As Google decides not to phase out third-party cookies after all, the news industry needs to reinvent its advertising model instead of competing with big tech head-on
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Google announced two weeks ago that it will not be phasing out third-party cookies after years of promising it would.
If that sentence went totally above your head, do not worry. This week's guest, media analyst Thomas Baekdal, explains how this impacts your newsroom. If you have time, read his dissection of this topic.
The gist is this: the world is becoming more privacy-focused and legislators are forcing tech platforms like Google to stop being so invasive with tracking users. This is good for consumers and bad for the advertising industry which needs user data to target customers more efficiently.
That poses a big question for news publishers who need advertising money to keep their lights on, even if it is not nearly as significant a revenue source as it was in the past.
News publishers have developed first-party data strategies in response, collecting their own data on website visitors to broker deals with advertisers.
But Baekdal's message is this: it is time the news industry stopped fighting for scraps and started creating its own advertising market which works better for both consumers and publishers.
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