Author Archives: Paulo Jesus

Publisher Revenue Beyond Ads and Subscribers

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Publishers have long earned most of their revenue from paying subscribers and advertising. Publishers have innovated new technologies to lift advertising revenue and entice subscribers. Despite these efforts, publishers have lost tremendous revenue to digital advertising platforms. Below are some winning strategies publishers have taken to evolve their revenue streams.

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Start With Maximizing Advertising Revenue

In the short term, publishers can earn more advertising revenue because dollars are shifting away from social media. Twitter’s much-publicized difficulties under Elon Musk’s leadership – chaotic layoffs, increased inappropriate content, and more – have advertisers seeking new opportunities. For publishers committed to quality content and long-term audience engagement, there is a tremendous opportunity to win advertisers to your platforms, especially if you can offer brand-safe environments.

While significant, winning advertising dollars from other platforms will only take you so far. It’s also essential to take a hard look at the publishing business model.

Why Now Is The Right Time To Invest In Revenue Diversification

There are four reasons publishers need to invest resources into revenue diversification.

1. Generative AI Opens New Threats And Opportunities

The boom in generative AI technology poses many challenges. Governments and companies are concerned about AI safety. However, publishers are uniquely positioned to succeed with AI for a few reasons. First, publishers know their audiences deeply to direct generative AI tools effectively. Second, publishers have robust quality control mechanisms to verify sources and maintain high standards.

To discover more about how generative AI can lift publisher revenue, see our post: 5 Use Cases for Generative AI in Publishing Right Now. With editorial oversight, generative AI can dramatically increase your output and boost your ad revenue stream.

2. Economic Worries May Hurt Traditional Revenue Sources

While fears of a 2023 recession are easing, elevated inflation and interest rates continue to pressure many consumers and companies.

These economic concerns are already starting to impact the media industry. According to a June 2023 CNBC article: “Over the last six months, higher prices have led nearly 80% of consumers to cut spending on nonessential goods, like entertainment, home decor, clothing, appliances and more.” That reduced spending will likely cause advertisers to rethink and reduce their advertising budgets.

Many consumers are already thinking about cutting back on their spending. A National Research Group study found that 28% of consumers plan to decrease their subscriptions in the next six months. While the NRG report is focused on digital media subscriptions like Netflix, consumer cost-cutting measures may spread to publishers. 

In addition to consumers, advertiser spending is expected to decline in several categories next year. MarketingProfs points out that advertising spending is forecasted to decline in automation, financial services, alcoholic drinks, and tourism in 2023. 

3. Social Media Companies Retain Significant Audience Share

Large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had a challenging 2022. Even Google, which earns most of its revenue from advertising, is looking for ways to improve efficiency. For creative publishers with valuable audiences, there is an opportunity to grow as ad budgets shift.

It would be foolish to write off social media companies and platforms entirely. TikTok, for example, has over 1.6 billion users (86 million in the US). The potential collapse of Twitter and troubles at Facebook don’t mean social media is over, just that the landscape will likely undergo massive shifts.

4. Generation Z and Millenials Are The Future of Audience Growth

Taken together, millennials and Generation Z represent the publishing industry’s future. As of 2022, these two generations represent approximately 42% of the US population (source: Statista). In other words, engaging Gen Z and Millennials is non-negotiable for publishers.

Many publishers are struggling to earn attention from these growing groups. The American Press Institute (API) found that one-third (31%) of Gen Z never check local news outlets, and 33% never check national news outlets. Further, Americans aged 16-40 overwhelmingly rely on social media to discover news. This suggests that engagement and loyalty to social media platforms may be higher than traditional news outlets, or it could suggest that social media platforms simply offer the interactivity and community that younger generations expect.

Evolving your digital presence to offer more interactive and social experiences is necessary. This innovation involves adding technology like Arena Live Chat to your website so that your audience can interact with each other. It also means making editorial changes, like creating more video content, including short-form videos.

To show what’s possible when revenue diversification is done well, let’s look at the New York Times.

Publisher Revenue Diversification Success: The New York Times

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The New York Times has transformed itself into a digital media success story in the past few years. The news organization has pursued several revenue diversification strategies to succeed and is reporting that it has already surpassed its 2025 goal of 10M subscribers and total revenue greater than $2 billion. As of 2022, 80% of the company’s 10.98 million subscribers were digital-only. 

The company’s digital success is supported by a robust diversification strategy that includes publishing, app, and game space acquisitions. Over the past few years, the company has acquired the following properties:

  • The Athletic. The New York Times acquired this sports-focused publisher in 2022, which had 1.2 million at the end of 2021. The sports-focused publication covers over 200 clubs and teams as of 2022.
  • Wordle. In 2022, the New York Times acquired Wordle, a word puzzle game website, for at least $1 million. Wordle, which launched in October 2021, had over a million users by January 20202, according to The Street. 
  • Audm. In March 2020, the New York Times acquired Audm, an app that offers long-form reporting and stories in audio format. 
  • Wirecutter. Founded in 2011, the shopping recommendations website was bought by the New York Times for $30 million in 2016. In 2021, a standalone Wirecutter subscription was priced at $5 per month or $40 per year. 

These moves have added new capabilities, audiences, and revenue sources to the company that goes far beyond traditional news.

Revenue Diversification Options For Publishers

The following strategies represent new ways to offer value and generate revenue. These revenue streams are the lifeblood of niche digital properties. Adding one or more of these strategies to your strategy can be a game-changer.

1. Use Live Chat And Live Blog Experiences

Keeping your audience engaged on your digital platforms is vital. Audiences expect a fast and social experience thanks to the popularity of social media. Adding a live chat (or a live blog) to your website is a great way to meet those expectations.

These content experiences offer high rewards for the effort invested. You can create a live chat experience that creates additional advertising space on your website in less than an hour. Likewise, a live blog providing coverage on a trending topic can feature a mix of original content and social media updates. Live chat and live blog experiences keep audiences engaged longer, which means more advertising revenue.

2. Affiliate Marketing With Generative AI

Affiliate marketing means earning a commission when a person makes a purchase based on your recommendation. The Amazon affiliate program is the largest and best-known affiliate program on the market, but it is far from the only one. The industry is set to grow $14.3 billion in 2023 and generated $14.3 billion globally (over $5 billion in the US), according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

The Wirecutter, best known for publishing detailed reviews of products like kitchen appliances, electronics, and apparel, has most of its revenue from affiliate marketing.

3. Offer More Pricing Options With “Choose Your Own Price”

The rise of streaming services and losing interest in cable TV points to an opportunity for publishers: unbundling. Instead of offering a single paid subscription, look for ways to sell different tiers at different price points. Each option also unlocks new ways to increase the publishers’ advertising revenue. For example, some advertisers may be interested in digital-only, while others prefer omnichannel campaigns.

  • National Geographic. This classic magazine is highly popular with Millennials (one-third of its subscribers are Millennials). National Geographic is also ranked number #1 among MRI-measured magazines for its Generation Z reach1. The publisher revenue stream comes from four distinct offerings: National Geographic Premium, Nat Geo History, and two child-oriented offerings. In addition, the publisher continues to offer print-only options as well. 
  • Single Website Subscription. Take the New York Times, for example. Subscribers can choose to subscribe to a single website like The WireCutter for $5 per month or access this publisher as part of the “All Access” subscription at a higher price.
  • Ad Supported Pricing Tier. Streaming video services like Netflix, HBO, and Disney have positioned ad-supporting pricing as an option. These more affordable options are a way to grow your content revenue stream for consumers looking to cut costs. According to The Verge, Netflix’s ad-supported tier has 5 million subscribers as of 2023.

4. Ecommerce

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Direct product sales beyond a subscription are becoming more common for news publishers. For publishers with a passionate fan base, putting your logo on an everyday item is appealing. Let’s look at a few ways publications leverage ecommerce to supplement their content revenue stream.

  • UFC. According to Gen Z’s Favorite Brands report, UFC is one of the most popular sports brands for Gen Z. It is viewed more positively than the NBA and NFL brands. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is a media property with a significant online ecommerce presence. UFC’s ecommerce offerings include merchandise inspired by its best-known participants like Connor McGregor, Izzy Adesanya, Alexa Grasso, and Holly Holm.
  • Morning Brew. The Morning Brew, a news email newsletter, offers playful apparel (e.g., Future Rich Girl onesie) and professionally oriented products (e.g., Microsoft Excel function guides and other MBA-style business education offerings).
  • Sports Illustrated. The SI Shop offers a wide range of products, including Sports Illustrated products and a fan shop (i.e., products for pro football, pro baseball, college sports, and pro hockey). 

Directly selling products may not be a good fit for every publisher. Recommending products (i.e., affiliate marketing) to your audience is another way to diversify your reliance on an ad revenue stream.

5. Digital Audio

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Podcasts like Serial, This American Life, and The Daily built significant listener audiences. Recording and producing a podcast requires relatively minimal equipment ($500 or less on equipment). Some publishers, like the BBC and NPR, repurpose existing media to podcast form. That is an intelligent way to increase the publishers’ advertising revenue from your existing content.

Instead, the key draw to a podcast is the quality of the content. The content doesn’t have to be scripted in advance to succeed, either. Many of the most successful business podcasts, like Mixergy and Entrepreneurs on Fire, are interview based.

Creating a podcast creates a new revenue stream for publishers. Podcasting ad revenue was up 26% year over year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), in 2022. From a revenue viewpoint, the most successful podcast genres include comedy, sports, and society & culture.

Diversify Your Revenue Stream With Arena

Publishers like Globo, Fox Sports, and the Japan Times already use Arena to grow their audiences and advertising. Discover how you can increase publisher revenue with Arena’s solution for media.

3 Ways To Build Online Community Hubs For A Crisis

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When a crisis strikes, it’s all hands on deck. Governments, police, firefighters, and more all have a critical role to play. Those impacted by a disaster also come together in communities to share support, information, and strategies to recover. 

Community-based solutions like Facebook Groups, shared hashtags, and websites empower people to work together. The power of community can provide vital social and practical aid to people suffering through a crisis. 

The Impact Of Disasters Runs Deep

When a crisis strikes, people suffer in many different ways. Let’s look back at two of the most significant US disasters in 2022 to show the impact of disaster events.

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In the winter of 2022, the electricity grid in Texas failed for days. As a result, more than two hundred people died, according to the Austin-American Statesman. Economically, the cost of the damage has been estimated at $195 billion by the University of Texas at Austin. 

Residents took to social media with the hashtag #texaspoweroutage to share updates about the crisis and its aftermath. These messages helped to provide a sense of connection during tough times. That’s not all. These fast online community building effort helped to rally attention and donations from across the country to local organizations like Austin Mutual Aid and homeless shelters. 

A few months later, West Virginia suffered from exceptionally high amounts of rain which caused flooding. According to local news reports, the August 15 rainfall alone damaged more than 100 homes. Damage assessments are ongoing, and federal funding is being provided to assist the area.

In early 2023 (last week, as of writing this), major flooding hit California hard. CNN estimated that millions of people were under a flood watch on January 15th. Residents went online using hashtags like #bayareastorm and #AtmosphericRiver to share their observations. Some shared videos showing flooded road conditions – a powerful way to supplement government safety warnings. Others organized charitable relief efforts for people negatively affected by the flood such as the region’s farmworkers using the hashtag #theyfeedus. In the long term, we may find that online community efforts played an important role in helping people through the crisis. 

When disaster strikes, the need for community – including online community hubs – is paramount. Publishers and brands that offer such community support during a crisis have an incredible opportunity to contribute to the community.

Four Reasons Why Online Community Hubs Are Valuable In A Crisis

Offering an online community hub to your audience during a crisis offers tremendous value. An online community hub is not a replacement for traditional emergency relief. Instead, it is best seen as enhancing those measures by helping people to meet their community needs.

Here are some ways a digital community experience can help people get through tough times. 

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1. Provide Accurate, Up To Date Information

During a crisis event, it’s difficult to understand the full scope of the event while you are going through it. You may not know which roads are open, when power will be repaired or how to find emergency aid. In times like these, your audience needs reliable, trustworthy sources of information. Running a live blog with updates on getting help during a crisis is one way to help your community. For example, you might post hourly updates during the height of the crisis to reassure your audience about steps being taken to address the problem.

2. Offer Stability During Unstable Times

When a disaster strikes, your ability to see friends, families, and coworkers suffer. Some people may need to live in a shelter or other temporary housing for a time. This level of disruption can leave people thinking that nothing is certain. This is where your online community hub comes to play.

For example, the meditation app Ten Percent Happier offered a daily meditation experience called “Ten Percent Happier LIVE” during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The fifty-nine-episode live-streamed series for several months in 2020 following the pandemic declaration. Different guests shared their experiences and led guided meditations. This ad hoc digital community experience helped some people cope with the pandemic. 

3. Improve Physical Health Problems Linked To Loneliness

Isolation and loneliness are significant social challenges that are likely to worsen during a disaster. That’s significant because social isolation may cause additional health problems. A 2022 health study examines the health of more than 50,000 women in the US. The research found that: “social isolation and loneliness were associated with increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease among older women in the US.” 

Online community hubs have a role to play in easing loneliness and may help to reduce physical health problems. Beyond the potential health benefits, an online community hub with an interactive live chat can help your audience find mutual support. 

4. Fight Back Against Misinformation

Misinformation is a growing problem in the United States and other countries. 

Researchers have found that misinformation can hurt confidence in the democratic system. The Brookings Institution reports that misinformation has already hurt the United States. Misinformation problems are likely to get worse in social media because Twitter has announced it is “no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.” To put that policy change in context, new Twitter CEO Elon Musk disbanded the company’s trust and safety board in December 2022.

Fortunately, misinformation can be stopped. The New Mexico government launched a rumor vs. reality website to address misinformation-inspired questions and concerns. Other states like Connecticut and Colorado have recently implemented additional measures to promote confidence and fight misinformation.

Just imagine if people could not access emergency aid because incorrect information spread. Misinformation has already hurt public health. A 2022 study of Florida adults found that “Exposure to misinformation was directly correlated with vaccine hesitancy.” Offering credible, up-to-date information as situations rapidly develop during a crisis can help your audience stay safe.

Building A Community Hub For A Crisis: A Quick Start Guide

When a crisis strikes, speed is critically important. Use the following tips to create (or enhance) an online community hub during tough times.

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1) Identify Your Strengths And Credibility

A single organization can’t be all things to all people, especially in a crisis. For example, a local news outlet may connect deeply with local and state governments and nonprofits. In that case, leverage your strengths in building a crisis hub. For instance, use Arena Live Blog with a list of emergency shelters and tips on accessing relief funds and beyond.

What about concerns and issues that go beyond your organization’s capabilities? The best course is to provide a list of available resources. For instance, the community might need access to emergency housing if their homes are damaged or destroyed. Reach out to government agencies, churches, and other groups to make a list and keep it updated.

2) Enhance Your Community Hub With Trusted Community Voices

Giving voice to trusted community leaders is another way an online community hub can help. Start by looking within your organization. Encourage your best-known news anchors and reporters to focus on crisis reporting. Once your team is engaged, reach out to engage others in the community.

Inviting a broad and representative group of influencers and experts to participate in the online community hub is the next step. Some influencers may need guidance on what messages to share, so connect them with resources. In other cases, your influencers may need more experience communicating with digital communication. 

3) Make Your Hub Desirable For Gen Z and Millennial Audiences

Generation Z and Millennials comprise a large proportion of the US population. Engaging these digital natives is vital if your online community hub will thrive. The following best practices will help you to get started:

Offer A Social Media Style Experience

It is estimated that 60% of American Gen Z consumers use social media to shop. A crisis isn’t the same as shopping. However, there is still competition for attention. Make sure your hub offers an interactive experience for your audience. With Arena Live Chat, you can use chat experiences where your audience can interact publicly, send private messages and react to posts.

Use Short Videos

Short video content is one reason why TikTok has exploded in popularity. Creating short, focused videos with credible information during a crisis is a powerful way to connect with Millenials and Generation Z. 

Offer Mobile Payments For Fundraising

During a disaster, your audience may want to help to support this need. Support this desire by making your website supports mobile payments. A recent UK survey found that most Gen Z consumers abandon physical wallets instead of digital wallets. If you partner with charitable organizations and nonprofits during a crisis, make it easy for your audience to buy on mobile devices.

For additional insights on connecting effectively with these large demographics, see other posts:

The Fast Way To Build Your Online Community Hub

When a crisis strikes, your audience needs access to a trustworthy online community quickly. There is no time to optimize settings and technology for days or weeks. You need a fast digital solution that can easily integrate into your website. Arena Live Chat and Live Blog are the perfect solutions. You can install these tools on your website in minutes. You can have a live blog up and running in less than an hour with updates. Learn more about building your digital community with Arena.

5 Ways News Publishers Can Grow Their Gen Z Audience

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Social media disruption and changing habits have created a significant opportunity for publishers to grow with Gen Z. Generation Z, 68 million strong in the US alone, are those born between 1997 to 2010 are in their late teens to early twenties. Along with Millenials (1981-1996), they represent the future. Win market share with these generations, and publishers will have a solid foundation for the next 20 years of your business.

The Gen Z Opportunity For Publishers Is Growing

While it’s always possible to start growing an audience, there are always advantages to moving early to seize the opportunity. 

Building loyalty with Gen Z audiences today while they’re younger can sustain your business for years into the future. From an advertising perspective, focusing on Gen Z is vital because they have decades of spending ahead of them in many areas of life. If you build a sizeable Gen Z audience over the next few years you will have a solid foundation to attract paid subscribers and generate ad revenue for decades.

In terms of habits, comfort with digital technology, and media consumption, Gen Z also shares significant overlap with Millenials. That’s important because Millennials now represent the single largest demographic group ever in North American history. For example, Gen Z spends close to three hours per day on social media, while Millennials also spend over two hours per day on social media. Highly visual platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are very popular with both groups. 

Why First-Party Data Matters For Engaging Your Audience

To fully understand what Gen Z and Millennials want, broad surveys will only tell you so much. It’s also vital to have a direct understanding of your specific audience. That’s where first-party data becomes vital. First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience without relying on any outside source or platform. Gathering this data means building rich audience profiles, making it easier to create engaging content and deepen engagement.

Of course building a first party data set is much easier said than done, especially when the average Metered Stop Rate for publishers hovers around 4% and Paid Stop Conversion Rate averages around .5%.3 Third party cookies are going away, so publishers need to evolve.  Read on for our tips! 

Five Ways To Attract Gen Z Audiences

Use this menu of strategies to grow an engaged Gen Z audience. Our ultimate goal is to bring audiences directly to your website, where you can engage them and build a direct connection.

1) Offer Micro Communities

In his classic essay, Kevin Kelly wrote that 1000 true fans should be enough to sustain creatives like musicians, designers, and other entrepreneurs. That principle is coming to life in a whole new way with Gen Z as they’ve grown up in a digital world filled with niche communities on Discord, Minecraft, Roblox, etc.

It can be difficult to predict which micro-community concepts will take off with Gen Z. That’s why it is smart to take small bets and empower your Gen Z audience to guide community building. Let’s say you’re considering building a micro-community around internships at nonprofits to help Gen Z build their skills. 

Before building out the community, test the concept by hosting a small digital event on your website around the theme. If you see significant engagement and sign-ups for the event, create a landing page where attendees can get more information about the new internship community. Use this strategy repeatedly over a few months, and you will have several successful communities based around your website. Make sure your digital events have an interactive aspect like Arena Live Chat so that Gen Z can ask questions and make connections both with you, and with each other. 

2) Revisit Your Social Media Goals

Growing a large audience on a social media platform like TikTok or Instagram may not be helpful to your goals. A person looking at your content on social media will likely see your content among many other posts. Also, gaining a meaningful audience connection on social media is difficult, and gaining first-party data is impossible. 

Instead, your social media goals should always have the end goal of bringing visitors back to your website. There are a few ways you better leverage social content to grow your audience once they’re there.

Use Arena Live Blog to highlight and react to social media posts. 

To make this live blog even more appealing, invite Gen Z influencers to contribute to your live blog posts. You can also share posts from social accounts you select and select content. This is a great way to add UCG, even if you don’t have an official relationship (yet).

Reinvent the social media challenge made popular by TikTok. 

Brands like Guess’s #InMyDenim and Scotts #DoTheScottsSlide challenge to encourage fans to create videos and share the event. Publishers can adapt this idea by hosting quizzes tied to specific events like elections, sports games, and award events like the Oscars. 

3) Invest In Short Form Video Content

Short form video content, like TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts, are very popular with Gen Z. Growing your Gen Z audience is easier when you invest in video. Length is not the only factor to keep in mind to win Gen Z’s engagement. As you create more videos, look for ways to incorporate the following qualities that most successful short-form videos leverage.

Many of the most successful short-form videos revolve around a few themes. Music, humor and how to videos all tend to perform well, and, of course, you’ll want to make sure that you use whichever format makes the most sense for your brand, and the specific content you’re promoting. For example, a beauty brand can show a model or influencer applying makeup. In addition to providing value to your audience, short videos should achieve another goal.

Look at your short-form videos as a “trailer” that promotes the main attraction on your website: in-depth videos and other types of premium content. For example, you might create a long-form video interview with your CEO at a product launch event. From this longer video, create a series of short form videos and post them to social media. Each of these short-form videos adds bite-sized value to your audience while giving you the opportunity to drive traffic back to your website.   If this formula works for top creators like Gary Vaynerchuk, it can work for you.

4) Step Up Your Sustainability Coverage

Climate change and sustainability concerns are top of mind for many in Generation Z. The Pew Research Center found that more than a third of Gen Z and Millenials feel addressing climate change is a top personal concern. Depending on your publication’s priorities, there are different ways to meet Gen Z’s interests.

  • Go Local.
    Sometimes, coverage of climate change and environmental issues can feel abstract and difficult to understand. Local publishers can stand out by exploring the local implications in greater detail. For example, publications based on Florida have expertise in covering natural disasters and the increase in extreme weather events.
    Emphasizing your local expertise is critical to sustaining trust with Gen Z. The American Press Institute found that Gen Z news readers tend to trust local news outlets more than national options.
  • Invite Special Guests To Share Advice.
    Sharing information and quality reporting isn’t the only way to attract Gen Z’s interest. Take inspiration from events like Creator Conf that bring together thousands of attendees and sponsors like YouTube, Patreon, and Clubhouse. 
  • Publish Unique, User-Friendly Data.

5) Enhance Diversity In Coverage and Staff 

Committing to diversity is critically important to appeal to Gen Z audiences. The American Press Institute reports that only 15% of Gen Z and Millennials feel coverage of immigrants is accurate in the news. Further, only 15% of these generations found that Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and lower-income people are not covered accurately. 

There are several ways to demonstrate an increased commitment to diversity as a publisher. Look at your editorial staff first and ask yourself if you can improve your recruiting practices. Next, seek ways to improve the quantity and quality of coverage of diverse groups. Finally, work with your advertisers to encourage them to take diversity seriously in advertising.

The Pay Off For Meeting Gen Z’s Interests

Investing in new editorial approaches, media formats, and beyond will take time and resources. It’s a strategic investment for two reasons: first-party data generation and greater loyalty. By publishing content that directly meets Gen Z’s interests, you’re providing significant value to the audience. That means earning and keeping permission to gather first-party data is far easier. As you better understand Gen Z’s preferences and needs, selling subscriptions and keeping them engaged for years to come will become easier.

Get The Tools You Need To Connect With Gen Z Today

Succeeding with Gen Z news consumers takes serious editorial work. It also takes the right technology. Gen Z is used to highly interactive digital experiences from social media. Keeping their interest will become much more difficult if they come to your website and have no opportunity to interact with friends and family. Learn more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

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What ChatGPT Means For News Publishers

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ChatGPT technology is about to change publishing and journalism forever. Certain types of journalism, like simple sports and business stories, are especially susceptible to automation. ChatGPT may be the most important digital technology to impact publishers since the 1980s.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI. The conversational program can answer questions and can leverage secondary research to write “original” copy. If information is on the Internet, chatGPT can produce content. Fast. 

The output of chatGPT isn’t perfect, and it still sometimes makes basic errors but, for an alpha release technology, it has already achieved a great deal.

How ChatGPT is Changing Email, Education and Programming

Early experiments with chatGPT have raised some exciting questions and worries for others. Here are some of the developments we’ve seen so far.

Better Work Emails

The Washington Post reports that dyslexic people are starting to use chatGPT to create work emails. The emails aren’t perfect, but they represent a significant time saving for people who struggle with writing, or who might not be native English speakers, but want to sound like one.

Near Perfect School Essays?

It’s not just working professionals who are seeing benefits from this technology. Fox News reports that AI technology like chatGPT could “blow up” the US education system. The report poses the question of whether overworked teachers can detect if students are using AI. In the worst-case scenario, students lose the ability to write independently. Teachers would face additional pressures to innovate to respond to this change.

Is AI Coming for Programmers?

Software engineers and developers have long taken pride in their technical skills. However, chatGPT is starting to succeed in some programming tasks. GeekWire claims that chatGPT may soon “match programming prowess of average coders.” For example, the software can create some SQL (structured query language) queries based on minimal direction.

With the right strategy, chatGPT is a major opportunity to boost productivity. This technology can draft basic news stories that rely on existing information. That frees up budgetary resources for publishers to invest in investigative stories and other high-impact reporting. In practical terms, this means a single experienced editor can get much more done without much incremental cost.

While technologies like chatGPT are sure to change publishing and journalism, the appetite for quality stories and investigation isn’t going anywhere. Just consider what happened to the accounting and financial industry after spreadsheet software became widespread…

How Spreadsheets Destroyed Some Jobs While Increasing Demand For Others

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt make it difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages of chatGPT. Fortunately, recent history gives some perspective. Consider the case of spreadsheet software.

Before the launch of VisiCalc in 1979, thousands of accounting clerks maintained business records. This work involved long hours writing numbers, recalculating, and checking data for accuracy. The highly manual nature of the work meant managers often had to wait hours, days, or longer for insight.

Fast forward a few decades later, the spreadsheet had a very different impact on business. CPA Practice Advisor estimates that hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion, of people use spreadsheet software regularly. The nature of accounting employment has changed dramatically. The New Stack reported in 2019 that there were 400,000 fewer accounting clerks in the 2000s compared to 1980. However, there are 600,000 more regular accountants. Future demand is vital as well. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that job growth for accountants and auditors will be 6% from 2021 to 2031.  

In other words, spreadsheet software eliminated much manual work from accounting. The result? Managers, executives, and others increased their demand for financial and accounting data of all kinds. This technological story directly parallels how publishing may evolve in light of chatGPT.

How ChatGPT Will Transform The Publishing Business Model

At Arena, we’re generally optimistic about the impact of technology on fostering community and making life better and believe that  highly disruptive technology like chatGTP has significant potential to drive the next evolution of the publishing business model. By automating the majority of the grunt work of journalism, especially data gathering, editors can put more resources in investigative articles, features and high-end reporting.

For editors and managers, chatGPT opens new possibilities to deliver the news even while budgets come under pressure. Senior reporters can keep their focus on developing sources, in-depth interviews, and creating outstanding stories that keep audiences engaged. Less complex stories – like sports scores and financial reports – can be drafted to good enough (or better!) by this technology. 

With technology like chatGPT, you publish time-sensitive stories like company earnings, sports scores and other routine stories quickly. With those stories largely handled by AI, your lean group of experienced reporters can source unique stories that readers can’t find anywhere else. The bottom line is that you can maintain or improve margins by fully leveraging chatGPT.

Arena’s Generative AI for Publishers, Content & Affiliate Commerce is here. Discover Commerce AI right now.

Two Ways To Prepare Your Publishing Business To Thrive In An AI World

Like any disruptive technology, chatGPT has the potential to create a new generation of winners and losers. Today, these technologies can produce “good enough” or “first draft” level content. That means your competitors can copy and respin existing content faster than ever.

The solution is to create community, content, and experiences that cannot be copied. Here are three ways to build a moat around your business. 

1. Community Experiences

Bringing your audience together for memorable experiences is something that AI can’t match. Planning in-person events aren’t your only option. You can also create hybrid and virtual events using Arena Live Chat. 

Here are two ways to build premium community experiences to keep your audience coming back again and again.

Leverage Your Brand’s Personalities In Events.

Building exclusive experiences around your high-profile personalities, journalists, athletes and staff is a winning strategy. You don’t need Anderson Cooper’s 9 million Twitter followers, either. Running a smaller “fireside chat” event can be even more compelling to your audience.

Invite New Voices And Influencers To Your Platform

Technologies like chatGPT are primarily driven by historical information on the Internet. These tools struggle to develop new ideas, insights, and predictions. One way to meet this need in your audience is to invite influencers and emerging experts to connect with your audience. For example, true crime social media influencers could enrich your coverage of a high-profile criminal trial. 

You can launch an ongoing virtual event series at a low cost using Arena Live Chat.

2. Shift Resources To Premium Content Like Investigative Journalism

Historically, investigative journalism has been costly. In 2013, The Atlantic reported that a team of journalists spent $750,000 and two years to reveal “the dangers of Tylenol’s main active ingredient, acetaminophen.” These stories are challenging to produce. They are also stories that inspire greater trust and engagement in news publishers.

As publishers face more pressure to stretch their budgets, chatGPT and investigative reporting can work closely together. A small group of experienced editors can use AI to quickly draft essential stories and publish them. Meanwhile, shifting resources to investigative resources, hard-to-get interviews, and exclusive coverage will keep your publication highly competitive.

How To Free Up Time And Budget For The New Way of Publishing

Asking your reporters to run community events and engage with new voices might sound unrealistic for your busy reporters. That’s where ChatGPT is transformational. This technology can eliminate hours of routine data gathering and basic writing for your staff. 

As a result, your senior-level reporters, who command the greatest trust with your audience, will have more time to engage with your audience. Increased engagement means more attention on your website for longer periods of time which leads to increased advertising revenue.

Enrich Your Publication With Community

As new technology erodes traditional advantages in publishing, it’s essential to act preemptively. Discover Arena’s solutions for publishing – the easiest way to create interactive virtual communities. 

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Do You Want More First Party Data From Gen Z Consumers?

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Many first-party data marketing discussions and strategies have overlooked a key fact – the importance of value exchange. Publishers and brands want to connect, market, and sell to their audiences. Changing consumer behavior and regulations mean old practices of invisibly using cookies are no longer good enough. Millennials, Gen Z, and other digital natives will only consent to share their data with brands that offer them value.

Disclosure And Asking Permission Isn’t Enough To Build An Audience

Earning permission to market to customers sounds simple in theory. Put a pop-up on your website, collect contact information, and start marketing! For a small subset of customers – those who are actively comparison shopping, for instance – this simple approach to gaining the first party may be sufficient. For the vast majority of your audience, value exchange is critical.

Every time brands and publishers want to gather consent to market; it’s crucial to ask the value exchange question. Are users receiving sufficient value from our brand to welcome us to their digital world? The bar may be even higher for communication channels perceived as more personal, like email and SMS. Earning a place (and keeping it!) in those inboxes is not something to be taken for granted, as filtering and permissions technology keeps improving.

There are significant consequences for ignoring the value exchange question. Conversion rates are likely to deteriorate at first. That means digital advertising budgets to attract traffic will deliver fewer results. Ultimately, websites will struggle with having fewer and fewer engaged visitors. Hitting growth targets will get far more difficult. Worst of all, building deeper relationships with your audience, including learning their preferences, becomes increasingly demanding. 

The starting point to avoid these problems starts with understanding your market’s needs, wants, and desires. Let’s take a closer look at the Gen Z demographic and what they want.

What Does Gen Z Want?

Generation Z is defined as those born between 1996 and 2010. The Generation is 68 million strong in the United States, slightly larger than Gen X (65 million) and smaller than Millenials (72 million). Gen Z is already becoming significant economically, with $360 billion in disposable income, according to Forbes. Today, Gen Z has less purchasing power and wealth than older generations. Millennials have an estimated disposable income of $1.4 trillion, which is more than triple the disposable income of Gen Z ($360 billion). That said, Gen Z disposable income will only increase over time. Therefore, publishers that build and retain a Gen Z audience now will have a long-term advantage.

That leaves the question: what does Gen Z want from brands and publishers? Some ways to answer this question include looking at surveys and drawing insights from other customer cohorts.

Industry surveys of American Gen Z behavior have found that:

Gen Z is highly demographically diverse

In comparison to other generations, Gen Z is highly diverse, according to the Pew Research Center. For example, 25% of Gen Z is Hispanic compared to 17% of Millennials or 12% of Gen X. Also, Asian Americans comprise a growing portion – 6% – of the group. Marketing efforts need to reflect these expectations.

Higher Online Shopping But Fewer Impulse Purchases

Growing up in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, and high inflation, Gen Z has seen a lot of economic turbulence in a short time. A Creatopy survey found that 32% of Gen Z buy when there is a sale, and 48% buy when they need something. 

Gen Z cares strongly about social responsibility issues

Does your brand fight racial and sexual discrimination? A 2022 survey found that 66% of Gen Z agree or strongly prefer brands that take social responsibility seriously. For more tips, and warnings, on sustainability and social responsibility, check out our blog post on The Top 5 Gen z Shopping Trends.

Gen Z Are Heavy Social Media Users

Gen Z social media usage typically exceeds three hours a day. Regarding purchase decisions, TikTok videos, Instagram, and Facebook are vital.

Meeting these expectations is crucial for your brand to have an opportunity to compete today. Immediate gratification isn’t the whole story, however. Eventually, Gen Z will advance in their careers, buy homes and make other life changes. 

Putting Value Exchange For Gen Z At The Heart of Your Digital Strategy

For your digital strategy to thrive, each person who visits your online presence needs to see value in joining your community. Depending on your budget and strengths, there are different ways to offer compelling value. Some of the most popular ways to provide digital value to Gen Z include the following: 

Classic Direct Marketing Incentives

There’s a good reason why the vast majority of ecommerce brands use discount codes 

liberally. They work! Whether structured as a 10% off, buy one get one (“BOGO”), or some other structure, these incentives work well in e-commerce. The challenge is that so many brands use discounts that it can be tough to stand out in a sea of similar-sounding offers. 

Content

Offering interesting content remains a proven way to attract attention. A content strategy for Gen Z will need to include highly visual media like Instagram posts and TikTok videos. Regularly posting content will keep your brand top of mind when the audience is ready to buy.

Community

allowing your audience to connect with you and their peers is a powerful form of value exchange. Unlike marketing incentives and sales, building a thriving online community takes more effort. That means there is a greater opportunity to stand out and earn Gen Z’s attention.

Expressing Values and Identity

Social responsibility is a top concern for many in Gen Z. If your brand has active partnerships with non-profits or charitable organizations, emphasize this fact. If you donate a portion of purchases to good causes, feature that decision in marketing. Giving buyers the ability to express their values with purchases and community participation is a powerful way to set your brand apart.

How To Get More Engagement And Leads With Community Value

You probably have an active content and marketing program to connect with the Gen Z audience. The next step is transforming casual, anonymous website visitors into engaged audiences. Live digital community experiences using Arena Live Chat are a powerful way to do just that by holding online conferences, live shopping events, and more. Learn more about Arena Live Chat.

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: 5 Things To Do

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Remember when Facebook kicked Australian publishers off the platform in 2021? That could happen to news publishers in the US if the proposed legislation becomes law. Legal experts are still debating the impact of the bill. Some say it may help publishers, while others see it as a threat.

Whether the legislation helps or hurts your business, we can say one thing for certain. Building a direct relationship with your audience with first-party data remains a critically important hedge against uncertainty. We’ll unpack the key developments regarding The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act and then share five strategies you can use to grow no matter what happens with this legislation.

The proposed legislation  – the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2022 (JCPA) – is currently being considered by the U.S. Congress. The legislation is similar in spirit and objectives to the Australian legislation that prompted Facebook’s displeasure in 2021 and is currently in the news after being attached to a “must pass” defense funding bill on Dec 5th. Adding the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to the defense bill would make the bill challenging to a Presidential veto. 

One organization suggesting the JCPA could be a boon is the News Media Alliance, an industry group that includes over 1000 news publishers. In a recent blog post, the Alliance stated that “the Australian law resulted in countless jobs for local journalists and $140 million to news outlets, which translates to billions in the U.S.” That sounds good. But other sources, like The Hill, argue the bill is dangerous to journalism and a gift to extremist media groups who could exploit loopholes to force the promotion of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2022: The Key Points

In spirit, the JCPA is similar to Australia’s proposed legislation in 2021. It seeks to redefine the relationship between news publishers and online platforms. Depending on your interests, the bill is a boon or curse.

The key provisions of the bill include the following:

1,500 Employee Limit To Benefit Creates Winners and Losers

The bill focuses on benefiting “digital journalism providers” with less than 1500 full-time employees. Larger media brands like ABC News (8000+ employees) or FOX News (2800+ employees) are unlikely to be affected.

However, many smaller news organizations like the Miami Herald (700+ employees), Sports Illustrated (600+ employees), and WIRED (500+ employees) will be directly targeted by this new legislation.

Requires Large Digital Platforms To Negotiate With Digital Journalism Platforms

On the other side of the equation, the bill requires “covered platforms” to negotiate with news publishers. This requirement applies to platforms operating at scale with 50 million monthly active US users, 1 billion global platforms, or annual revenue (or market capitalization) of $550 million. 

In brief, these rules apply to companies like Google, Meta Platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram), Reddit, Twitter, Yahoo, and many others. This bill would impose potentially significant costs on these companies, even as many are already struggling to maintain advertising revenue.

Publisher Deals May Be Mandatory 

The bill goes beyond requiring publishers and Big Tech to come to the negotiating table. According to Senator Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, “[the bill empowers] news publishers to demand final-offer arbitration if their joint negotiation with a covered platform fails to result in an agreement after six months.”

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Expiration

As a safeguard, the bill is set to expire within six years. If it becomes law and news publishers start to count on this revenue, there is likely significant pressure to renew the bill. 

Don’t Wait For The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Get Your First Party Audience Strategy Moving Now

While potentially game changing, it’s too early to tell for sure if the bill will help or hurt individual publishers. Even if the bill becomes law tomorrow, negotiations (or arbitration) is likely to take months. That gives you time to develop and execute your first party audience growth strategy now. 

First party data comes from a direct connection with your audience. Instead of anonymous website browsers – or borrowing audiences from social media platforms – rich first party data means publishers can truly understand what their audience wants and market to them accordingly.

Strategy 1: Convert Free Users To Paying Subscribers With A Metered Stop Rate

Many publishers allow website users to view a certain number of articles or media for free. The meter stop rate measures what percentage of website users exhaust their quota of free content. Once you know this metric, track how many users convert to paying subscriptions (i.e. the paid stop conversion rate).

Continuing to offer some of your content for free remains a meaningful way to generate interest in your publication. Keep experimenting to see which content attracts public attention vs which to keep behind the paywall. 

For example, look at using user-generated content to grow your audience. Working with influencers, or hosting exclusive Ask Me Anything (AMA) with affiliated personalities, is a powerful way to bring in clicks. As your audience sees value in your content, they’ll be more likely to pay for ongoing access to your premium content.

Strategy 2: Get A Mobile App

Building a mobile app experience for your content is critical. As of Q2 2022, 59% of all Internet traffic came from mobile devices. With a robust mobile experience, you’re missing out on a considerable portion of your potential audience.

Now, you might be thinking that creating a mobile app is expensive. Hiring a full time developer may not make sense if economic uncertainty is already weighing on you. 

A new generation of low code and no code solutions are making it easier than ever to create mobile apps. Consider trying  GoNative.io or Strapi.io. By removing (most) coding from the equation, these services mean you can create a mobile app quickly with minimal, to no engineering resources.

Strategy 3: Offer Exclusive Events For Your Audience

What if your audience was eager and excited to visit your website daily? That’s far better than relying on a tense negotiation with a Big Tech company. Organizing virtual events is one of the best ways to bring in your audience. 

Planning your a virtual event doesn’t have to be overwhelming either. Use our virtual events checklist to plan your online event.

Strategy 4: Add Community Chat To Your Website

What if you had a way to encourage your users to spend 20 minutes, 30 or even an hour on your website? You can achieve high levels of engagement with a single platform: live chat. If you haven’t considered live chat before, here’s one good reason why you should: it’s the most popular engagement experience across all social media. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram: they all use Live Chat – with reactions, gifs, etc – to keep their audience engaged for an average of 30 min / day / platform. 

By adding Arena Live Chat to your website, you’ll empower your audience to ask questions, and engage with each other. Are you worried about inappropriate content? Arena has you covered with a full suite of moderation tools so you can offer brand safe experiences to advertisers.

Strategy 5: Add A Live Blog To Your Website

When a breaking news story hits, it’s a significant opportunity to build audience engagement. Consider election news. There are exit polls, administrative developments, and other developments to cover. Publishing a full feature story on these micro-developments may not make sense. You need a way to publish quick updates.

By adding Arena Live Blog to your website, you can quickly publish breaking news style updates as often as you want filtered by accounts, hashtags, and audience size, and more to ensure only relevant content is pulled in. You can also use two filtering criteria (e.g. tweets using a certain hashtag from accounts with over 1 million followers). We’ve found that follower size filter, combined with a hashtag for relevance, helps to surface interesting brand safe content.

Like a social media content feed, Live Blog includes comments & reactions to keep your audience engaged. To ease the workload on your team, you can invite a few influencers to contribute posts to your live blog.

Discover Arena’s Solutions For Publishers

The jury is still out on whether The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act will enhance or damage publishers. Even in the best-case scenario, additional revenue from the act may well be years away. In any case, the value of building a direct connection with your audience remains vital.

Use the strategies outlined here to build your audience. Discover more about Arena solutions for publishers and start growing your digital audience today. 

Check Out Live Commentary Covering the JCPA

Are You Using These 5 Gen Z Shopping Trends?

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With more than $360 billion in disposable income, brands that move fast to serve Gen Z will win. Understanding how Gen Z likes to shop is crucial to maximizing conversions and engagement. Capture more conversions in this market by leveraging these shopping trends.

The Top 5 Gen Z Shopping Trends

As you review these shopping trends, take a moment to review each one carefully. Ask yourself (and your team) where your business could make changes to accommodate these trends.

1) Social Proof Is Still King

Social proof has long been one of the most crucial marketing factors. With Gen Z, recommendations from friends, family, and other trusted individuals remain critically important. Assess your product pages, post-purchase marketing, and presence on third-party sites (e.g., Trust Pilot) for social proof.

Here are a few ideas to emphasize social proof for Gen Z in your marketing:

Encourage informal reviews

Logging into your website or platform to write reviews may feel like too much work for some people. Informal reviews can help you. Your social media posts encourage customers to tell you what you like about your products. These comments can inform your marketing efforts.

Your live shopping and online events can help you to generate reviews and social proof. With Arena Live blog, you can pull in posts from any accounts or hashtags you want.

Boost referrals with a Gen Z focus

There’s no reason to sit on your hands and wait for word-of-mouth recommendations to start. Give incentives to your customers for introducing you to others. To spark Gen Z engagement, make sure you create content in Gen Z-friendly formats like short-form videos  (i.e. 30-60 seconds). 

There are no shortcuts to building honest, positive reviews from happy customers. However, there is a way to rent social proof and credibility: working with influencers. That’s the next Gen Z shopping habit we’ll unpack.

2) Influencer Content Drives Engagement And Purchases

Gen Z constantly participates in the influencer economy as content creators, supporters, and enthusiasts. Platforms like Patreon and Kickstarter make it easier than ever for creative people to engage their audiences online. You can shortcut the social proof process by working with Gen Z influencers. Use custom tracking links and coupon codes to track the campaign results.

Smaller influencers with audiences under 10,000 may be willing to feature your product if you send it to them for free. More established influencers are likely to expect a fee. Before paying an influencer, get clarity on their audience and ask about their past campaigns. 

There’s one drawback to conventional influencer marketing campaigns. Most of the action takes place away from your website. Instead of simply asking influencers to post about your brand on their social account, integrate those posts into your website. For example, you can host a digital event experience on your website by embedding YouTube. By hosting the event on your website, you have more flexibility to add calls to action and track conversions.

3) Offer A Sustainable Shopping Experience

Gen Z consumers care more about sustainability and corporate social responsibility than almost any other demographic. First Insight found that 75% of Generation Z consumers prefer sustainability over the brand name of a product when making a purchase. 

How do brands win by appealing to Generation Z’s sustainability sentiments? The answer depends on your company’s strategy. First, review your company’s sustainability achievements and policies. Find out if there is anything genuinely impressive to celebrate. If the answer is no, it’s time to plan a new initiative. Proclaiming a commitment to sustainability without backing up your words exposes your brand to accusations of “greenwashing” (i.e., sustainability hypocrisy). 

Use these tips to leverage sustainability in your Gen Z marketing campaigns:

Explain what you don’t use or do in your products and supply chain.

Some companies proudly use vegan products exclusively. Others focus on local-scale supply chains to reduce transportation costs and carbon emissions. Still, some companies apply a rigorous selection process for vendors to reduce costs. Use that fact in your marketing if you have excluded ingredients or processes from your company to improve sustainability.

Communicate your carbon footprint goals

A growing list of companies, including H&M (clothing), Cisco Systems (enterprise technology), CVS (health), and Etsy (marketplace), have set public net zero carbon emissions goals. Recently, these goals have shifted toward “net zero” goals. That means setting a date your company will not make a carbon impact. Achieving this goal may take several forms, like reducing waste, using LEED-certified buildings, and buying credits. 

Market charitable partnerships and campaigns

Allow your Gen Z buyers to support sustainable practices with each practice. For example, you might donate $1 from each purchase to an environmental group like the Sierra Club, Rainforest Alliance, or Greenpeace. To deepen your connection with Gen Z consumers, find a Gen Z spokesperson at the charity or nonprofit to appear in videos and other collateral. 

4) Make mobile payments easy

Expecting Gen Z customers to put down their phones to complete a purchase means lost revenue. Shopping research reported by Insider Intelligence found that 60% of Gen Z prefer to make payments using their mobile device. The shift to mobile payments will affect physical retailers even more. A May 2022 survey of UK consumers found that over 70% of Gen Z consumers are abandoning their physical wallets and switching to mobile devices. 

Satisfying this mobile payment trend requires collaboration between marketing and technology. At a minimum, ask a friend unfamiliar with your website to make purchases on your website. Track how long they take to complete the purchase. Also, check if they have to resort to extra effort (e.g., zooming in and out to fill in a different field). 

While the mobile experience is vital, the desktop web experience still has an important place. We’ll turn to that shopping trend next.

5) Gen Z Will Ignore Your Website Unless It is Fast and Easy

The central importance of website importance keeps growing. Generally, a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load will lose customers. Further, some surveys have found that Generation Z’s average attention span – 8 seconds – is significantly less than older generations. If your website takes too long to load, you wouldn’t have a chance to connect with Gen Z when they visit your website.

Slow websites don’t just irritate Gen Z, either. The Google search engine tends to favor fast websites over slow ones. If you depend on organic search traffic to grow your business.

Improving website speed and usability takes time and experimentation. Start by running Google’s Core Web Vitals on your website. Check the desktop and mobile experience. Failing to pass this assessment will likely leave your website at a disadvantage. In addition, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to find additional opportunities to optimize your website performance. 

The Critical Ingredient In Gen Z Shopping

Understanding these Gen Z shopping trends is the journey’s starting point, not the end. The specific market preferences in your industry may be different. Some markets, like book readers, ultimately want to enjoy a non-digital experience with a book. Other segments, like gaming enthusiasts, tend to lean toward a highly digital experience. Traditional analytics platforms will only tell you some of the answers here.

To understand your audience better, you need to gather first-party data from your audience, by tracking which content, online experiences, events, and web pages your audience likes, optimizing marketing campaigns gets much more straightforward. Learn how Arena Personas can help you better manage your first-party data to understand Gen Z buyers more effectively.

Why publishers have nothing to fear in a recession

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Advertising spending on social media platforms is starting to fall. Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) reported that average revenue per user fell to $9.41 in Q3 2022 vs. $11.57 in Q4 2021 (source). And, more recently, it’s been reported that ½ of Twitter’s top advertisers have left in the last month (source). This represents a significant opportunity for publishers to regain advertising market share.

This shift of ad dollars away from social media creates a once-in-a-decade opportunity for publishers. Even as worries of an economic downturn cloud the horizon, there are several significant opportunities for publishers who innovate using these strategies.

Four Ways Bold Publishers Can Win In The Downturn

Rising interest rates, increasing unemployment (although still at historical lows…), and other signs of economic distress are starting to bite. A downturn is a perfect time to experiment with new approaches and methods to grow engagement and increase your value to advertisers. 

1. Offer Exclusive Access To VIPs In Online Events

Reddit, a mid-sized social platform, is known for its successful “AMA” (ask me anything) events. Past participants in these events include Jeopardy! champion, Ken Jennings, businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, and countless other CEOs and authors. These events are popular because they give the audience a unique chance to interact directly with a celebrity.

As a publisher, you have relationships with politicians, athletes & community leaders. A city news publication might organize a panel or AMA event with the mayor, local investors, or local sports team. There are a few ways to pursue this idea: large-scale public events and exclusive smaller events.

Public Event With VIPs

This event format is a great way to maximize your audience and advertising revenue. For example, a lifestyle magazine might organize an event on local craft breweries. Offer attendees the chance to ask questions, enter draws for free drinks and meet fellow fans. This focused event makes it easier to sign up for paying event sponsors because your audience is more likely to be focused and engaged.

Running a successful event public event will take more planning. There’s an increased risk of inappropriate content when anybody can attend the event. That’s why it is essential to use a live chat platform with both manual and AI automated moderation features like Arena Live Chat. If running a large-scale event isn’t a good fit for your publication, consider offering a smaller event just for your paying subscribers.

Subscriber-Only Digital Events And Benefits

The disadvantage to a public event is the scale – you may have hundreds or thousands of attendees! Creating connections with your guests and audience can be difficult at that scale. That’s where exclusive events for your subscribers play a role. Here are a few examples of subscriber-only digital event experiences that publishers offer today.

The Economist Subscriber-only digital events

The British publication offers live events to its subscribers on topics such as The World Ahead 2023, The Year In Review, America’s Election Results, and China and Ukraine at war. The Economist’s digital events are relatively short – just one hour. Organizing a one-hour virtual event with a few of your top journalists is accessible to most publishers. It’s also a great way to surprise your subscribers with additional value.

The New Yorker Festival

The New Yorker Festival is a multi-day event featuring world premieres of documentaries, political events, and events with celebrities. The publication offers subscribers a 30% discount on ticket prices for the event. In addition, subscribers get early access to buy tickets. The New Yorker event has in-person and virtual aspects. The New Yorker approach takes more time and effort to organize. It’s also a powerful way to distinguish your publication from others.

With these smaller events, it’s smart to promote the limited nature of the event. For instance, if you only have 50 seats, emphasize that fact. In a smaller event, each attendee will have a better chance of having their questions answered.

2. Curate The Gold In Social Media Content

Editorial judgment is one of the most important ways publications add value to their audiences. Your journalists know their beats inside out. You can use that expertise to curate the best in social media for your audience. There are a few ways to curate social media content for your audience.

Enrich Your Coverage With Social Updates

Many publishers offer a live blog or series of breaking news updates when a major event occurs, like an election, sporting event, or conference. Publishing a steady stream of news updates as an event can tax the energy of your journalists. With Arena Live Blog, you can pull in social media updates through hashtags & specific accounts and apply filters to ensure brand-safe posts.

Fact Check Social Media Posts

Misinformation on social media is a major problem. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee published an analysis of COVID-19 misinformation trends in 2021 that illustrates one aspect of the problem. The study found that “fake cure” Tweets were common in the western US, while “Covid as a hoax” misinformation was more common in the mid-West. 

Communicating complex scientific information, which often involves probabilities and uncertainty, is challenging. For publishers with professional reporters, evaluating this information critically is a strength. Fact-checking rumors, misinformation, and other social media content is important for publications to add value to their audience.

Invite Social Media Influencers

Many publishers have struggled to maintain a large staff of professional journalists, while others have closed up shop entirely (we miss you, Protocol!). Inviting freelancers and qualified influencers from social media to share their thoughts with your audience can help. For example, a growing community of true crime enthusiasts on social media are hungry to find the guilty and free the innocent. Inviting true crime influencers like Kendall Rae (over 3 million YouTube subscribers) and Shaun Atwood (over 700,000 YouTube subscribers) is one way you can enrich your coverage further.

Create the Best of Social Media Lists

Keeping up with all of the latest developments on social media is difficult! Help your audience save time by recognizing the best social media accounts in niche areas. Praising influencers is one of the best ways to get their attention and start building a relationship. After you feature them in one of these lists, you may find it easier to invite them to contribute to your website or join events.

Connecting your publication to other digital experiences may start with social media but it shouldn’t end there. Enriching the streaming experience represents another way to win in a difficult time.

3. Enrich The Streaming Experience

The average American household subscribes to 4.7 streaming services according to Bloomberg. However, Bloomberg also estimates that streaming service growth may have plateaued for the foreseeable future.

The relatively low cost of streaming services means they are likely to be somewhat recession-resistant. Unlike other leisure activities like travel and restaurants, streaming service costs remain relatively affordable for many households. 

If there is a significant economic downturn in 2023 or 2024, affordable leisure activities like streaming services will likely gain more attention. That creates an opportunity for publishers to engage streaming fans more deeply. If your organization has significant entertainment news staff or access to stars, that is a significant opportunity!

There are a few ways to build or grow audiences around streaming service programming. 

Organize Viewing Parties

Invite your audience to open their Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming service and watch the latest release alongside your staff. This type of virtual event works best when it is tightly focused. For example, a viewing party focused on fantasy adaptations like “House of the Dragon” or historical dramas like “Bridgerton” are more likely to attract audience attention. Use Arena Live Chat to power this event and make it easy for your audience to share their reactions as the event unfolds.

Invite Fans Behind The Scenes With the Cast and Crew

The chance to see your favorite actors, writers and directors talk about their work is incredibly appealing to many fans. Inviting a few cast members to a virtual event is relatively easy and low-cost. If you give fans the opportunity to ask questions, they’re likely to stay to the end. 

Working with streaming services may not be suitable for all brands. What if you are focused on a different niche, like fashion and beauty? There’s another low-cost way for publishers to build their audience and keep people coming back for more: user-generated content!

4. Leverage The Authenticity of User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) built the social media platforms. It’s time for publishers to embrace user-generated content in new ways beyond comments on news articles. 

Thoughtfully highlighting UGC on your website is smart because it can bring additional trust and engagement. Social Media Today reports that consumer-created content is perceived to be the most trustworthy. UGC is also considered the most significant in influencing purchase decisions. For media brands like the Wirecutter that generate affiliate sales, featuring UGC on your website makes sense.

While exciting, increasing the amount of UGC on a publisher’s website needs to be done carefully. Publishers need to exercise editorial oversight over this content including enforcing their codes of conduct. To reduce the burden of oversight, starting with less polarizing content themes like lifestyle topics and sports may be helpful. Influencers with a few thousand followers may be willing to contribute to your publication in return for exposure. 

Do You Have The Right Technology To Grow Your Digital Audience?

A growing, highly engaged audience is indispensable to growing advertising revenue and thriving in tough times. Allow your audience to interact and join events with Arena. Arena Live Blog is the perfect tool to enhance your coverage of breaking news. Arena Live Chat is what you need to create more engaging digital events. The economic downturn is your opportunity to grow – seize it!

5 Ways News Media Can Grow Using Social Media Strategies

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For years, news organizations have struggled in the cold war with social media. Initally, classified revenue plummeted thanks to the rise of Craigslist, then, Google, Facebook, and Amazon stepped in, pulling billions of dollars in advertising revenue that used to be owned by traditional publishing. Today, a handful of mega-companies have successfully built global audiences around content: social media platforms.

To survive and thrive in the 2020s, news organizations need to study and model the specific tactics and strategies of the social media giants. Given that many social media platforms have been knocked down from their high-ground recently, the timing has never been better to take action.

Lesson 1: Offer A Highly Personalized Content Experience To Grow Engagement

Customized news feeds and streams lie at the heart of successful social media. Facebook gives you news updates on friends and family. Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms offer a curated experience focused on individual users’ interests. Developing this highly curated experience requires the contribution of many engineers, algorithms, and countless experiments.

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Applying this lesson to the news organization starts by offering filters. Some of your audience might only want business news, while others simply want coverage of their favorite sports team. Rather than forcing all users to flip through all of your news content, let them choose their interests. In addition, offering subject-specific email newsletters focused on different news interests (e.g., sports, business, local news) will help to deepen audience engagement.

Building detailed profiles of your audience’s likes and dislikes is vital for boosting engagement. Another benefit to offering a customized experience is that you will have better first-party data on your audience. Consequently, you will be able to market your subscriptions more effectively. Also, you will have the opportunity to offer more targeted advertising options to your advertisers.

Lesson 2: Adapt To Changing Media Consumption Habits

Consuming social media content and updates is addictive for a reason. These platforms offer the potential for social validation and a constant stream of novelty. That’s not all – many users are turning to social media to access news content. 

Consumption of news is a primary driver of social media.

According to Deloitte’s 2022 digital media trends research, the top five reasons US consumers use social media include reading or watching the news (27%), listening to music (28%, watching TV shows and movies (23%), shopping (17%), play video games (22%) and watch sports (13%). These findings tell us that there is considerable appetite for news. Deloitte points out that the popularity of news consumption on social media is driven by algorithmic customization and cost (i.e., no paid subscription needed). 

User-Generated Content Is Gaining In Popularity

Above and beyond news consumption, many social media users are interested in user-generated content. It’s important to note that user-generated content is a broad term that covers professional-grade content creators with high production values, hobbyists, and much more. Deloitte’s research found that 70% of Gen Z now regularly consume user-generated content – a figure that has rapidly increased over the past year.

Short-Form Video Content Is Booming

Short video content, typically less than a minute long, is thriving. The most popular content creators on TikTok, like Khabane Lame, Charli d’amelio, and Addison, have uploaded over 1,000 videos to build their audience. Many successful short videos feature videos, dancing, and humor. 

Adapting To New Media Consumption Habits

Adapting to these habits as a news organization is challenging. Traditionally, news organizations focus on high production values and professionalism, which isn’t always found in user-generated content. Despite that challenge, there are opportunities to respond to this challenge. Take video content as an example. Your organization likely has significant strengths in video production and editing. Use those capabilities to create content like TikTok videos and YouTube shorts like the Washington Post.

Lesson 3: Emphasize Individuals In Addition To Your Corporate Brand

Many, if not most, social media success stories involve individuals. Take MrBeast (i.e., Jimmy Donaldson) on YouTube. With more than 100 million subscribers, he has built one of the most successful channels on the platform. Many other top channels on the platform are built around individuals like Eminem, Justin Bieber, and Swedish YouTube star PewDiePie. 

Applying this lesson in a new organization is relatively easy. For the past decade, many successful journalists like Maggie Haverman (New York Times), Rachel Maddow (MSNBC), and Anderson Cooper (CNN) have built a large following on Twitter. The opportunity to interact directly with your journalists is crucial. Fundamentally, engaging with a specific person is easier than with a brand.

Building an audience around a personal brand is easier for several reasons. Forming a parasocial relationship where an audience member feels connected to the content creator is easier. Social media personalities sometimes deepen these relationships by adding exclusive experiences to paying customers using platforms like Patreon.

There are a few ways to apply this social media lesson to your news organization. Look at all of your public-facing journalists and personalities and their online profiles. Find out who successfully engages with their followers by looking at replies, likes, and comments. Invite your most successful journalists to present their best practices to others in the organization.

Lesson 4: Encourage Niche Communities

Social media platforms are excellent at bringing together small groups of people with shared interests. For example, there are online groups for people interested in obvious things like real estate investing, auto repair & fashion and each of these larger audience can be further cut into niche segments.

Let’s take sports as an example. Spending five or ten minutes searching through Facebook you can easily find groups like:

  • Obsessed with NCAA Wrestling Updates (9,000+ members)
  • NBA Fantasy Basketball Discussion (11,000+ members)
  • Mets Fans For Life (18,000 members)
  • Yankees Fans (100,000+ fans)

These examples show an audience like “sports fans” has multiple significant segments. News organizations with deep connections in local sports teams have an opportunity to shine by creating dedicated niche communities. Getting started is easier than you might imagine because news organizations already have high-quality content to build their communities on. 

Lesson 5: Embrace Technical Innovation

Move fast and break things is a well-known saying in the technology industry. Social media platforms often launch new features as they observe their users and advertisers. For example, Instagram has recently focused on video content to compete more effectively against TikTok. 

News organizations may not have the same kind of product development, engineering, and technical bench strength as social media companies. Fortunately, this is less of a disadvantage than you might think. The rise of no-code and low-code platforms and integrations means adding new technologies to your website is easier than ever.

Want to improve your coverage and engagement of rapidly developing news stories like international conflicts and elections? You can install Arena Live Blog on your website in a few minutes. Want to build online events like the Wall St Journal’s Live Q&A Events? Add Arena Live Chat to your website to supplement the video streaming experience so your audience can share their feedback and questions.

Don’t Ignore Your Greatest Strength As You Innovate

There’s no doubt that news publishers can draw lessons from social media platforms. Yet, there’s a danger in drawing too much inspiration from these platforms. You don’t want to lose the soul of your organization as you chase growth. 

The most trusted news organizations have built audiences for decades. Social media companies don’t invest in investigative journalism. News organizations hold elected officials accountable for their actions and words. The best news organizations focus on fact-checking and admitting mistakes. In contrast, social media platforms have a much less impressive track record of quality and accountability.

Investigation, fact-checking, and taking on powerful interests carry a cost. Yet, those commitments are ultimately critical for maintaining your reputation and keeping engaged subscribers. If your audience loses trust in your organization, selling subscriptions and advertising space will become more difficult.

The good news is that you can innovate without selling your soul as a news organization. The first step is to add the right technology to your website. These technologies don’t require weeks or months of customization and implementation either. You can be up and running in a matter of hours when you choose Arena.

Transform The News Into An Interactive Community Experience

Publishing high-quality news, analysis, and information are no longer enough to sustain news organizations. Your website needs to offer an online community to win attention and engagement from social media platforms. Your audience wants to ask questions, meet people who share their interests, and more. Right now, social media offers these community experiences. Yet social media lacks the commitment to investigation, reporting, and truth that leading news organizations have.

Give your audience a chance to interact with each other, and engagement will go up. Page views and time on site will also increase. Book a demo with Arena today to discover how to engage your audience more.

Could Budweiser Profit Despite World Cup Sponsorship Disappointment

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Put yourself in Budweiser’s shoes for a moment. The beer company has spent at least $75 million to sponsor the World Cup, one of the largest sporting events of the year. The company probably thought selling beer in Qatar, known for its strict alcohol prohibitions, would be difficult, but thought they had reached an agreement to sell alcohol in the stadiums, and other select areas. Then Qatar decided to ban alcohol sales in stadiums less than 48 hours before the start of the first game. AB InBev’s now deleted tweet, “well, this is awkward”, pretty much sums up their sentiment…

Without question, it’s disappointing news. As marketers who market to marketers, our hearts go out to the hard-working teams at Budweiser who have spent months, if not years working toward the 2022 World Cup (not to mention the fans who just want a beverage!). It’s not just beer companies that are worried, either. The Guardian reports that several other World Cup sponsors have “ brought up contractual concerns with Fifa following its late decision to ban alcohol from stadiums during the World Cup.”

Seeking compensation or other solutions through the legal process will take time. Regardless of the outcome, what else can Budweiser do? To answer this question, we’re turning to an unexpected place – wisdom from a long-dead Roman Emperor.

The Obstacle Is The Way: The Surprising Solution From A Roman Emperor

In his best-selling book, “The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph,” Ryan Holiday presents Stoic wisdom from ancient Greece and Rome. The book’s title is based on an observation from Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 CE).

Marcus Aurelius wrote the following in Meditations, his book of reflections:

Our actions may be impeded… but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our understanding. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Marcus was one of the most influential people who ever lived. Yet, he suffered great disappointments and frustrations, like a trusted friend betraying him and struggling through the Antonine Plague (which lasted for 15 years). With these Stoic principles in mind, what can brands like Budweiser do when they face disappointment?

5 Ways Budweiser Can Turn Its World Cup Trial Into Triumph 

No company, let alone a major event sponsor, wants to see its products prohibited from sale at a significant event. These ideas are no substitute for the company’s lost sales. Yet they may help the company to thrive in the future and find even more excellent opportunities.

1) Gain New Insights For Marketing In Alcohol Restricted Markets

Laws and social customs restrict alcohol consumption in many countries around the world. An estimated 14 countries, including Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Iran, Kuwait, and the Maldives, prohibit or, significantly limit alcohol sales. 

Yet, there are millions of consumers in those markets. Traditional beer advertising campaigns are not well suited to these countries.

As the World Cup unfolds, we encourage Budweiser to pay close attention to how fans – locals and international alike – engage with its Budweiser Zero product. Ask staff on the ground to see how consumers like its alcohol-free product.  For example, there may be new ideas to leverage – like being able to drink a lot during the competition without putting on weight!

2) Leverage Sober Curious Audience

For an alcoholic beverage company, the growth of the sober curious trend may be problematic. The market research firm Nielsen found that 21% of US consumers cut back on alcohol consumption in 2021. The key drivers for this behavior change include losing interest in drinking alcohol, going out less, and wanting to live a healthier lifestyle.

The sober trend is even more eye-opening when considering it from a demographic trend. Several research studies have found that Millennials, the largest US demographic, drink less than older generations. Generation Z adults are also telling researchers that they plan to consume less alcohol.

These trends present an opportunity to promote Budweiser Zero. In fact, Budweiser might go a step further and position its product against soft drinks. Budweiser has 50 calories, while a standard 330 ml (11.1 fluid ounces) cane of Coca-Cola Original has 139 calories. For consumers interested in losing weight or pursuing other health goals, Budweiser Zero might be a good fit. 

3) Find Inspiration For More Inclusive Marketing

Many traditional alcoholic beverage advertisements show people enjoying life while drinking. (We get it, drinking beer can be fun!) Yet, many people don’t want to drink alcohol. They might not like the taste, avoid alcohol for health or religious reasons or simply prefer other drinks.

Instead of advertising that subtly pressures everyone to drink alcohol, see this World Cup disappointment as an opportunity. Picture this – a commercial showing a couple planning a party and debating what drinks to offer. They could start with beer and then recall, “Hey, what are we going to serve to other people who don’t drink?” 

4) Lean Into The Disappointment Angle

It might not be the healthiest habit, but sometimes enjoying a beer after hearing awful news just feels right. Other brands have directly referenced disappointments in the news to significant effect. For example, Oreo famously created the dunk in the dark tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl when a power outage impacted the game. That fast Tweet received over 6,000 likes and more than 13,000 retweets.

There are a few ways to use World Cup disappointment as fuel. The direct approach: create marketing featuring the disappointed Budweiser staffers drowning their sorrows with their favorite beer! The indirect approach offers an alternative if that feels too on the nose.  

Create marketing campaigns around a series of disappointments like:

  • Your favorite team didn’t win the championship.
  • You didn’t get the bonus or raise you wanted.
  • You got injured playing sports.

Build a series of ads around each disappointment and then end with friends coming together to cheer up their friend with a peer. The message is simple: Budweiser is there for you when your life throws disappointment your way. Budweiser wouldn’t want to condone irresponsible drinking! Enjoy a single beer and company.

5) Play The Long Game Virtually

What if Budweiser had an environment where World Cup-style surprises simply couldn’t happen? Even better, what if that environment could accommodate vast numbers of beer fans from all over the world? That’s all possible by creating a virtual community directly on Budweiser websites. With Arena Live Chat installed, beer and sports fans can gather together to celebrate their favorite drinks and sports.

We get that suggesting brands like Budweiser “take their audience home” is self-serving, since our technology enables this, but it’s more than just a self-promotional tactic. The reality is that, like regional governments, 3rd party social media platforms can also change their minds about what’s allowed or not allowed on their feeds and betting your business, or $75M marketing campaign, on platforms that can disable your content with the flick of a switch may not be the best forward facing strategy. 

Discover How To Build A Own Disruption-Proof Virtual Community

The silver lining for AB InBev here is that they’re getting a lot of “free”global publicity. Was it worth the $75M, probably not, but, on the flip side, here we are, a SaaS company, writing a blog about beer. And there’s a lesson for every brand, publisher and influencer here: don’t trust your livelihood, and budgets, to organizations (political or technical) that can turn off your programs with the flip of a switch. 

At Arena, we believe the technology, and the time, have arrived at a point where marketers CAN take their audience back from social media, and evolve their own, digital properties with social-media-like experiences that drive community led growth. Want to see how it works? Check out our world cup coverage page, or, if you’d like to learn more Contact Arena today to find out how you can grow a digital community on your own website – an asset that can’t be taken away from you!