2020 will be a watershed year for global data regulation — and rightfully so, given the recent, egregious invasions into consumers’ privacy.
The maturation of GDPR and launch of CCPA — not to mention the numerous browser and platform updates aimed at putting control over personal data back in the hands of consumers — means ultimately saying goodbye to the third-party cookies that currently underpin the digital advertising ecosystem.
Despite some hand-wringing about the future, the industry’s reliance on third-party data has been hugely problematic. Data inaccuracies and imperfections contribute to the messiness of today’s digital advertising marketplace, which needs to be cleaned up in order to justify continued growth.
A new cookie-less world will present an incredible opportunity to innovate our digital media ecosystem; a new system rebuilt on a sound foundation of quality, first-party data. This shift will not only enable marketers to finally trust the effectiveness of their targeted spends, but will also allow publishers to strengthen relationships with their readers.
Thankfully, many publishers of high-quality and differentiated content are seeing success through consumer subscriptions. As such, collecting first-party data from subscribers should be a bit easier, since we tend to see deeper engagement around high-value paid digital products.
Of course, people aren’t clamoring to fork over detailed personal information for fear that it will be misused or stolen. Ever-present re-targeting of programmatic advertising campaigns across one’s digital experience are wearing thin with consumers and consistent data breaches show that even the largest digital platforms struggle to police their use of data. Thus, publishers will need to reevaluate their relationships with readers as they become more informed and demanding. If readers are to provide data to publishers, they want to know what’s in it for them, how their data will be used, and importantly, that their data will be kept safe.
The good news is that transparency will force a more active and honest dialogue with customers, which is ultimately a good thing. Publishers will be able to show that in exchange for greater personal information, readers can get more value out of the relationship — a more personalized reading, listening or viewing experience, for example.
A massive elephant in the room is that collecting first-party data at scale will be an expensive, resource-intensive effort for the industry. Supporting the technological capacities required to build out the first-party platform — from hiring engineering or data science talent, to rethinking the basic architecture underpinning their digital products — will require substantial investment. Unfortunately, most publishers are not flush with cash, and we will likely see cost-cutting elsewhere to fund these changes.
Many publishers are just starting to think about how they might create a technology stack that smartly and efficiently collects, and effectively uses, first-party data to drive growth in their advertising, subscription, and e-commerce businesses. In 2020, I predict we will see massive investment into first-party data operations across the industry, and early positive results on those efforts that will buoy publishers, advertisers and customers alike.
M. Scott Havens is global head of digital and media distribution for Bloomberg Media.
2020 will be a watershed year for global data regulation — and rightfully so, given the recent, egregious invasions into consumers’ privacy.
The maturation of GDPR and launch of CCPA — not to mention the numerous browser and platform updates aimed at putting control over personal data back in the hands of consumers — means ultimately saying goodbye to the third-party cookies that currently underpin the digital advertising ecosystem.
Despite some hand-wringing about the future, the industry’s reliance on third-party data has been hugely problematic. Data inaccuracies and imperfections contribute to the messiness of today’s digital advertising marketplace, which needs to be cleaned up in order to justify continued growth.
A new cookie-less world will present an incredible opportunity to innovate our digital media ecosystem; a new system rebuilt on a sound foundation of quality, first-party data. This shift will not only enable marketers to finally trust the effectiveness of their targeted spends, but will also allow publishers to strengthen relationships with their readers.
Thankfully, many publishers of high-quality and differentiated content are seeing success through consumer subscriptions. As such, collecting first-party data from subscribers should be a bit easier, since we tend to see deeper engagement around high-value paid digital products.
Of course, people aren’t clamoring to fork over detailed personal information for fear that it will be misused or stolen. Ever-present re-targeting of programmatic advertising campaigns across one’s digital experience are wearing thin with consumers and consistent data breaches show that even the largest digital platforms struggle to police their use of data. Thus, publishers will need to reevaluate their relationships with readers as they become more informed and demanding. If readers are to provide data to publishers, they want to know what’s in it for them, how their data will be used, and importantly, that their data will be kept safe.
The good news is that transparency will force a more active and honest dialogue with customers, which is ultimately a good thing. Publishers will be able to show that in exchange for greater personal information, readers can get more value out of the relationship — a more personalized reading, listening or viewing experience, for example.
A massive elephant in the room is that collecting first-party data at scale will be an expensive, resource-intensive effort for the industry. Supporting the technological capacities required to build out the first-party platform — from hiring engineering or data science talent, to rethinking the basic architecture underpinning their digital products — will require substantial investment. Unfortunately, most publishers are not flush with cash, and we will likely see cost-cutting elsewhere to fund these changes.
Many publishers are just starting to think about how they might create a technology stack that smartly and efficiently collects, and effectively uses, first-party data to drive growth in their advertising, subscription, and e-commerce businesses. In 2020, I predict we will see massive investment into first-party data operations across the industry, and early positive results on those efforts that will buoy publishers, advertisers and customers alike.
M. Scott Havens is global head of digital and media distribution for Bloomberg Media.
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
An Xiao Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Mario García Think small (screen)
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”