How Google’s Algorithm Changes Are Reshaping the Media Landscape - And What It Means for Comms
What Google, data and digital habits mean for modern media strategies.
The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every Thursday paid subscribers (starting from next week) will get access to our analysis of the media industry, from mainstream and ‘legacy’ platforms to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
Anyone who took media studies at A-level or university will have heard their lecturer talking about gatekeepers. The bosses of old mainstream media who decided what their readers and listeners should be told about. It always sounded a bit Machiavellian, as if news editors and editors were scheming to keep their customers in the dark or just feed them propaganda in the pages of the newspapers or TV bulletins.
In my 25 plus years on national newspapers, I always felt that the evil skills of the press were overrated. I mean yes there would be stances on topics, particularly politics. And the political slant of a paper was hardly a secret.
But the bigger task was choosing the stories every day that your readers would find interesting – whether it was serious news, human interest, consumer or health information or in-depth comment and analysis. Enough for them to keep on buying the paper or coming back to the channel.
I always thought I was pretty good at knowing the readers and what made them tick. But in an age where you were relying on the odd reader phone call (usually when they were unhappy) and the letters pages, it would be fair to say it was an inaccurate art rather than a precise science.
Now of course, digital journalism is very different. You can see exactly what readers are looking at, where they have come from, how long they spend on each article, how far down they scroll and what they do next.
For those publishers who rely on mass readership to bring in advertising revenue rather than subscriptions from readers and listeners, the task is in theory simple. See what people are clicking on (and there are an array of programmes and apps showing just how well stories are doing and how they might do in the future), see what is trending and do more content in those areas. And if every click is worth something around a penny then you can see how a business can make that work.
Life, of course, is not that simple. And no three words will put the fear of Begorrah into editors and revenue directors more than Google Core Update.
This is where techies in California will play with the algorithm settings on Google Search and Google Discover (a kind of carousel of stories for people on android phones) in a way that can dramatically change what people see and where they are directed when they search for news. It means that literally what works one day and brings in readers to your website can disappear overnight.
And when you throw in the devastating effect that AI summaries have had in the form of Google Overview and Google Mode (which has seen the number of zero-click searches spiral) you can see how tricky the free content model has become. Some publishers have seen traffic to their sites drop up to 50% in the last two years.
The latest Core update finished on December 29. The full impact remains to be seen but it has seen major volatility for some publishers both in the UK and globally. Medical and health content seems to have taken a hit as well as Indian publishers, particularly with overseas audiences.
But overall, it seems Google is reducing visibility for news sites that publish recycled articles or content that is similar to elsewhere and prioritising original reporting and unique insights.
So, what does that mean for comms teams? Well, although it poses difficulties for publishers, it will create opportunities. PR teams should watch for themselves what is working (Google trends is an easy start) and plot how the content they create might fit.
But also if it proves right that interesting, new content is working online, then put the creative thinking caps on and see what you and your clients can offer journalists.
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