DLR 194 – Stability and a plan for tomorrow

Published: 02 Apr 2025

Some may not consider the status quo as a positive, but for the AOP/Deloitte Q4 Digital Publishers Revenue Index report stability (year on year at least) of display advertising will be a relief, and in some cases, a positive when coupled with the reported growth in video and audio formats.

A number of premium publishers have invested heavily in studio facilities to take news beyond text and into video and audio formats, the reported growth in these revenue streams will therefore be welcome, and to some extent, provided the evidence to vindicate those strategic decisions.

Also reassuring is this strategic direction appears to fit an ever-shifting landscape. Over at the IAB a recent report has predicted that “By 2030, investment in video display is expected to account for over a third (34%) of total digital ad spend” - compared to 26% in 2024.

Attracting ad revenues into this space is crucial, but so too is removing any barriers to that advertiser investment. Brand safety has been back in the news in recent months, for the wrong reasons, key word based blockers proving detrimental to premium publisher’s content, so it was encouraging to read that a switch in provider by News UK has yielded positive results, “…the publisher has increased its brand safe ad inventory by up to 20%, up from 16% just six months ago.” Furthermore, “the number of brand safety categories the publisher had available to advertisers grew by more than 37% in 2024 compared to the previous year.”

Traffic referral, from platforms, has also been a source of concern for premium publishers for some time now, so it was also encouraging to read that BlueSky has made a change that will allow publishers to better track the referral traffic originating from posts on its platform. Whilst volumes are relatively low for the micro-blocking site compared to X (the most comparable platform) it is growing and is being tested by a number of publishers.

Staying with the new strategies and divergence theme, can publishers play or partner in the retail space?
Exchangewire’s latest report This Year, Next Year data shows UK retail media and commerce growing 17.7% year-on-year, making it the second fastest growing channel after streaming in the UK. Some retailers are also seeing more than 50% growth in ad-spend.

Coupling this with a recent eMarketer report highlighting major themes and challenges for retailers as they attempt to continue this growth – namely first-party data, scaling the in-store proposition, and connecting the dots across channels – then it seems that there may be an opportunity to partner in this space, particularly around first-party data, a divergence revenue theme we have seen within the DPRI, monetising publisher data.

However, if ever a reminder was needed that the best laid plans (and strategies) can be quickly derailed if reliant on external factors, then Google’s recent activities serve as a warning to focus on what you can control. Google recently conducted a study across eight European markets on news content and found on removing it “news has “no measurable impact” on its advertising revenue”. A claim that has been met with some scepticism by publishers.

Google have also updated their spam policies, not something premium publishers have had to be concerned about previously, but this time it’s different. As Press Gazette explained, “Google explicitly singled out news websites hosting coupons provided by a third-party, a common practice for many publishers. While some sites took steps to clarify their relationships with third parties and explain why working with them provided a better service to their readers, Google doubled down — equating trying to rank well in search results with bad user experience”.

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