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digital publishing industries

Consider The Source: What AI’s Attribution Problems Mean For Publishers

Will AI search prove to be the end of Google?

That’s one big question surrounding search, one that would have seemed inconceivable to anyone who had witnessed Google’s decades of dominance. …

Just ask any entry-level chatbot and it’ll give you the generic diagnosis that the landscape of organic search and Google Ads is indeed rapidly changing, but those battles are at least familiar ones for publishers. A more-recent publisher-worry subsequent to this rise of AI is the issue of citation and attribution. When a publisher actually has an answer that an AI chatbot needn’t be forced to hallucinate, does that source get the deserved credit?

 

Publishers Seeing ‘Concerning Trends’ From Advertisers In Current Political Cycle

The Associated Press is among publishers seeing “some concerning trends” around advertisers being wary of working with news providers in the current political news cycle. Chief revenue officer and senior vice president Kristin Heitmann said the US-based news agency has a “significant revenue diversification effort underway” with digital advertising as one of its growing areas.

 

Stacking Up B2B Automation: Most Firms Claim At Least Some Proficiency

B2B brands are at least reasonably proficient at automation, judging by the State of B2B Marketing Automation, a study from Act-On, conducted in partnership with Ascend2. Of the companies polled, 34% rate themselves as very successful at automation, and 62% as somewhat so. Only 4% say they are unsuccessful. 

 

Marketers Chase Better Measurement Across Channels

64% of US ad buyers expect to focus somewhat or significantly more on cross-platform measurement in 2025, according to a December 2024 IAB survey.

Programmatic Advertising To Break The $200 Billion Mark Next Year (New Report)

While programmatic display ad spending growth is forecast to decelerate over the next few years — from the 16.9% seen in 2024 to 11.6% in 2026 — its growth is still enough to “[sustain] a market weighed down by sluggish growth in nonprogrammatic display,” according to EMARKETER.

 

Magazine ABCs 2024: Half Of Print Titles See Distribution Drop 10% Or More

More than half of the magazines audited by ABC saw their print circulation decline by 10% or more in 2024, the latest data show. Several magazines significantly stepped up their digital circulation growth via “all you can read” services like Apple News+ over the same period, but in most cases it has not been enough to cancel out the print decline.

 

2025 Digital Engagement Benchmarks Report

B2B marketers have long known that targeted, personal and relevant experiences are essential to driving revenue. And as webinars have always offered the opportunity for direct interaction with attendees — whether through answering questions, sharing resources or polling the audience — they have consistently been a top-performing channel.

 

Campaign Numbers Rising, But So Are Challenges

Marketers have increased the number of campaigns they run, but face many more challenges when it comes to budgets, technical capabilities, and analyzing and explaining the outcomes to those responsible for allocating budgets. Gartner estimates about 44% of the total marketing budget is spent on campaigns — up by 31% year-over-year — but the majority of survey respondents are dissatisfied with campaign performance.

Reliable Sources: AI, Transparency, And The Uses That Audiences Are Actually Comfortable With

The New York Times recently announced how it will be dipping its toes into the AI pool, incorporating the technology into such operations as social copy and SEO headlines and unveiling a summarization tool for its journalists to “condense Times articles, briefings, and interactives.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times basically belly-flopped off the deep-end diving board with this week’s debut of its “Insights” feature, which is intended to bring AI-created perspectives to editorials and commentaries while offering “an annotated summary of the ideas expressed in the piece along with different views on the topic from a variety of sources.” (LA Times union members came out to say they doubt the unvetted AI analysis will “do much to enhance trust in the media,” while outlets like The Guardian were pointing out the dangers of critical articles getting unregulated counterpoint-friendly footnotes … all before the LA Times ultimately removed the feature from at least one article for falling down that precise dangerous trap.)

Between and beyond those two coasts, and along that vast spectrum of AI strategies, publishers are considering how best to take advantage of all that AI has to offer. And with those discussions, it’s increasingly important to weigh not just what it can do for the business-side, but what it will mean for those on the audience-side.

 

Digital Publishing: Outlook and Priorities for 2025

The responses confirm the priority to grow audiences, with 66% of publishers saying that they agree or strongly agree that their approach to increasing revenues will focus on exploring how to leverage their audience engagement to increase advertiser revenues. Publishers recognise the value of their quality content — with 52% planning to increase content output and 40% focused on changing the type of content they produce to attract more readers or viewers. 

 

State of Commerce Advertising

In the last quarter, blogs, search and product listings made significant strides, joining the consistently strong performance of influencers as top revenue drivers. In contrast, coupon pages and loyalty programs have experienced a noticeable decline.

 

All Hands On Board: B2B Firms Struggle To Process New Customers

B2B brands may be effective on the marketing front end. But they have a problem once they have attracted new customers: onboarding them, according to The Future of Customer Onboarding 2025, a study by Moxo. Of the companies polled, 56% have delays in processing new clients. 

HED Above The Rest: The One Thing Paywall Articles Should Have To Attract Subscribers

If you’re reading this in a newsletter and then ultimately on the Magazine Manager blog, it’s because of my choice to create content that you can click on and consume without the hurdle of a paywall. It’s a choice afforded by the nature of what and why I publish, and a choice that I understand not all publishers have the luxury of making. 

If paywalls weren’t effective in keeping content exclusive to an intended audience — while also, one hopes, helping build that audience-base — then no one would construct them.

Which makes the recent study about paywall effectiveness all the more fascinating.

 

New York Times Goes All-In On Internal AI Tools

The New York Times is greenlighting the use of AI for its product and editorial staff, saying that internal tools could eventually write social copy, SEO headlines, and some code. In messages to newsroom staff, the company announced that it’s opening up AI training to the newsroom, and debuting a new internal AI tool called Echo to staff, Semafor has learned.

 

The AI State Of Mind: Brands Are Reasonably Sure They Are Good At It

Brands are warming up to AI and are steadily gaining expertise — especially in the email area, judging by The Evolution Of AI in Marketing 2025, a study by Ascend2. Of the firms polled, 60% are somewhat successful at using AI to achieve their marketing objectives. And 25% say they are very successful, or best in class. Only 14% are unsuccessful. But they are not using AI as widely as they might. 

 

B2B Marketers Double Down On AI And Social Media In 2025

60% of US B2B marketers plan to boost spending on AI tools and on social media advertising in 2025, per November 2024 data from Madison Logic and The Harris Poll.

Search Parties: Despite AI-Driven Competition, Google Still Dominating Search

AI’s abrupt disruption of search is a phenomenon that I, along with every other digital publisher and marketer, have been following closely, ever since the letters “GPT” started more easily rolling off our tongues and from our fast-flying typing-fingers.

So while we consider AI’s potential impacts this year and beyond, it’s still vitally important to know what it’s doing in the present. 

And Similarweb’s recent look at search platforms shows Google is still clearly No. 1, with more than 30 times more visits than ChatGPT.

 

Google Triggers 100% More AI Overviews for Longer Queries

BrightEdge recently analyzed search queries and revealed that Google has increased AIO presence in longer queries by up to 100% from September to December 2024. In effectively doubling the number of long queries that trigger AIO, the incumbent search leader demonstrates that it can use its wide-ranging data set and index to answer longer, more complicated queries in a more precise and targeted manner than it could previously.

 

Ad Market Remains Volatile, Decelerates Due To Political Uncertainty

While advertising growth is projected to decelerate this year due to tough comparisons with 2024’s Olympics and U.S. election-year spending, the U.S. will retain its share of the worldwide marketplace, according to new estimates released this morning by media industry economist PQ Media. Worldwide advertising and marketing expenditures will decelerate by 3.3 percentage points this year — dropping from an expansion of 8.7% in 2024 to 5.4% in 2025.

 

The Bottom Line: A New Era of Top-Down Digital Transformation

AI is revolutionizing marketing, with a surprising twist. We collaborated with the American Marketing Association to survey 1,000+ marketing professionals, revealing that unlike social media’s bottom-up adoption, AI implementation is being driven by executives.

Think Digitally, Act Locally: The Increasing Benefits Of Digital Revenue For Local Media

I recently wrote about the confidence that more than half of editors, CEOs, and digital executives have about the business of journalism in 2025.

Helping point to where that confidence is coming from is a separate, recent survey of thousands of North American local media outlets, which found that nearly half (44.8%) saw an increase in total digital revenue from the year before, and more than two-thirds (67.9%) are increasing their digital revenue budget for the year ahead.

 

Social Media Ads And AI Are Top Of Mind For Marketers This Year

Whatever happens to TikTok, marketers are planning to keep spending big on social media. That’s according to a new report from omnichannel ad platform Mediaocean, which has since 2021 been surveying marketers about consumer and tech trends for a series of biannual reports on outlooks for the industry.

 

Poor Print: Offline Media Spend Will Fall In 2025, Forecast Says

Publishers can take at least some solace from Winterberry Group’s new report, Outlook for Advertising, Marketing and Data: Transformation Accelerates. Total media expenditures will grow by 6.1% YoY to $585 billion in 2025, Winterberry projects. And there will be shifts to largely digital, data-centric channels fueled by investments in ad tech, analytics and AI.  

 

New York Magazine Union Reaches Contract Deal, Averts Walkout

Members at New York Magazine reached a contract deal with management and averted a walkout. Workers told bosses they were ready to walk if management didn’t agree to a successor contract. The new tentative agreement includes wage increases and strong protections on artificial intelligence.

Keeping Perspective: AI, Subscriptions, And The State of Journalism In 2025

It appears the state of journalism in 2025 is all about, well, one’s perspective.

And while that difference in perspective is not as clear-cut as journalism’s separation of church and state, the split in confidence does ride along similar division lines.

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism recently released its annual “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025” report, finding that while 41% of editors, CEOs, and digital execs are “confident about the prospects for journalism in the year ahead,” 17% have low confidence due to various factors considered “significant threats to journalism’s ability to operate freely.” 

All that, while more than half are confident about the business of journalism, “a significant jump on last year’s figure.”

 

Programmatic Roars: Ad Spend Will Be Higher This Year

Advertisers, now settling down to business after a tumultuous 2024, are increasing their programmatic spend this year. Of those polled, 72% expect to invest more in programmatic advertising in 2025, up from 62% in 2024, according to the State of Programmatic, a study from Proximic by Comscore. 

 

The 2025 State of Marketing Report

Our recent research revealed that AI tools and unified tech stacks are a major differentiator in helping marketers connect with their audiences. The marketing teams with connected CRMs … are more confident in taking on their biggest challenges, like data privacy concerns, rising customer expectations, and the demand for authentic, personalized content. 

 

The State of Prospecting 2025

Buyer journeys are more complex. Longer sales cycles, larger buying committees, and fiercer competition mean businesses must adapt their strategies to align with today’s buyer journeys.

The Credit They Deserve: As AI Expands Into Newsrooms, Are Publishers Seeing Better Attributions?

Recently, Axios announced that it would be expanding its local newsrooms to 34 in total. 

And while local-news expansion is always welcome in the publishing world, it’s the publisher’s partner that makes this expansion particularly noteworthy: OpenAI.

Yes, the AI company is funding the local-news expansion to four cities, “as part of a broader content-sharing and technology deal,” Axios says. And while Axios CEO Jim VandeHei says OpenAI will not be used for reporting in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Boulder, or Huntsville, it will “help build a system for creation, distribution, and monetization of our journalism.”

 

Survey: Publishers To Focus On Digital Growth, New Audience Strategies In 2025

The rise in artificial intelligence, shifts in media consumption and challenges like privacy and signal loss in advertising were frequently discussed in the news this year. … We surveyed AAM publisher clients to learn more about their experiences this year and what they hope to accomplish in the year ahead.

 

Tech Stack Jumble: Brands Are Having Trouble Identifying Customers

Email teams may be suffering from larger issues affecting their organizations. For one thing, 70% of marketing leaders are struggling to identify and engage audiences across multiple touchpoints, according to the Q4 2024 Identity Resolution from TransUnion, conducted by Forrester. Here’s one reason why: Of the companies polled, 66% are using 16 or more martech solutions.

2025 Mobile Consumer Insights Report

Consumers have spoken: text messaging and digital wallets are driving them to engage with and purchase from brands. … 86% are more likely to engage with or redeem mobile offers sent to them via SMS than those sent via email or in a brand’s mobile app.

Digital Diligence: Why The Right Tech Is Essential For Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Digital Content Needs

2025 is in full swing, and as publishers and advertisers look ahead — as they always do — the continuous need for digital content shows no sign of slowing.

In fact, new research from Canto and Ascend2 confirms that, with more than three-quarters (77%) of creatives expecting their production volume to increase this year, up a full five percent from the 72% in previous years. All this, while 17% expect budget cuts.

 

Digital Publisher Programmatic Ad Sales Continue To Inch Out Direct Sold

Programmatic ad sales on properties owned by digital publishers will reach $22.69 billion by 2027, adding $3.7 billion to where it was in 2022, according to Advertiser Perceptions’ “Q4 2024: The State of the Ad Industry” survey.

 

Will AI-Generated Advertising Disrupt The Creative Industry? 

The time and cost savings that AI-generated creative can provide during the development journey of an ad campaign are very attractive for brands. Why spend time and money to create an animatic or a storyboard if you can feed the text prompt and see the rough draft of your idea brought to life in a matter of moments? Some even believe that AI-generated content will be able to eliminate the need to produce a finished copy and will become the standard in the ad creation process. But are we there yet?

 

The Future of the Martech Stack 2025

A significant 96% of marketing professionals view their marketing technology as successful in achieving strategic objectives, with 35% rating it as “very successful” or best-in-class. The majority, 61%, find their martech stack somewhat effective, reflecting general satisfaction but indicating room for improvement.

Tech Check: Google Makes First Exemption Payment To Canadian Publishers

Where Canada/United States relations go after this week is anybody’s guess, but those recent posturing headlines have obscured other Canadian-partnership news that loom large in the publishing world.

Of course, I’m referring to the safe arrival of the massive check Google had dropped in the post, allowing the company to stay in north-of-the-border business.

 

We Analyzed 332 Million Queries Over 21 Months To Uncover Never-Before-Published Data On How People Use Google

Google is a massive presence on the modern web. They’ve held 90%+ of the global search market share for 15 years. Even the rise of AI tools has been unable to budge that number (so far). They get <9% of all web visits, but send more than 60% of all referring traffic to other sites.

 

Those Tiresome Emails: Consumers Quick To Switch When They Get Too Many

Email remains the most popular channel with consumers, but it is easy to annoy them with excessive volume and lack of personalization, judging by The 2025 Optimove Consumer Marketing Fatigue Report. Of the shoppers polled, 59% prefer email as their primary channel for messages, compared to 18% who prefer social media. Moreover, 48% notice email over other channels. But there is a risk of overuse …

 

Consumers Like Locally Targeted Ad Messaging

68% of US internet users think marketing from national brands with local messaging makes ads more relevant and shows advertisers are investing in local communities, per a study from The Harris Poll and Locality.