Content Aware media news: June 20, 2024

Google API leaks, SEO, legal actions - all in this week's Content Aware.

Published: 11:40, 21 June 2024

News, in numbers
It's that time again: the annual Reuters Digital News Report is out. No point trying to snapshot such a complex body of work, but wonderfully the site page linked below has a country selector to see the data for your territory. Use it to learn stats, habits, attitudes, preferences, and trends amongst global audiences for news consumption. Random tempting blurb: "We look at the price that some consumers are currently paying for online news and what might entice more people."
Shout out to Nic Newman and team for a producing a lunch-hour shattering 168-page report, in multiple languages, with numerous site-based added analysis and insight to boot.
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The reality cheque
One of the most senior media figures to have got involved with actual negotiations with AI firms over content use has sounded the warning to the next UK Government to gird its loins for battle if it wants to set new standards for how they operate in the country.
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Search Engine Overkill
Barry Adams called it a few weeks ago, now research backs it up: yes, you can be too good at SEO. Zyppy's Cyrus Shephard deep-dived 50 sites to look at what has actually been going on in the last year of Google algorithm updates, aided in his quest by the recent reveal of Google Search documentation which sheds light on suppositions. Required reading.
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The post-mortem begins
More on that Google Search documentation leak: 20 of the world's best SEOs got together at Moz to give their thoughts on the leak. We said at the time it will be a while (if ever) until we really know what the leak really shows: this is a step towards that.
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You can't spell lawsuit without AI
Forbes slaps AI start-up Perplexity with the now-expected legal threat for alleged content and IP pilfery. Thought: will lawsuits against smaller AI companies merely entrench the early big guns of the sector who already have pockets deep enough to ride out the suits? Sounds like a matter for the consideration of GPP's content cognoscente Rob Corbidge.
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A brief history of everything
Great overview of the challenges modern publishers and editorial product people face from Mr Pugpig Jonny Kaldor - including first-hand insight into the shock of raising a total paywall overnight and seeing all your traffic drop to zero at one of the biggest news brands in the world. A brilliant hour of insight, on a product dev podcast worth adding to your list.
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YouTube's human army
The biggest weapon against fake news is usually people putting their hand up to point out that the smell of the perfume does it match the name on the bottle. YouTube's new crowd-courced notes feature - undoubtedly a tool to help train AIs - could have the more tangible effect of bringing more facts to light in cases of manipulated video.
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Browsing or shopping?
Seems like your Google searches for product reviews always lead to a shopping site? You're not imagining it. SEO and data researchers from Amsive reveal how Google has let shop listings muscle publishers out of search results.
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Speaking personally
The art of interviewing is one which elevates its best exponents to being some of the best-known media figures on the planet. Startlingly though, the skill is rarely taught in real depth, which author and writer Paul Chimera says is a missed opportunity.
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Cloud on the horizon
If you are reading this, you likely have an Adobe CC subscription or work where there are many - a big publisher could have hundreds. (Compulsory heavy-handed hint to keep me in work: we at GPP do hate those seat-based license models...) That is not the reason to keep your eye on this story however: it reinforces that subscriptions and their sign-up text and cancellation T&Cs are now firmly in the sights of US regulators, with enormous fines on their wishlist for rulebreakers. When was the last time you checked your own title's subscriptions small-print?
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