Albert Fong’s Post

It's a miracle that the free Internet lasted as long as it did. It's been nearly 30 years of mostly unfettered, free content access to everything from magazine articles and newspapers to videos and recipes. The steady devolution of the online advertising business made free online content an economic equation that no one could solve. If you need further evidence that your free internet is evaporating like snow on an early spring day, look at CNN.com. The popular online news platform, an arm of the still popular cable news network, is putting up a paywall. It won't block you from seeing all CNN.com posts but will limit the number you can see for free. It's unclear if that will be a few a day or a dozen per month. However, once you hit the limit, CNN.com will prompt you to subscribe for $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year. That's not a lot, and for all-you-can-eat access, some might consider it a bargain. Even so, it'll be an adjustment, especially for those who've been accessing the site since it launched "on the World Wide Web" in August of 1995. #internet #subscriptions #web

🔕 Google will begin removing links to California news websites. 🔕 If you rely on Google News or Google Alerts to stay informed, then it may be time to look elsewhere... Managr could be a good alternative. It curates news from thousands of top outlets and provides interactive summaries that keep you up to speed on the latest news. Managr also tracks social media posts from X and Instagram. You can get started for free by going to app.managr.ai/register Stay informed, stay ahead, and don't miss out of California news. 🐻 #PR #News #Google #California

🔕 Google is on the verge of discontinuing links to California news websites. If you rely on Google Alerts, this might feel like your morning coffee has been snatched away. But fear not, ManagrAI has you covered! ManagrAI curates news from thousands of outlets and social media posts. It's designed to keep you in the loop, minus the unnecessary noise. But ManagrAI doesn't just deliver news, it helps you comprehend it with interactive summaries. Begin your news journey for free at app.managr.ai/register. Stay informed, stay ahead, and never miss a beat on California news!

Interesting comments from Mail CEO Rich Caccappolo about the use of paywalls in the online news ecosystem. Quite a few publishers – particularly the Financial Times and The Economist in the UK and The New York Times – have made a success of selling subscriptions. That reflects the fact their readers are typically older and richer. But Caccappolo is worried about a “two-tiered group” – in other words, the half who can’t afford to or don’t want to pay for their news. He talks about people reading “murky or less reliable information”, saying “an informed public is the foundation of democracy”. He's not so explicit but these fears are particularly acute in a year of elections in some of the world’s largest democracies, when the risk of misinformation and disinformation is high. (For its part, the Mail has a hybrid model, Mail+, that gives some paying subscribers access to more premium content.) At the heart of this is the paywall vs ad-funded model choice that has faced UK news brands for the past decade and more (in reality, as the Mail shows, it’s not quite so binary). It’s become clear that for the majority of publishers, relying on cash from ads alone doesn’t work. The market is too fragmented and essentially controlled by the US tech giants. Premium brands’ paywall models are far sturdier, though not immune to economic downturns when consumer spending power wanes. Unfortunately there are no easy answers here. In the UK we’re lucky to have the BBC, which democratises access to reliable news. But a healthy news ecosystem requires a plurality of media, not over-reliance on a publicly funded corporation. The House of Lords’ future of news inquiry is currently grappling with some of this, and taking evidence from a few heavy hitters, but it’s unlikely to solve the conundrum. And with the greatest respect to House of Lords committees, the scale of this issue surely demands higher profile interventions. It would be great to hear the most influential voices help to put this more front and centre of public debate. As Caccappolo says, it goes right to the heart of the future of our democracy. https://lnkd.in/e7tMTbey

America's Newspapers, the leading association of news publishers in the United States, applauds the recent verdict finding #Google in violation of #antitrust laws. This landmark decision marks a crucial step toward fostering fair competition in the #digital advertising market and protecting the future of local journalism. This verdict confirms what our members have long experienced: Google’s monopolistic practices have harmed local news organizations, have significantly impacted local newspaper revenues, and have limited local publishers’ innovation in the digital advertising space. By leveraging its dominant position in search and digital advertising, Google has unfairly disadvantaged news publishers, limiting their ability to monetize content and reach audiences effectively. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ePFxm-Vt

THE SCOOP Like many digital publishers, The Daily Beast was struggling at the end of 2023. Facebook, long a primary driver of clicks to the publication, had turned away from news. Search traffic had become increasingly erratic, as Google adjusted its algorithm to combat a flood of AI-powered junk. The site’s paid subscription program had atrophied since Donald Trump left office. But it had a new lifeline: Apple. Late last year, the digital news tabloid (where I worked from 2018 to 2021 as a media reporter) entered into Apple’s partnership program, called Apple News+. The program made all of the publication’s buzziest exclusives available to paying Apple subscribers, behind Apple’s own paywall. And the impact for a mid-sized news site was immediate, putting the Beast on track to make between $3-4 million in revenue this year from Apple News alone — more than its own standalone subscription program, and without much additional cost. https://lnkd.in/eNeSJtpA

One of THE biggest tech sites or sites in general is going behind a paywall (mostly). How is the open internet advertising going to look like in 5 years time where we can see a scenario all publishers going behind a paywall.

THE SCOOP Like many digital publishers, The Daily Beast was struggling at the end of 2023. Facebook, long a primary driver of clicks to the publication, had turned away from news. Search traffic had become increasingly erratic, as Google adjusted its algorithm to combat a flood of AI-powered junk. The site’s paid subscription program had atrophied since Donald Trump left office. But it had a new lifeline: Apple. Late last year, the digital news tabloid (where I worked from 2018 to 2021 as a media reporter) entered into Apple’s partnership program, called Apple News+. The program made all of the publication’s buzziest exclusives available to paying Apple subscribers, behind Apple’s own paywall. And the impact for a mid-sized news site was immediate, putting the Beast on track to make between $3-4 million in revenue this year from Apple News alone — more than its own standalone subscription program, and without much additional cost. https://lnkd.in/dGcYDwn5

Speaking from the experience of having managed a website that NewsBreak directed tons of traffic to – and as this article says – you do not need to join its publisher program. Publishers can realize the traffic gains offered by NB's reach without signing away their content rights and search positioning, and the undeniable No. 1 key to doing it is a great headline. The content (sadly) doesn't even need to be original; NB will feature content that you aggregated from the original source if the headline is clever or outrageous enough. All publishers should remember: NB needs you more than you need it. It's in NB's best business interests to syndicate great content with irresistible headlines, regardless of whether that content originated from a partnered publisher.

News publishers urge antitrust action over Google's third-party content policy: News Media Alliance seeks DOJ and FTC intervention against Google's site reputation abuse policy affecting publisher revenues. #News #Journalism #Antitrust #Google #Publishers