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GNI Ad Revenue Lab Presents Free Workshop Series For Local News Publishers

Mike Bal on August 12, 2020

Tomorrow, August 13, 2020, 10up kicks off a free, four-part workshop series covering lessons and tactics used in the GNI Ad Revenue Lab to accelerate participating publishers’ advertising revenue.

The GNI Ad Revenue Lab, which kicked off in September 2019, is a Google News Initiative project conducted in partnership with LION Publishers and 10up to establish a web-based revenue optimization blueprint local news publishers can use as a reference point for website improvements.

As part of the Ad Revenue Lab, we have been working with seven hyperlocal U.S. publishers, like Long Beach Post, to provide and measure reader revenue-focused digital strategies, often testing new tactics. From ad viewability and fill rate optimization to article markup and sitemaps to Google AMP and the optimization of ads, images, and page speed, we’ve documented our findings and are now sharing them more widely.

The Google News Initiative Revenue Accelerator

Mike Bal on January 30, 2020

Google News Initiative, LION Publishers, and 10up Partnership

The GNI Revenue Accelerator Program is a partnership between the Google News Initiative, LION Publishers, and 10up focused on establishing a foundational blueprint for local publishers to comprehensively optimize their web-based revenue. The pilot program kicked off in September 2019 and will continue throughout 2020.

The conditions for quality local journalism can be daunting. Digital ad revenue isn’t growing fast enough to offset decreases in print ad revenue, even as news organizations need to invest more to keep pace with digital innovation and change. As larger publishers leverage their resources to quickly adopt and integrate new technologies, they attract more readers and widen the gap between large-scale publishers and smaller publishers who lack the same resources.

The GNI Revenue Accelerator Program aims to help local publishers keep pace, by providing technology resources to drive insights, traffic, engagement, and revenue yield. The core solutions and tactics the program offers are focused on universally applicable challenges and relatively easy-to-implement solutions. The goal isn’t to just help the publishers in the program, but to provide all publishers with a data-backed reference point for growing their audience and increasing their revenue.

Mike Bal on July 17, 2018

I recently joined 10,000ft – makers of some popular collaboration software – for a conversation about communication and culture in remote teams. The interview, which is part of their “two beers” series, is now available on their blog.

Google Chrome to aggressively enforce Better Ad Standards

Mike Bal on January 31, 2018 • 1 Comment

As announced in June, beginning February 15th Chrome will remove all ads on websites that do not meet the standards of the Coalition for Better Ads. Sites will have 30 days to address any issues flagged in Google’s compliance report before Chrome begins removing ads.

Google started this initiative in response to a report suggesting that poor ad experiences are responsible for a 30% increase in the use of ad blocking extensions across the web, which “reduces the ability for publishers to continue creating free content and threatens the sustainability of the web ecosystem.” Google is also on the board of the Coalition for Better Ad Standards.

The Coalition for Better Ads is made up of leading international trade associations and online media companies committed to supporting “valuable free content, robust journalism and social connections across the internet” through the use of online ads. Their vision for better online ads aligns with Google’s view, and led Google to join the effort to improve how people experience the web. Knowing that consumers are increasingly frustrated with web ads, the Coalition for Better Ads surveyed over 25,000 internet users to create a set of consumer-friendly standards. Google will apply these standards to review a subset of a site’s pages.

Google Ad Experience Report