The Digiday Publishing Summit Spotlights Publishers’ Everyday Challenges

Leaders, innovators, and newcomers of the digital marketspace gathered in Vail, Colorado for the Digiday Publishing Summit, March 21-23, to discuss the various challenges impacting the publishing industry. Topics at the forefront of the conversation included Facebook’s viability as a traffic source, subscription modeling, video content, and user experience optimization. The same challenges are fueling Digital Remedy and its continuous effort to make strides in the industry.

Garnering over 2 billion active users monthly, publishers have viewed Facebook as a reigning epicenter for pushing content to the masses. However, Facebook’s reputation has superseded its actuality: its audience reach is dwindling—as discovered by the Chicago Tribune when Facebook’s 2017 algorithm caused 242 posts to seen by less than 10,000 people in one month, making those posts 30 times less likely to be seen than before the algorithm change. With 72% of publishers disagreeing that Facebook’s recent algorithm changes are providing them long-run benefits, it is growing more evident that Facebook doesn’t always provide pivotal advantages.

While publishers don’t want to completely eradicate themselves from social media, the true challenge is finding alternate ways to ensure content is efficiently delivered across the media channels that matter.

Digital brands like Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube have evolved subscription services from applying only to written content to applying to written, video, and gaming content. In turn, publishers are being pressured to have subscription service models that meet modern-day expectations such as having media accessible in multiple formats (desktop, mobile, app, etc.). More importantly, publishers are in-market for better methods of convincing consumers to purchase subscriptions and continually reengage their content.

The production and deliverance of video content is far from extinction, with 2.38 billion global digital video viewers active this year, according to eMarketer. However, publishers still face roadblocks targeting their ability to reach their key market among these viewers. The risk of lackluster viewership and engagement, which can compromise ROIs and increases in brand awareness and purchase intent, also lingers.

Publishing companies and agencies understand the need for user experience optimization. Inept content platform navigation results in higher bounce rates and less loyal viewers. However, publishers want the opportunity to achieve monetization with practices such as advertisements and paid promotions. A publisher’s focus on monetization, unfortunately, can cause them to sacrifice a platform’s functionality for its profitability. Therefore, a balance between generating revenue and providing a fluid user experience is actively sought after in the publishing industry.

While these challenges highlighted at the Summit may seem daunting, Digital Remedy is well-equipped to tackle them head-on. Each team at Digital Remedy believes publishers should never experience uncertainty or lackluster results when pushing content to key audiences. Instead, publishers deserve the power to control how their content is delivered while maintaining optimal performance and ROI. For 18 years, Digital Remedy has helped publishers take action in each step of their content-centric campaign, pairing them to the individuals within our diverse solution set and ad tech ecosystem that best fit their needs.