Google Discover ruled to be in scope for CMA's strategic market status review
Plus: Intelligent pricing lessons for subscriptions + a handy online video editing tool
Good afternoon,
Here’s the latest What I’ve Been Reading Digest bringing you some thoughts from across the digital publishing landscape, as always feel free to send me things for potential inclusion to ed@almaonline.co.uk - they don’t always have to be timely either, just interesting!
Strategic market status declared for Google as CMA review moves forward - various - if there’s one thing which unites all publishers it is the dominance and vagueness when it comes to dealing with the behemoth that is Google. In the UK the Competition and Markets Authority has said last week the legal tests are met and the new digital markets competition regime would apply. It’s important to note “Designating Google with SMS is not a finding of wrongdoing and does not introduce any immediate requirements. However, it enables the CMA to consider proportionate, targeted interventions to ensure that general search services are open to effective competition, and that consumers and businesses that rely on Google can have confidence that they are treated fairly.”
Within the footnotes is this line, which I think it is important to highlight, “Google’s ‘Discover’ feed and results page ‘Top Stories’ and news ‘tab’ are in scope, but the separate Google News app and website are out of scope.”
An increasing amount of traffic to publishers is coming from Discover (and the top stories element which appears for certain searches), but that could be turned off at a whim - for example if Google decided to make it a video-focused feed tomorrow. It could happen.
There’s response from the Independent Community News Network (ICNN) - disclaimer which Blog Preston is a member of - which has been leading a collective of independent publishing organisations to give responses to the CMA’s review. There’s also coverage in PressGazette and HoldTheFrontPage exploring the wider issue and responses from across the publishing spectrum.
And slightly related but there’s an excellent breakdown from
on survival strategies in search for publishers in the AI-era.Intelligent pricing for subscription publishers - PressGazette - this is partner content, so pushing a specific brand, but it is an interesting read still. Rather than there being a flat subscription price, utilising different subscription prices for reader types, sections or publications (particularly for publishers with multiple publications) is paying off. I guess over time the subs market will involve (a bit like the insurance market) where everyone pays a slightly different amount depending on their profile. The problem will be if they talk to each other…
Online Video Cutter - 123 Apps - not an interesting link as such, but a handy tool. I needed to get some basic video editing done to stitch a few clips together and drop a credit over the top at the weekend. Online Video Cutter came to my rescue. Free and super simple to use.
That’s all for this week’s digest. In the next few weeks I’ll be reflecting on going back to the room where my journalism career all began 21 years on(!) when I went to speak to first-year journalism students at the University of Lancashire. Plus we’ll be getting going with the cohort on the journalism leadership and innovation programme for the innovation module and hosting them in Preston soon for the intensive week. My thoughts from 2023 on journalism innovation which hopefully still ring true.
I’ll also share how the Blog Foxton initiative has gone too as we put young people from and centre of telling the news in the city. Which I’m heading off to now for the final session.
Have a great rest of the week.
Keep going.
Ed