The future of publishing ‘a programmatic bonus’ on top of the real ads
The rise of programmatic buying will see publishers treating banner ads and other algorithm-driven advertising as nothing more than a bonus on top of the branded the content they create, Carousel Publisher Robyn Foyster has warned.
Speaking at the Mumbrella Publish conference panel on the future of publishing, Foyster said publishers were seeing rapidly diminishing returns for handing over their inventory to programmatic media buyers.
She said display would be a very small part of the future.
“Often display is a bonus, we have seen what’s happening with programmatic coming on board,” Foyster said.
“Publishers like myself would have been up for $20-$40 for CPM on video and I was speaking with a publisher the other day and they are now getting $5 through programmatic. The big change there is in terms of how much money you are going to make through programmatic as a publisher.”
Michie: “The one thing we have definitely decided not to do is to charge people to access our (journalism) content”
Foyster said as publishers looked to make up for the shortfall that was being created by the programmatic market, her business was looking to create more white label content that would be able to be used by brands either through their own portals or through Carousel’s platform.
Aaron Michie, director of Guardian Labs, said that one area where potential future opportunities lay for publishers was in diversifying revenue models well away from reliance on the published work.
“From our point of view on revenue, one of the key sorts of things is diversity in revenue models, so we have up to 10 revenue streams running now, including soft toys, bizarrely,” Mitchie said.
“Obviously that’s a very, very small revenue stream, but we really are looking at diverse ways to make money. The one thing we have definitely not to do is to charge people to access our (journalism) content.”
The Guardian has opted for a membership model for those that want to support the media company, offering special deals through its diversified streams for their loyalty.
“We have a mission and a purpose and we want people to support us,” he said.
Foyster and Michie were joined on the panel by AAP editor in chief Tony Gillies and Slingshot Accelerator CEO Karen Lawson.
topics
AAP
Aaron Michie
guardian labs
Karen Lawson
Publish
Robyn Foyster
Slingshot Accelerator
the carousel
Tony Gillies
