The advertising industry is really good at turning a blind eye

PLUS: CNN finally acknowledges reality

Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.

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Let’s jump into it…

The advertising industry is really good at looking the other way

Digiday made some really good points in its reporting on how the advertising industry has reacted to the rise of scammy “made for advertising” websites:

Remember, this is an industry that likes to cling to plausible deniability. Or at least it does until it’s no longer plausible to deny what’s blindingly obvious.

This is what happened when the study found that 15% of the money spent on the audited campaigns went to MFAs.

All of a sudden, a wave of strong opinions swept through the market. Everyone seemed eager to point fingers and lay blame on others. Yet, only a few acknowledged their own role in the spread of MFAs. Fewer still seemed even remotely interested in doing anything to stop it.

The advertising industry is really good at looking the other way when it comes to fraud, precisely because it has every incentive to look the other way. Nearly every party in the chain makes more money when the client spends more money, and fraudsters are extremely good at helping those clients burn through advertising spend.

CNN finally acknowledges reality

One thing that’s befuddled me over the past decade was CNN’s singular focus on growing its ratings on a dying medium, all while nearly every other television network invested heavily on its digital transition. Hell, even Fox News made major investments in its Fox Nation streaming brand.

Well, CNN may be finally acknowledging reality with its hire of Mark Thompson, who famously steered The New York Times during its hugely successful digital transition. Margaret Sullivan, the former ombud for the NYT, wrote a piece in the Guardian explaining why she’s bullish on Thompson’s chances of turning CNN around:

During his eight-year Times tenure, he not only helped reinvent the paper for the digital age, but demonstrated a solid understanding of the newsroom’s mission. The traditional strict separations between newsroom and business side were dissolving – former Times executive editor Jill Abramson has written about her discomfort, at times, with that - but a spirit of respect prevailed.

And the Times, then beset by financial problems and layoffs, transformed its main revenue source from print advertising to digital subscribers; that was huge.

I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast

One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets.

In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:

• Niche news sites

• Video channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels

• Podcasts

• Newsletters

• Affiliate/ecommerce

Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. )

Is it time for the media industry to embrace drop shipping?

Digital Context Next covered the rise of retail media and explained why brands are increasingly directing their ad dollars to platforms like Amazon and Walmart:

As third-party cookies go the way of the Dodo and the web becomes a more privacy-conscious place, first-party data is imperative. And [retail media networks] have first-party data in spades. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are close to the customer at the point of checkout and know the kinds of products an individual user is searching for and often what they may have bought in the past.

That reminded of my interview with Man of Many co-founder Scott Purcell and his explanation for why the media outlet had invested in launching its own drop shipping store:

We essentially own more of the sale. It’s the difference between a commission and an affiliate model. Sometimes attribution from retail platforms can be a little bit trickier, whereas if it's coming directly from our store, the attribution is really clear, so brands are willing to pay a bit of a higher commission for that.

Most publishers just use standard affiliate links when recommending a product, but attribution can get messy when the consumer puts off purchasing the item until much later. As retail behemoths consolidate their power and start siphoning away more and more ad dollars from publishers, it may become vital for those publishers to own more of the sale. That would require launching their own dedicated online stores.

Twitter’s creator payouts become more transparent

When Twitter initially rolled out its revenue sharing program, it was essentially a black box, with no one understanding why some creators were receiving checks and others weren’t. But now it’s launched a dashboard with a bit more transparency:

X is now looking to provide more transparency in its payment info listing, with specific date ranges for ad share payouts … X still has a way to go in providing full transparency on this front, but this new presentation format provides at least some additional clarity as to what each user is being paid for, which could also, potentially, enable them to better plan for future payments.

It sucks that Elon has done so much to ruin Twitter, because otherwise I would be more vocal in cheering on the company's attempts to finally share revenue with its creators.

Do you sell a product targeted toward marketers, media executives, or professional creators?

What a coincidence! That’s exactly who reads my newsletter. You can find out how to reach them over here.

The podcast industry is still growing

It may not seem like it — given all the news lately about canceled shows and layoffs — but podcast advertising is still growing, even if it's heavily concentrated within the most popular shows. That's why media companies have been cancelling so many underperforming podcasts — so they can focus more on the hits.

Virtual AI influencers were a gimmick…

… and it's not surprising that interest in them waned once the novelty wore off.

As human-like as some virtual influencers may attempt to be, they’re not human and unable to resonate with humans the way traditional influencers can. Virtual influencers can’t physically interact with a product. Simulations of product testing, whether it be make up, a snack brand or another consumer good isn’t necessarily the same as actual product reviews traditional influencers offer, per agency execs.

“It may be a novelty, but I don’t know that any one of these characters has broken through and felt as compelling as a real person. Culturally, they’re not as interesting,” said Natalie Silverstein, chief innovation officer at Collectively, influencer marketing agency. “Brands are interested in being where culture is.”

Vox Media is wading further into paid subscriptions

Aside from its acquisition of New York magazine, Vox Media has mainly stuck to free, ad-supported content, but it's now dipping its toes more into paid subscriptions:

SB Nation, the Vox Media sports network, has unveiled two paid newsletters for football fans: Pride of Detroit Direct for the Detroit Lions and Arrowhead Pride Premier for the Kansas City Chiefs.

These newsletters, the first paid products from SB Nation, will cost $50 for subscriptions. Each will appear twice a week in season and once a week during the off-period.

A local news success story

A Substack newsletter that publishes local news in the UK has amassed 5,000 paying subscribers. It's recently taken on investment and is expanding into more cities:

]Joshi] Herrmann started the Manchester Mill on a personal project in 2020, initially sustained by his own money and then funding from Substack, which runs its newsletter technology. Since then the Mill has launched spin-off editions in Liverpool and Sheffield, attracting more than 5,000 subscribers paying £7 a month for its mix of longform journalism and on-the-ground reporting. Herrmann has raised £350,000 from a group of private investors in return for selling “less than 20%” of parent company Mill Media, with the intention of using the cash injection to launch new local outlets and hire more staff in existing cities.

ICYMI: How a leading fintech events company pivoted to virtual events

Fintech Nexus charges brands thousands of dollars to sponsor its weekly webinars.