A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• What Is Clean Your List From Mirabel Technologies?

Email marketing is vital to every digital marketing strategy, but the key to its success is verifying your email lists. To improve email deliverability, stack ROI, and actually reach your audience, you need to invest in an email verification tool. Clean Your List is a new affordable email verification software from Mirabel Technologies. Used as a standalone platform, Clean Your List is the latest addition to the suite of affordable SaaS products.

• MUM’s the Word: Google Search to Get 1,000 Times More Powerful

This week at Search On 2021, Google showed how Search will soon be able to not only better understand aspects of a topic the user is searching for, but also surface more insights and inspiration. The company showcased how they are using AI and new technologies to make information more helpful than ever before, while giving users new ways to search and explore in more natural and intuitive ways.

• Google Pushes FLoC Testing To Q1 2022

Testing of FLEDGE — the company’s remarketing solution designed to eliminate third-parties tracking of user behavior, along with the measurement of digital ads — is delayed until Q1 2022. As Google moves the industry toward the phasing out of third-party cookies, it needs to introduce APIs enabling options that depend on them, but without enabling cross-site tracking.

• How Publishers Can Take Full Advantage of Their CRM

According to one report, 43% of CRM users use less than half of the features that their CRM offers …  and I’d say that number is conservative. And no matter if that comes down to difficulty in understanding the system or ignorance as to all its capabilities, it’s an issue worth addressing if only because there’s so much potential on the other side.

• Why Social Media Marketing Is Important For Any Business

Social media has become a vital part of our everyday life with roughly 50% of the world’s population (over three billion individuals) using it… Regardless of your industry, social media is one of the most efficient and effective ways to elevate your brand’s marketing strategy. The benefits of social media marketing for business are limitless. From broadening target audiences to increasing awareness and boosting sales, we’re diving into the top reasons to invest in a social media marketing strategy.

• What Publishers Need to Know About the Latest Changes in Google Search

Journalists have known for a while the importance of using tools like Google Trends to help target our copy and spot opportunities to drive additional audience. But the pandemic, along with those Google updates, has really accelerated the focus on news SEO as an essential discipline. In short, if you are in the news publishing ‘game’ and you are not investing in news SEO, then your growth is likely to be severely stunted going forward.

• “You don’t want to put things that are commodity content behind a paywall”: How Publishers Are Growing Subscribers Via Free Content

Soft paywalls allow readers to experience the quality of your content and may over time inspire them to sign up for a paid subscription. Research done by American Press Institute’s Media Insights Project found that 47% of new subscribers signup after running out of free articles on a site they like and respect.

• 6 Ways to Perfect Your Territory and Account Management Strategy

The challenge is that if your rules are too strict, you won’t get the level of competition necessary to maximize your sales revenue, and if your rules are too relaxed, it turns into a free-for-all where sales reps are often pitted against each other. Then, frequent disputes arise, which wear thin on managers and impact your sales team’s morale. As any publisher knows, it’s not a small issue. In this blog, I’m going to share my two cents on account management based on my 25 years of publishing experience.

• 9 Quick Website Changes You Can Make to Increase Quality Leads

Since your website is often the first touchpoint a potential client has with your company, you want to do everything you can to ensure that it yields real results from visitors. There should be a clear path to follow and a set of actions to complete. Without a fine-tuned and efficient website, you’ll miss out on a pool of potential opportunities. So, how does one fine-tune? With these nine quick but effective tweaks.

• How to Create a Better User Experience to Convert Fly-By Users Into Loyal Subscribers 

Encouraging existing customers to make greater use of your website is easier than attracting completely new visitors, and publishers are looking for ways to deepen their relationships with visitors so they stay on their sites for longer and click through to other stories, pages, and videos. If they have visited once or twice, chances are they can be persuaded to come again.

• BFFs Once More, Advertisers and Publishers Rediscover Their Alliance Amid Tracking Turmoil

Direct deals between advertisers and publishers are back, but then again, they never really went away. They’re just being pitched harder and considered more carefully now as advertisers see publishers as a valuable source of audience data in the absence of third-party cookies.

• How to Start A Magazine in 2021

Thanks to both their centuries-long resilience and progressive nature to adapt, magazines continue to be a worthwhile project to embark on.  If you’re looking to start a magazine or pivot to digital editions, read on. We’re outlining the basic steps of how to start a magazine in 2021.

• 7 Email Marketing Tips You Should Adopt Immediately

Every single second, 2.4 billion emails are sent all around the world. With your target audience’s inboxes constantly being flooded, it’s important to recognize that your business’s emails are competing for attention at all times…Embarking on your company’s next booming campaign takes time, consideration, and a lot of prep work. Before you hit send, read through these seven tips to help you ensure that your business is putting its best foot forward when that campaign email lands in your audiences’ inboxes.

• How to Make Subscription Models a Long-Term Success

The media landscape has transformed beyond all recognition. Now, some of the largest companies in the world – such as Apple and Twitter – are relying less on advertisers as their primary source of revenue and instead, leaning on customers, with paid memberships and subscriptions taking precedence.

• Publishers Rethink Their Value to Stave Off Subscription Fatigue Among New Paying Readers

In 2020, subscription revenue for publishers grew 16%, according to a study by subscription management platform Zuora; around a fifth (21%) of American adults now pay for at least one online news outlet in the U.S., according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021. The majority of those paying have an average of two subscriptions. But how many subscriptions can one reader pay for? And how many will they keep, especially without the rollercoaster of 2020 to keep them locked into the news cycle?

• The Top 5 CRMs for Magazine Publishers

A CRM for magazine publishers takes the specific needs of publishers into account. They include industry-specific features, like subscription management, ad invoicing, and even flat-planning, to separate themselves from generic CRM software…Are you ready to leverage the power that comes with a magazine CRM software?

• Here Are the Best Ways to Get Leads on LinkedIn in 2021

If you’re looking to attract interested bottom-of-the-funnel leads, LinkedIn is a great asset. In fact, audiences on LinkedIn have twice the buying power of the average web audience. The platform offers a variety of free and paid features to maximize your lead generation efforts on both your personal and business pages, but as with most things, you can’t dive in without some preparation.

• Apple Offers News Publishers a Commission Break… If They Join New Partner Program

In a move that also coincides with Apple’s just-announced, $100-million settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought by developers — Apple is offering all publishers the 15% commission rate on first-year subscriptions… if they’re willing to agree to participate in a new Apple News Partner Program that has some advantages for Apple, and potential disadvantages for publishers.

• “The evidence is clear”: Headline Testing Continues to Drive Higher Engagement for Publishers

Headline experimentation has become an increasingly popular tool among publishers. Editorial teams often test several title variations for the same article, in order to find out which one performs the best. Testing identifies not only the headlines that are being clicked on, but also the ones that lead to engagement with the content. This is particularly significant for the global publishers that need to ensure they’re allocating time to optimizations with the highest reader impact.

• Your Guide to the Best Magazine Software for Publishers

When it comes to magazine media and digital publications, reliable software tools are a necessity. From publishing CRM and magazine design, to circulation and subscription management, this ultimate guide to magazine software is an overview of the most popular software tools in the publishing industry.

• How Website Visitor Tracking Can Help Your Marketing and Sales

Did you know that it takes about less than a second for a website visitor to form an opinion about your company? Whether they click around or contribute to your exit rate, you can use that data to your advantage. Based on these analytics, you can determine if your website and content strategy are effective.

• Digiday Research: Publishers Are Much Less Worried About the Coming Cookie Changes Than Brands and Agencies

Several months of preparation for the coming cookie-pocalypse appear to have brought publishers some peace of mind. They have not had quite the same effect on brands and agencies, according to Digiday+ research. As of the beginning of the third quarter of 2021, less than 50% of the publisher professionals Digiday surveyed said they were worried about their ability to target ads or measure their effectiveness without third-party cookies.

• The Ending of Third-Party Cookies: Big Tech Developments

Although Google claims its privacy sandbox solution, FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), will produce 95% of the per-dollar conversions that third-party cookies previously achieved, so far it has met with widespread resistance. Although a number of companies are either testing the sandbox this year (AdThrive, CafeMedia), or working with Google on their proposals (PubMatic), the criticism is certainly gathering momentum. This is significant, as ostensibly, Google is designing FLoC to become a fundamental part of the web, not just Chrome.

• What’s Your Mix of Six? Alternative Revenue Streams in Digital Publishing

Nowadays, no single revenue stream is enough to sustain, let alone grow, a digital publication. Instead, online publishers are relying on a combination of revenue streams to ensure they can bring in sufficient capital… While most companies’ monetization strategies will include a combination of some, if not all of, these revenue streams, it’s important to have an understanding of each opportunity and current revenue trends to know which combination will work best for your publication — what’s your mix of six?

• 9 Quick Website Changes You Can Make To Increase Quality Leads

Since your website is often the first touchpoint a potential client has with your company, you want to do everything you can to ensure that it yields real results from visitors. There should be a clear path to follow and a set of actions to complete. Without a fine-tuned and efficient website, you’ll miss out on a pool of potential opportunities.

• Which Way Now? Publisher Options for the Ending of Third-Party Cookies

As a key part of the report, we have interviewed many of the leading tech vendors offering cookie-less solutions, and enquired into the latest thinking and innovations behind them. The purpose is to provide an all-encompassing report that publishers can use as a guide and reference point.

• Access Denied or Granted? Relationships with sources are more scrutinized and more complicated than ever

Fundamentally, access journalism occurs when reporters value landing a source more than the information gleaned from that source. But what do readers, viewers, or other members of the public mean when they use the term as criticism? Is it simply expedient and pithy, just a new way to disparage the press?

• No More Cookies: How You’ll Be Able to Survive Without These Dying Tracking Tools

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the modern, more common tracking practices, the takeaway if these techniques are ultimately taken away, and what those working in the publishing industry can do to craft and execute even more effective outreach plans in their wake.

• Is Your Business Taking Advantage of All Available Email Marketing Tools?

When it comes to managing relationships with your business’s prospects and existing customers, a customer relationship management software, or CRM, is a must-have. In this day and age, it’s no secret that data is the key to meeting your company’s goals efficiently and effectively…CRMs are at the heart of every growing business. In fact, CRM software is the biggest software market in the world, and the growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

• “We’re launching a new link spam fighting change”: Google’s New Algo Update, and its Effects on Sponsored, Guest, and Affiliate Content

“In our continued efforts to improve the quality of the search results, we’re launching a new link spam fighting change,” said Google’s Duy Nguyen, “the link spam update.” This algo change specifically targets “spammy links”, and is a global update that seems to affect links that are manipulative and unnatural…The search giant cautions that changes in rankings may be imminent for some site owners.

• How Publishers Are Converting a Spring Traffic Surge Into Sustained Growth

The ensuing global pandemic has impacted every publisher differently, but a few common challenges have generally emerged: the immediate shelving of long-planned initiatives or new launches, a total pause on live events—an increasingly vital extension for many, in normal times—and frustratingly, a dramatic yet difficult-to-monetize rush of web traffic and social media engagement.

• What’s Your Mix of Six? Alternative Revenue Streams in Digital Publishing

According to former head of Hearst magazines, David Carey, there just may be a magic number: “You need five or six revenue streams to make the business really successful.”… While most companies’ monetization strategies will include a combination of some, if not all of, these revenue streams, it’s important to have an understanding of each opportunity and current revenue trends to know which combination will work best for your publication — what’s your mix of six?

 

• Deeper Intelligence: How an Analytical CRM Can Benefit Your Business

When it comes to managing relationships with your business’s prospects and existing customers, a customer relationship management software, or CRM, is a must-have. In this day and age, it’s no secret that data is the key to meeting your company’s goals efficiently and effectively…CRMs are at the heart of every growing business. In fact, CRM software is the biggest software market in the world, and the growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

• 9 Ways Publishers Are Using Newsletters to Grow Paying Members

Email has been around for a while. Many smart “digital media people” believe it will survive for a while longer. There’s no debating it – this is the new golden age for newsletters… In the past few years, wherever I have looked for insights on building sustainable reader revenue, emails and newsletters have almost always been in the top three things to focus on.

• How Magazine Publishers Are Cutting Print Costs to Improve Profits

When it comes to improving profits at print magazines, there’s a tendency to focus on new ways of driving revenue. But while keeping a close eye on expenses can also have a significant impact on the bottom line, today’s environment often calls for a balancing act.

• How to Start a Magazine in 2021

We’ve come a long way since the very first American publication in 1741. Who knows if Benjamin Franklin and his chronicling competitors had any idea that their budding industry would blossom into something that, just last year, had an annual global revenue of approximately $67.56 billion?  Thanks to both their centuries-long resilience and progressive nature to adapt, magazines continue to be a worthwhile project to embark on.

• 9 Simple Lead Generation Strategies Using Inbound Marketing

According to HubSpot, lead generation is defined as: “Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service. Some examples of lead generators are job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content.” The definition sounds practical, yet the practice isn’t as easy as it sounds. Lead generation strategies require an understanding of inbound marketing.

• Publishers: Are You Ready for the First-Party Future?

Last month, Google announced a delay for third-party cookie deprecation on its Chrome browser until the end of 2023. Despite this delay, using cookieless solutions today already shows better performance. Further, new research suggests that the marketing community is eager to embrace the ‘cookieless’ future and is looking towards the publisher community to keep pace with the privacy-first trend.

• B2B Marketers Increasing Use of Digital — Approaching $15bn by 2023, Says eMarketer

eMarketer released its U.S. B2B Advertising Forecast report on Monday that estimates that nearly half of the $30.6 billion spent on B2B advertising will be digital in 2023… For the first time, more than half of B2B marketers’ digital spend will focus on phones and tablets versus non-mobile devices such as laptops and desktop computers.

• The Highs and Lows of Publishing CRM, and How to Embrace the Complications

Sadly, magazine CRM systems are neither invincible nor undefeated. Keeping an exact score is difficult, as the CRM failure rate has been measured to be anywhere between 18% and 69% over the years… So when there is a failure, should blame be put on the system? The users? Those who thrust it upon the users? The answer to those questions may not be simple, but the solutions to overcome the larger contributing issues are entirely too easy.