proud to see our CEO's vision showcased in "Tadawul News" for his 10 Media Predictions' article. A compelling read for media industry professionals Full article: https://lnkd.in/dYBtZ_nJ