Mobile Is Killing Media – and Here's What We Need Do About It - Say Media

quotOh my God I need it I need itamp8221 Stephen Colbert on the iPad 2Digital publishing is headed off a cliff if we donamp8217t get back behind the wheel There39s a five fold gap between mobile revenue and desktop revenue for the same page In other words for every page viewed on a mobile device publishers currently see only 20 percent of the revenue theyamp8217d receive from a desktop visit What makes that gap even starker is how quickly itamp8217s happening By the second half of next year we predict that greater than half of all time spent with online content will happen on a mobile device On the industryamp8217s current course thatamp8217s a recipe for disasterThis of course assumes that we continue to create similar content experiences and run ads the same way weamp8217ve monetized desktop content Obviously we need to change for the industry to survive Weamp8217ve made real headway and as we head into this yearamp8217s Advertising Week we wanted to share the progress but there is still a long way to goPage View to Stream If the pageview wasnamp8217t dead already mobile will be the final nail in the coffin Whether tablet or phone gesturebased navigation makes the mobile device a window into a content stream This means that laying out pages with all sorts of adjacent or supporting content alongside the article wonamp8217t work in mobile All that matters is what is on screen at any given moment Publishers need to start creating experiences that work for these smaller screens recognizing that the overall session matters more than page views How long did a reader spend with your content and what was that worth to youMuch of the reason for the massive value gap between desktop and mobile is that desktop monetization is built on standard display ads and those ads are built on an adjacency model In exchange for reading my content youamp8217ll allow me to put an ad next to the article This just doesnamp8217t work with a screen as small as a tablet or a phone We canamp8217t get enough ads on the page or they are so small that they donamp8217t perform or the reader zooms in on the content and adjusts the window so that the ads never show up because otherwise the article is unreadableThere are several great monetization approaches that the industry is starting to experiment with native instream interstitial paid applications subscription and more But nothing in this list is based on the idea of content adjacency There just isnamp8217t enough roomThe Silver Lining That said we also believe mobile represents a massive opportunity for content creators and marketers alike Engagement is higher You can access content on the go And as a platform it lends itself to social discovery more than desktop content Think about how much time you spend on Twitter Facebook or Instagram on your phoneWeamp8217ve made some real progress toward solving this challenge with our Adaptive Ad platform click this link and scroll to see it in action It39s an example of a native instream ad that was built from the ground up to recognize the increasing importance of mobile consumptionAdaptive Mobile has been live for 3 months and the numbers clearly show promise for publishers and marketers Here are the stats mobile vs desktop on ReadWritecom as the baseline comparison 15 higher median viewable time smartphone vs desktop 90 higher median viewable time tablet vs desktop 3x improvement from current industry standard monetizationAdaptive Mobile and native ad formats that sit instream in general are an approach that will work for brands Engagement is high and while streambased approaches need tweaking it39s as valuable for the publisher as desktop consumptionThere will be very different approaches needed for other types of mobile engagement but for digital content on a mobile device we think weamp8217re very close to closing the gapMatt Sanchez is the founder and CEO of Say Media Follow him on Twitter msanchez and catch him at Advertising Week on the TechCrunch Leadership Panel on Thursday September 26Say Media is a digital publishing company that creates amazing media brands Through its technology platform and media services Say enables its portfolio of independent content creators to build passionate communities around key consumer interest areas such as Style Living Food and Tech For more information visit wwwsaymediacomRead all Say Media39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Say DailyCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Mobile Is Killing Media – and Here's What We Need Do About It - Say Media

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