Publishers must start giving, and demanding, the recognition they deserve

Published: 24 Sept 2021
Author: Richard Reeves

As comedian Maisie Adams raised the roof at last week’s AOP Digital Publishing Awards, I was struck by how much shared moments of joy matter. Watching physical and virtual attendees letting off steam brought home the importance of not only easing the pandemic pressure valve, but also coming together to celebrate what we have achieved. 

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, focus has centred on driving even faster development to adjust business models and keep up with changing audience needs, leaving little time for reflection. As highlighted by the accomplishments of our finalists in the toughest circumstances, however, there are plenty of success stories to tell. 

Accolades across 26 categories illustrated how multiple trailblazers have continued to elevate creative and innovative standards, while fuelling positive change, including this year’s winners for the flagship B2B and B2C publishing company awards — William Reed Business Media and Immediate Media. From here, the new challenge is sustaining this spirit of recognition. You can read the full list of winners here. 

Assigning credit where it’s due  

Publishers innately have deep appreciation for the work that goes into producing content. From high-quality editorial and investigations to showbiz exclusives, we know each piece of original content takes hours, days, or months to compile, but when that content is reported by other publications, not all are linking back to the original source of the story. Linking back to the source is equally as essential to support fellow creators as acknowledging their successes through celebrations like award ceremonies, for several reasons.   

Fair citation shows respect for the time, effort, and money invested in generating premium-level content, especially with reports that require rigorous research and fact-checking. As well as helping direct users to the original source of a story, linking is vitally important for SEO. Google uses links from ‘prominent websites’ as a signal to determine ‘authoritativeness’ – a key factor in determining ranking. In a world where the ranking of online stories is determined algorithmically, it can be crucial to maintain publishers’ visibility, traffic, and survival.

Based on feedback from our members, the AOP strongly believes this topic calls for greater attention, particularly after more than 18 months of disruption, pushing publishers harder than ever. So far, we’ve opened discussions with our audience development group to explore the potential for a Link Attribution Protocol. As well as enhancing awareness of the need to represent unique content in ways that align with the complicated digital ecosystem, the protocol aims to raise awareness of fair link attribution and encourage best practice among the digital publishing community, as we continue to move towards a fairer, more transparent ecosystem. Further updates coming soon. 

Setting reasonable data boundaries

When it comes to ensuring publishers are recognised by the wider online community, one prominent issue this year stands out for us: web crawlers. We’ve been talking to members about this since early 2021, and it’s only gaining traction as a high-alert issue – one that needs urgent attention as highlighted by us to Press Gazette in this piece.  

 The problem, of course, isn’t about a lack of willingness to assist with the difficulties facing digital advertisers. Publishers are all too familiar with the vast data gap that is being created by third-party cookie deprecation, in addition to the benefits a transition towards context-based targeting presents for ongoing ad relevance and revenue. What isn’t as welcome, however, is the rising number of third-party vendors fuelling solutions and prospering their own agenda by gleaning data from publishers, without first asking permission to do so. 

Essentially, it’s a question of consent and courtesy. In what reminds me very much of trespassing onto someone else’s land and stealing their produce, this is unacceptable behaviour. While a farmer may have to allow walkers to use a public footpath across his fields, he does not expect them to wander off the path, set up a picnic, and help themselves to apples from the orchard. When it comes to advertising, the scraping of first-party data is akin to a combine harvester ploughing the land and reaping what someone else has sown. It’s time for renewed and enforced bylaws. 

Steering responsible web navigation

It’s not just premium publishers who are feeling the challenges of a complex ecosystem. Consumers are overwhelmed by the vast ocean of media they encounter across the web, and ensuring they can recognise and surface quality and trusted sources is paramount; which is why we’ve made it the main theme for our next CRUNCH event on 30^th September. Squarely aimed at fighting the growing tide of misinformation and enabling online audiences to make more informed consumption choices, the session will provide advice from expert speakers on reducing harmful content, promoting trusted sources, and reframing the media agenda. When registering your place, don’t forget to also check out the fast-approaching AOP Publishing Tech Talk – from 11^th to 14^th October - where we’ll be demystifying the intricacies of smart tools.

The media landscape continues to march ahead at an unparalleled rate, with digital publishers proving their limitless capacity for reinvention and resilience. At least occasionally, however, it’s worth reaching for the pause button. Taking stock is invaluable to ensure publishers can give themselves a break and recognise how far they have come.