This post was most recently updated on September 19th, 2019
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism conducted research with regards to publishers in Europe to discover some of their main concerns and the challenges they face. Many European publishers face similar challenges compared to those in the United States. In this week’s video, we take a closer look at those challenges. Watch the video below to find out more!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly video updates!
Video transcription
Publishers in the US aren’t the only ones with stagnating revenue growth.
European publishers are also facing issues with business models focused on digital advertising.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published a report on 13 European leading publishers.
This included companies from the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany.
Publishers part of the list included Brut, Correctiv, El Espanol, HuffPost Europe and more.
Several premium publishers in online news closed over the past year.
This included UK viral Facebook publisher Unilad which filed for bankruptcy and a division of Buzzfeed in France.
The Reuters report had the following to say:
Digital advertising remains a critical source of publisher revenue.
Digital news media is an established part of the European media industry and focus on lean operations with diverse revenue sources.
Publishers are trying to avoid over-dependence on Facebook and Google.
News publishers are focusing on quality content rather than quantity.
Subscription models are challenging as some publishers compete against media companies with free content.
Publishers had to spend money on consent management platforms for GDPR.
Further issues faced by European publishers include the “link tax” proposed by EU copyright legislation.
The law would force Google to pay billions to publishers for showing news clips in the search engine.
Major news publications support the proposal.
However, it could result in Google shutting down news aggregation services to avoid paying fees.
This would mean closing off a huge traffic source for European publishers.
Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.