Big Times
The New York Times is lapping the competition in ad revenue growth. Its digital advertising grew 18.7% YOY to $94.4 million, per its Q2 earnings report yesterday.
That growth rate blows other large news companies out of the water. Fox Corp reported 7% ad revenue growth, whereas News Corp saw 2% growth in its Dow Jones division and a 4% decline in its News Media division.
New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien attributed the publisher’s booming ad business to the “broad marketer appeal” of sports coverage and games. This content has kept users engaged, she said, even as the NYT, like all publishers, deals with traffic drop-offs caused by generative AI search products.
Also, non-news verticals are far less likely to be filtered or keyword-blocked.
Speaking of AI, Kopit Levien described NYT’s AI licensing deal with Amazon as a “fair value exchange,” although the revenue won’t accrue until next quarter.
But the positive update on its ads biz aside, NYT is still a subscription-first business. In the second quarter, its digital subscription revenue was more than triple its ad revenue and is still growing by 15% annually.
Pretty Good, Eh?
Wednesday was a big day for Shopify.
Its shares leapt by 20% after an upbeat Q2 earnings report, and it overtook the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as Canada’s largest business by market cap.
Cool, cool, but what about Shopify’s ad tech? Having dipped a toe in the ad biz, the company may finally soon dive in.
Shopify has a product called Campaigns, which targets and attributes ads based on transaction data from the Shopify merchant network. It’s also got its own app, called Shop.
Primarily, Shopify packages audiences via integrations with other ad platforms (Google, Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok and Criteo) through a product called Audiences.
“Let me speak briefly on advertising because I know you’ll ask,” said CEO Harley Finkelstein, addressing investors during the company’s earnings call.
“Shopify Campaigns is opening new ways for merchants to reach buyers and grow. … And as we continue to unlock more inventory and refine our recommendation algorithms, campaigns are getting more personalized and more effective,” Finkelstein said. “There is a ton of excitement at Shopify on what we are building, and [we] look forward to sharing more about this on future calls.”
Stay tuned, we guess.
Move Along, Nothing To Google Here
It’s become common knowledge that Google’s AI Overviews – AI-generated summaries that sit atop search results – are causing web traffic to plummet. But in her latest blog post, Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, presupposes the question: Maybe it isn’t?
Reid contends that overall organic Google Search click volume is “relatively stable year-over-year.” She also claims there’s been an uptick in the number of “quality” clicks, meaning instances when a user doesn’t immediately return to the search page.
Reid’s assertion contradicts most published evidence so far, such as reporting by The Wall Street Journal, consumer surveys from the Pew Research Center and a lot of publisher swan songs.
What’s the deal, then? Per Reid, people who ask very simple questions, like what time a TV show airs, might be satisfied with the AI Overview. But those who ask longer or more complex questions are still more likely to click through for “a unique perspective or a thoughtful first-person analysis.”
So the traffic decrease to some sites is theoretically belied by an increase in traffic to other sites.
YouTube and Reddit are enthusiastic about this arrangement. The rest of the web, not so much.
But Wait! There’s More!
Retail media rivals and upstarts are trying to drink Criteo’s milkshake, but the OG ad tech company is holding its ground. [Adweek]
The United Airlines venture fund takes an equity stake in Dfinitiv, a commerce media and loyalty tech startup. [release]
Illinois becomes the first state to ban AI therapists. [Engadget]
And now for something completely different: Amazon’s new “War of the Worlds” movie, which is essentially a 90-minute ad for Amazon products, is apparently so bad that it’s going viral. [Forbes]
You’re Hired!
Predictive ad platform Cadent appoints Jeremy Haft as EVP of sales and growth markets. [release]
Triton Digital promotes Sharon Taylor to CRO from EVP of podcast and content delivery. [release]
Mere weeks after stepping down as CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino has secured her next role: CEO of eMed Population Health, a “digital health platform” for managing weight loss and diabetes with GLP-1/GIP medications. [The Information]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
