Should publishers give Facebook Instant Articles another look?
It turns out media companies are finally starting to make decent money through Instant Articles.
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Digiday: Facebook preps tool comparing publishers’ mobile web revenue to Instant Articles
From the article:
Over the past few months, different teams inside Facebook have been busy building tools meant to encourage publishers to publish more using Facebook-native publishing tools such as Instant Articles. It is preparing to launch a tool designed to show publishers how much revenue their mobile web articles might have generated had they been published in the Instant Article format.
I think what makes this story interesting is that it’s Facebook’s first big push of Instant Articles in recent years.
Facebook launched Instant Articles to much fanfare in 2015 with the promise of allowing publishers to more effectively monetize their mobile traffic by tapping into Facebook’s own platform and ad tech.
Several high profile publishers tested out Instant, but in 2018 a Columbia Journalism Review analysis found that “of 72 publishers that Facebook identified as original partners in May and October 2015 … 38 publications did not post a single Instant Article” in January 2018. Some publishers openly stated that they were disappointed by the revenue generated from Instant Articles.
Beyond that, you didn’t hear much more. Occasionally, a media CEO would reference Facebook Instant when talking about their revenue streams, but you’d be forgiven if you assumed that Facebook had moved on to other shiny objects in its portfolio.
As it turns out, it continued to innovate and build the product behind the scenes, and Facebook now seems confident that it can outperform publishers on their owned and operated sites, especially with the coming privacy crackdowns that will make it much more difficult for publishers to leverage third party cookies in their ad targeting.
So should publishers take the bait? Given that consumption of Facebook Instant Articles is limited to users already within Facebook’s ecosystem, I see little downside. If Facebook can prove that Instant Articles are more lucrative than publishers’ websites, then the move seems likely worth it.
Of course there are those who will always take the stance that you should never give Facebook more market power or influence over your bottom line, even if it means sacrificing revenue in the short term.
But not all publishers have the luxury of sacrificing short term revenue, and for those, I think now is a good time to give Instant a second look.
This Australian news site doubled its paid subscriptions over the past year
Crikey was founded in 2000 as a paid newsletter. In the last year it’s doubled its paid subscriptions, growing from 10,000 subscribers to over 20,000. If you work in media, then you can likely appreciate that generating the same amount of growth in one year that you experienced in the previous 20 is no easy feat. So how did Crikey accomplish it?
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Press Gazette: Financial Times CEO says publishers don't have to choose between ads and subscriptions - they can have both
From the article:
[Financial Times chief executive John Ridding] revealed digital advertising revenues at the FT were up by 30% in 2020 and overtook print in the final quarter of the year. “A moment, and a milestone, and not a coincidence,” he said. “Rather it’s the result of deeper audience data and, as a result, an increasingly effective marketing proposition. So it isn’t ads versus subs – there is strong growth to be had in both. “I don’t quote Boris [Johnson] often, but you can have your cake and eat it. Crucially, though, only if you have a robust reader revenue foundation.”
The irony with paid subscription strategies is that they can sometimes help grow your advertising revenue. How? They incentivize you to attract higher quality audiences that are coveted by advertisers.
The digital version of FT costs $372 a year, which severely limits its reach. But that price also guarantees to advertisers that they’re reaching more affluent, educated readers who are more likely to work in highly influential business sectors. And because customers are required to log in if they want to read FT content, the company collects much richer first party data. I wouldn’t be surprised if FT’s average CPM for ads is much higher than, say, BuzzFeed’s or HuffPo’s.
Creator spotlight: How Joseph Hogue built Let's Talk Money, his personal finance YouTube channel
Joseph doesn't just rely on YouTube ads for monetization. He also publishes ebooks, affiliate links, online courses, and downloadable spreadsheets.
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The Verge: YouTube can now warn creators about copyright issues before videos are posted
From the article:
In an effort to make the process of uploading a video and receiving ad revenue easier, YouTube is rolling out a new tool called “Checks” that tells a creator ahead of time if their video contains copyrighted material and complies with advertising guidelines.
One of the biggest complaints from YouTubers is that their channels are subjected to the capricious whims of copyright holders. This will at least introduce a little more transparency so they can anticipate problems prior to publishing a video.
Bloomberg: Clubhouse’s Founder Is in a State of Perpetual Motion
This is good profile of Clubhouse founder Paul Davison.
Creator spotlight: How Michael Judson Berry created his comedy TikTok channel
This guy got to 340,000 followers on TikTok simply by developing a decent impersonation of a Schitt's Creek character.
Wired: Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up
From the article:
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the Wikipedia project in more than 300 languages as well as other wiki-projects, is announcing the launch of a commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. The new service is designed for the sale and efficient delivery of Wikipedia's content directly to [online behemoths like Facebook and Google] (and eventually, to smaller companies too).
For years, major tech platforms like Google have relied on the labor of Wikipedia's community to feed them information. Is it time for these platforms to pay up?
Nieman Lab: The New Yorker leans into crossword puzzles online and, now, in print
From the article: "If you’re looking at people who subscribe, or people who read multiple articles a month, those are groups that really value our crossword.”
Creator spotlight: How Thomas Baekdal built Baekdal Plus, a subscription-funded magazine
Thomas started his paid subscription business in 2010 and was nearly bankrupt by the time it finally turned a profit. Now that's perseverance!
Women’s Running: Alison Wade and the Power of the Fast Women Newsletter
This is a cool story about a thriving indie newsletter.
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Simon Owens is a tech and media journalist living in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Email him at simonowens@gmail.com. For a full bio, go here.