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80% of publishers saw a decline in Google related search traffic last year

Discover the reasons behind these declines and learn how publishers are addressing them in Digiday and Arc XP’s “The State of Publisher Traffic: Framing the Evolution and Impact of Search and Referral in 2024” report!

Sponsored by Arc XP, Digiday surveyed 115 publishers to explore key questions like:

  • How are publishers navigating the evolving terrain of search and referral traffic?

  • What changes have publishers witnessed in traffic patterns, and how have they adapted?

  • What strategies are leading publishers employing to tackle emerging challenges?


Podcast reach among UK adults hits all time high

The UK Podcast Consumer 2024 released by Edison Research

 

The latest research on the UK podcast market from Edison Research shows that our favourite audio format has firmly established itself as a leading media platform in the UK. What does that actually mean? Basically that more UK adults than ever are listening to podcasts.

The research shows that over two-thirds of people in the UK aged 18+ have listened to a podcast at least once. More interesting is the fact that 42% are monthly podcast listeners and 30% are weekly listeners.

Edison’s age data is also interesting. Younger adults are loyal listeners, with a majority of 18–34 year olds listening monthly and 41% weekly. About half of 35-54 year olds are monthly podcast listeners, with 34% listening weekly. Even the oldsters are listening in – 28% of those age 55+ listen monthly, up from 20% in 2023, and 18% listen weekly. Podcasts, Baby, Yeah!


 

What’s happened since Time dropped its paywall 1 year ago

The legacy publisher is betting its business on advertising—and its brand.

Time dropped its paywall last June, joining a handful of news organisations that have put up and pulled down their paywall. So what happened? Adweek says advertising revenues went up, digital subscriptions went down. By dropping its paywall and positioning itself as a premium brand, Time is betting on the expansion of its direct advertising and sponsorship business to compensate for the 50,000+ digital subscriptions its lost. Probably an easier punt to take when your owners are billionaires.

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Making the most of content

‘Audit’ and ‘content’ are two words that send shivers down the spines of many editorial types. Link them together in a single sentence and the shivers can turn into apoplexy, writes Jim Bilton.

Jim Bilton says one of the key learnings from the mediafutures benchmarking project has been the need for publishers to take a more structured approach to content. In this piece for InPublishing he outlines a three step process that moves through content audit to an evaluation of the efficiency of your content creation and on to the effectiveness of your content distribution and marketing.


 

The Hidden Environmental Impact of AI

While the mass adoption of AI has transformed digital life seemingly overnight, regulators have fallen asleep on the job in curtailing AI data centers’ drain on energy and water resources.

I think this is the first time I’ve shared an article from the leftist US magazine Jacobin. But maybe looking outside the media bubble every now and then is a good thing, especially if it’s highlighting the shocking environmental impact AI data centres are having. For example, adding AI-generated answers to all Google searches could easily consume as much electricity as the entire country of Ireland. And you thought it was the killer robots that were going to wipe us out.


More from Media Voices

 

TIME EiC Edward Felsenthal on the secret to lasting 100 years

Edward Felsenthal talks about how the publication reached its centenary, the tradition of innovation at TIME, and how legacy is not a bad word.

 

Setting the tone in podcasts and newsletters

In Charlotte Henry’s latest ‘Lessons from the creator economy’ column, she explains why publishers across the board are struggling to find the balance between professionalisation and informality.

 

No, print magazines are not like vinyl

Vinyl is a flawed substrate for music; print has never been a substandard reading substrate. But that’s not the only unhelpful comparison.

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