The Rebooting Show

At the Media Product Forum earlier this month, I spoke with Gannett head of product Renn Turiano, Hearst Newspapers chief commercial officer Bridget Williams and Millie Tran, chief digital content officer at the Council on Foreign Relations. The conversation revolved around the shifting product priorities at publishers at a time when the weight of most publishing businesses is shifting from catering to the whims of platforms to a more independent path. That requires a change in focus to satisfy user needs, as well as the need to identify and serve various audience segments. We spoke about how all three organizations are tackling this. Thanks to WordPress VIP, which partnered with The Rebooting on the Media Product Forum.

At last week’s Media Product Forum, which The Rebooting held in collaboration with WordPress VIP, I had a discussion with Dotdash Meredith chief product officer Adam McClean and The Daily Beast svp of product Samantha Winkelman about their respective product strategies. While both owned by IAC, the publishers are at vastly different sizes, with The Daily Beast having three people in product to DDM’s 75. The connective tissue of both: A focus on audience needs.

Marissa Zanetti-Crume from Bloomberg Media discusses the audience-focused approach to product development. She shares insights on user behavior, personalized content, AI in user experience, homepage redesign, and strategic product decisions.

In a discussion held in Cannes, I sat down with Jason White, chief product and technology officer at The Arena Group, and Johanna Bergqvist, general manager of the managers at The Rebooting partner EX.CO. A part of the conversation that resonated was how White has zeroed in on revenue per session as what he calls the “God metric” that prioritizes session depth over raw page views. This is a recognition that traditionally digital media publishers have focused on eyeballs without understanding the intrinsic value of user engagement."The days of not knowing the value of your audience and your content are kind of gone,” Jason said. “Marketers forever have had CRM experts; they know their audiences, they know the value of their users, the value of their products, their margins, etc. We've played an eyeball game for the past 30 years in digital media."The benefits:Organizational alignment. As highlighted in The Rebooting and WordPress VIP’s recent research, internal misalignment bedevils publishers. Different groups pursue different goals. The horror show of many webpages is a sign of internal misalignment and “shipping the org chart.”True personalization. There’s no personalization without understanding the person. RPS allows The Arena Group to figure out not just how best to serve visitors – “Is this a younger audience that wants to consume video?” Johanna said. “Let’s take them down more of a video path." – but how best to make money from them. Publishing is increasingly a game of finding the high value audiences within a mass of impressions.Resource allocation. The more-with-less era is a reality. It requires making hard choices about where to spend and where to cut. Having alignment on a KPI makes these choices somewhat easier, if no less painful.

In a session recorded at the Cannes Lions, Hearst Magazines CRO Lisa Ryan and Jen Dorre join the show to discuss how the publisher is responding to the shifts in advertising to performance-focused channels, including retail media and platforms. Skip to topic:00:00 Introduction01:36 Realism in Publishing and Growth Strategies04:45 Focus on Audience and Data Utilization07:33 Innovative Ad Products and Consumer Engagement13:03 Challenges and Opportunities in Attribution14:26 The Role of Brand Storytelling16:37 Hearst's Commerce Business18:53 Understanding Consumer Behavior with AI20:39 The Future of Programmatic Advertising24:04 Premium Ad Strategies for Publishers

In this podcast, they discuss the impact of AI on the publishing business, challenges and opportunities in publishing, the role of algorithms in media, AI deals and legal considerations, the future of print and digital media, credibility and relevancy in content, adapting to the digital advertising ecosystem, and embracing change in publishing.

This episode from Cannes of The Rebooting Show, presented by Outbrain, features David Kostman (CEO of Outbrain), Kate Scott-Dawkins (Global President for Business Intelligence at GroupM), and Johanna Mayer-Jones (chief advertising officer of the Washington Post). They discuss the ad market's growth contrasted with the decline in ad revenue for news publishers. Emphasizing the value of trusted journalism, they explore the importance of advanced audience targeting and AI in creating brand-safe environments. The conversation highlights the need for new strategies and better communication to showcase the value of news audiences to advertisers.Skip to topic:00:00 Introduction01:43 Panel Introduction and Discussion Overview02:07 Ad Challenges in the News Business06:31 Impact of Keyword Block Lists08:19 Brand Suitability and Safety23:23 Performance Marketing Trends

Ben Smith, Semafor editor in chief, discusses challenges in modern newsrooms, AI opportunities, starting from scratch, and the role of journalists in modern media. He also introduces his new podcast, Mixed Signals, unpacking real conspiracies in the media landscape.

Matt Cronin, founding partner of House of Kaizen, discusses The Washington Post's turnaround plan under new CEO Will Lewis, exploring challenges, subscription models, audience engagement strategies, and B2B opportunities in media.

The podcast discusses the shift in publishing from breadth to depth, focusing on audience understanding and consumer-centric strategies. It explores challenges in media transformation, the role of technology, adapting to consumer-first approach, navigating data collection, AI in audience understanding, future of personalization, and transparency in advertising and publishing.