Breaking The News: Google Removing News Links In Response To California’s CJPA

As California’s Senate Judiciary Committee waits to hear the Assembly-passed California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), Google has taken a preemptive — and some say “undemocratic” — measure to remove links to news sites in the state.

Google is calling it a “short-term test for a small percentage of California users,” enacted to see what impact the pending legislation would have on the search engine and its product experience. 

Echoing Meta’s threats before it, Google’s step is founded on the belief that the CJPA would benefit larger media conglomerates more than small publishers. CJPA bill author and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks called Meta’s threats a “scare tactic” at the time, and the criticisms of Google’s actual link-removal late last week show the tactic is striking no fear within media circles.

 

Recurly Data Signals Sustained Growth In Digital Media Subscriptions Since 2020

After streaming media subscriptions skyrocketed in 2020 as consumer behavior shifted dramatically during a global pandemic, the industry is normalizing with sustained and steady growth, according to new benchmarking data from Recurly. … The digital media and entertainment industry experienced a 124% increase in subscribers since 2020, and the digital publishing industry saw an explosive 536% increase in subscribers over the same time period.

 

Data Problems Get In The Way Of GenAI

A surprising 93% of retailers are using AI for some kind of personalization, including personalized email copy and product recommendations, according to Retail Roadblock: Lack of Data Strategy Stands in the Way Of Generative AI Progress. But data problems are holding retailers back. For instance, only 17% have a complete single view of their customers. And 49% are in the earliest stages of building or considering the creation of a complete customer data profile.

 

State Of Cross-Channel Marketing For 2024

On average, B2C marketers use at least five marketing channels to engage with their customers. 57% of marketers say finding new customers is a key focus area for them in 2024, followed by increasing engagement and loyalty (44.9%). Budget and resource constraints are a top challenge for 45.4% of marketers in driving customer engagement, followed by providing personalized experiences (39.5%).