This week, you’ll read about that plus:
✨ Product updates from WordPress, Yahoo, beehiiv, and more
🚫 Security issues with WordPress page builders
👀 And Ceros, the platform for creating interactive content
Let’s start.
👓 The Advertiser’s POV on Cookie Deprecation
This week, I asked two advertising experts for their insights on ads and cookies. Here’s what they had to say.
I decided to start with simple questions and ask for simple answers: why are advertisers and publishers so concerned with cookies? It may be an obvious question, but it’s nice to make sure we have the right mental image when it comes to cookies. Wouter Teunissen paints that picture in simple terms:
- Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop. What is the best thing about going to the shop everyday? Well, the thing is, eventually, the barista knows your order by heart – that’s what cookies do on the internet. Cookies are like digital footprints that you leave on websites you visit, allowing those websites (and advertisers) to remember you and your preferences. it allows for more personalized advertising for folks, that’s why they care! (Wouter Teunissen)
So, it seems Google is taking away our Cheers-style Internet, where everybody knows your name, and making it much more privacy-centered. I have been covering the cookie deprecation news since the start of 2024. To prepare for that, I’ve had to read a lot, and I’ve read about how cookie deprecation will drive advertisers to B2B media publishers and retail media. I decided to ask the experts for their insight. This is what Dan Barry (adsalesasaservice.com) had to say:
- YES! B2B newsletters (and other media) typically benefit from much higher engagement rates, targeted audiences and higher potential CPMs.
- Advertisers will pay handsomely for a curated audience of marketers or developers for example. From the publisher perspective, being B2B also opens the door to numerous other monetisation methods such as; data, info products, a home grown SaaS, recruitment and more.
- At Ad Sales as a Service, we work with multiple b2b publishers and they all command extremely favourable CPMs, most being over $100.
B2B media and retail will be strong in 2024. Consider this if you’re considering launching your own newsletter or media company.
✨ Product News and Updates
WordPress 6.5 “Regina” Released
WordPress has released a major update, WordPress 6.5 Regina, named after jazz violinist Regina Carter. The update comes with some bells and whistles, including improvements to fonts, revision histories, background images, and links. For developers, the most important updates are the increased performance and changes to the Interactivity API that let you customize blocks.
Yahoo news will get a new news product as its engine
Yahoo has acquired Artifact, the news discovery and aggregation platform, and has absorbed it into its ecosystem. Artifact’s AI-powered discovery engine surfaces content users most want to see and becomes more attuned to their interests over time.
beehiiv product update makes comments and mentions easier
Beehiiv is keeping up its product update streak by improving the editor comments feature and letting editors mention writers and others using the familiar @ method we know from other platforms. Plus, you can now invite other newsletters to boost yours using the “Invite Publication to Boost” button on the dashboard.
Substack lets you add videos in your about page
Substack has also released some new features to its platform, including one that will let writers add a video to their About page. This could be vital for writers that are trying to grow, especially if they’re targeting GenZ, who engage better with video. Are you on Substack? Drop me a line and tell me if you’re going to use this and add a video to your about/mission page.
Britain’s Mail Publisher Is Releasing a Video Streaming Product
DMG Media, the powerhouse behind UK’s Mail Metro Media, has recently launched “Edits,” a new video streaming product. “Edits” helps advertisers place ads on video-rich platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, as well as Mail Online and Metro’s digital assets. It lowers advertisers’ entry costs by streamlining the video production process, providing a selection of five video formats, customizable across different verticals. More importantly, Edits guarantees reach metrics and a proprietary user ID solution called dmg::ID.
Perplexity is Selling Ads – Setting Trends or Jumping Too Soon?
Perplexity is selling ads on its AI chatbot, becoming the first GenAI to do that. How this will affect publishers depends on how many platforms may want to adopt a similar model and if the model performs well.
🚫Page-Builder Blues – Elementor and Beaver Builder Vulnerabilities
At Refact, we like to use Gutenberg blocks to create websites for our clients. Gutenberg Blocks are infinitely customizable and native to the CMS, keeping everything straightforward. Besides the risk of complicating the website, alternative plugins are security risks. This week, researchers found vulnerabilities in Elementor add-ons and Beaver Builder, another page builder plugin for WordPress.
Beaver Builder hit with XSS vulnerability
The Beaver Builder WordPress Page Builder plugin is a drag-and-drop tool that makes website design easy. However, it suffers from a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. It lets attackers inject harmful scripts into websites and run them. This happens because the plugin fails to check and clean the user’s data and can’t control how that data goes out, allowing harmful scripts to slip through and execute.
Elementor Vulnerability Details
11 Elementor add-ons are suffering from vulnerabilities, mostly the same XSS issue that has hit Beaver Builder. Elementor is the most popular page builder plugin for WordPress, and it’s got add-ons of its own. That creates extra levels of complexity, which can become problematic. I always believe in keeping things simple and platform-native, which is why at Refact, we like to build WordPress websites with the native Gutenberg blocks – and there is nothing you can’t create with them. Check out this tutorial on creating your custom Gutenberg blocks written by one of Refact’s developers.
👀 What Caught My Eye This Week
I was looking at some of the best website platforms for digital publishers when I came across Ceros. I enjoy interactive website design, and Ceros lets you do just that.