5 steps for publishers to create search independence
Don’t like your content ingested by AI, which rewrites and spits it without a link? Should you sue? Cut a deal? Wait it out?
We first wrote about the issue in an April 2024 report, “Starting this summer, Google search may deliver Zero Clicks” following a presentation by Kate Hand, EVP of Gardner Media Group at the 2024 Niche Media Conference.
Since then, Gemini has been fully incorporated into Google search results, although the algorythm does not appear to suppress traffic to publishers.
Not everyone is convinced to trust their future to Google, however.
One publisher with mostly evergreen content noted that her business may have up to two years left before AI gets good enough to destroy her business model.
AI doesn’t track trend changes, so there’s more opportunity in that direction. Plus, AI may have a fatal flaw that can’t replace journalism.
All the same, Google is committed to AI. So, what about all those metatags and keyword strategies when Gemini works the way it was expected to?
The Third Path: Defend and Attack
Hand advised niche publishers to sit tight until the dust settles – but gate almost all content in the meantime. This helps prevent content ingestion by AI and starts publishers down the path toward fully owning their audience. Our take: the first step for publishers is to examine their organic search versus direct traffic and develop a proactive five-part plan: part defense and part offense.
Step 1. Require registration for all premium and B2B content, even free content. Hand (who, by the way, encourages her staff to use AI) has gated almost all content on Gardner’s most popular publication without a significant loss in traffic. Outside the gate: Self-serve press releases and user-generated content such as events, job listings, and classifieds, depending on the niche.
Step 2. Sign up for Apple News+. In a recent article, Semafor asks, “As clicks dry up for news sites, could Google news app be a lifeline?” referring to Apple’s news distribution platform, Apple News+.
The article states that the Daily Beast, where the author used to work, watched its traffic fall off the Google and Facebook algorithmic cliff. After incorporating the site into Apple News+, the online news magazine reversed the traffic drop and now earns more subscription revenue than before. Niche publishers have had similar results.
Step 3. Tweak social media funnels to directly capture email data
Most publishers use social media to drive traffic to the website and thus into the funnel for the next step—on-site email capture. These paths are critical to building the owned audience.
But social media algorithms are fickle, too, so the pressure is on to register more, faster.
Publishers can also test-drive campaigns that directly register their audience and use paid campaigns.
Typically considered “lead generation” campaigns, publishers need a set of their own to build their email list. This list can also be co-sponsored and paid for by an advertiser—a model perfected by Industry Dive—or considered an investment in a more search- and social media- independent future.
It is simpler than it looks. One publisher simply posts his magazine covers on social media and requires registration to see the story.
The key is to have a compelling message that will induce a registration. For publishers working with advertisers who want these lead-gen campaigns and are more than willing to pay, here’s another reason to double down on this area of expertise.
Step 4. Identify revenue options to monetize existing audiences.
Guy Kasaka, the thought leader behind Local Media 3.0, has pointed out that media with dominant, exclusive audiences often don’t understand their value, partly because of legacy revenue models and because their CMS platforms are designed around these limited models.
When the existing owned audience is not monetized, investing in this audience seems like an expense rather than an offensive move with serious revenues attached.
Kasaka asks why a media outlet with 100,000 page views struggles to monetize them fully. At the same time, Podnews.net, a one-man show published by a radio guy with little more than a daily newsletter, takes one hour to produce and generates $800,000 annually. That is a really good question.
We did the research. That’s for another post, but part of the answer is automation and self-serve products for advertisers, such as niche-specific classifieds and marketplaces. Another part is understanding what the audience will pay for.
Every niche is different, but one thing is clear: audiences can and will purchase more than subscriptions.
AsphaltPro Magazine, with a circulation of just 6,500 magazines, generates a $50,000 passive revenue stream (case study here) for his free magazine from a single online course, Asphalt Paving 101, built from existing articles with existing staff, and no live instructors.
Other niche magazines have created valuable databases, such as sales results for high-end auctions, marketplaces where products are sold, benchmarking reports, and other data for which their readers are willing to pay.
Podnews.net has created a paid speakers bureau for experts who want to be tapped by other podcasts, along with a service that matches podcasters who want to cross-promote.
In short, there is money on the table. Watch this space, we report on what your peers have come up with.
Step 5. Set OKRs for cross-promotions, data-matching, and other initiatives that build owned audiences.
Despite the relative stability of niche media – partly because of their longevity and owned audiences – media publishers today are permanent entrepreneurs. Some are on the defense against big tech algorithmic changes or new competitors, but most are on the offense, looking for new revenue areas to increase profits and valuation.
A new management methodology can clarify this process.
OKRs is a goal-setting methodology. Basically, it involves 3 steps: Creating an inspiring “what” objective, a two—or three-point “how to” and a deadline. Rather than KPIs, which measure performance on current models, OKRs commit your team to new projects, not necessarily BHAGS, but projects worth pursuing in distinct time-based phases.
Here’s an OKR for cross-promotions:
What: Increase audience registrations by 3x per month using partnerships
How:
a. Identify a compelling message and landing page to capture sign-ups.
b. List companies that can cross-promote and identify non-competitive companies and influencers with a database and are in the same boat.
c. Create personal marketing to ask them to trade promotions in their email newsletters in return for carrying them in yours.
Deadline: September 15, 2024
Since there are many ways to build data, this is a great way to phase them into your company plan; one per quarter delivers 4 per year. We’ve also written extensively about using WIZA to find B2B email contacts and clean the list. For example, you can match emails to first contacts on LinkedIn. Find a list of audience-building methods in the ‘audience-building channel‘ on this website.
Conclusion: All the light you cannot see
There is an old mountain climbing truism, “The mountain doesn’t care.”
The same is true of media today.
Google is like a cat that cares about you but more about being fed. If you stop, he’ll wind up in the neighbor’s yard and might anyway if the food is better. All major AI developers have an insatiable appetite for free content and skirt undecided areas of copyright law.
They know there is a problem but can settle the inevitable lawsuits later if they win the race for dominance now. Google’s problem is ChatGPT, and it is not taking its foot off the gas.
The light at the end of the tunnel is that publishers don’t have to play Google’s game if they create their own. And while all publishers are in the same boat regarding search, niche media have distinct advantages.
Influencers who can turn social followers into email data may have a good shot at a real business. Still, niche publishers already have perfectly positioned businesses to exploit the situation.
They are small, nimble, and entrepreneurial, with employees – or at least multiple contractors – and revenue streams. Available technology is better than ever, and barriers to entry work to their advantage. Most are time-strapped but economically healthy, but the time to act is now.
Google has fired the first shots.
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