Why are B2B and retail media taking more of the ads revenue pie?

This week, you’ll read about:

• 📦 Why B2B and retail media are becoming more attractive to advertisers

• 🎁 New products and features, including NYT’s new AI-voiced articles, AP Buyline, & Chase Media Solutions 

• 📲 Product Updates from Ghost and ConvertKit

• 👀 Plus, Maglr’s cool interactive case study.

Let’s start.

📦 Why B2B and retail media are becoming more attractive to advertisers 

Last week, we talked to advertising experts about B2B media and its role in 2024. With third-party cookies dying out, conventional news and media are losing advertising revenue, and advertisers may be looking at other opportunities. One alternative is B2B media.

B2B will continue to draw ad revenue because it is niche and targeted by default, offering specialized content to professionals in a specific industry. Advertisers know what they are getting when placing an ad with a B2B hydroponics magazine, for example—an audience interested in hydroponics and agriculture in general. As Dan points out, this targeted approach will make B2B media attractive to advertisers in 2024. 

This week, Morgan Chase released its retail media platform, Chase Media Solutions, which will be another competitor for publishers’ ad revenue. Retail media has been on the rise recently, and Walmart, Target, and Home Depot have already released their own platforms. These are trying to draw advertisers by offering first-party data on consumers’ buying patterns. This makes retail media another future-proof way of reaching the audience in a cookie-less future.

🎁 New Products & Media Tech News

NYT is using AI to add voice to its articles

The New York Times has been innovating many new products and features recently. Soon, an AI voice will be reading the NYT, adding audio to most of its articles. This move makes sense if you think about the demand for multimedia content in news media, and it makes the content more accessible.

AP Buyline: the e-commerce product by Associated Press

AP is joining the game of product diversification by launching AP Buyline, an e-commerce platform. AP Buyline will offer product recommendations and reviews, starting with personal finance products. This is another way news organizations create new revenue streams, perhaps in reaction to cookie depreciation problems.

More publishers are releasing AI chatbots to take over the search function

Major publishers are embracing generative AI technology to revamp what has traditionally been an overlooked aspect of their digital platforms. Forbes and the Financial Times were the first to run AI-powered chatbot search tools on their sites. It has turned into a trend, with Snopes set to launch its own AI-enhanced search product and Trusted Media Brands planning a similar rollout for its video licensing platform.

Morgan Chase launches “Chase Media Solutions” and starts courting advertisers

The press release boasts a reach of 80 million US consumers. The result is a media platform backed by a major bank that uses Chase’s first-party financial data and insights for targeted advertising. Its massive amount of data makes it a prime cookie-proof advertising opportunity.

This product is another example of retail media platforms on the rise, including Walmart Connect and Home Depot Retail Media. They offer advertising based on consumers’ shopping behavior. Chase Media is unique since it can use consumers’ spending habits across all industries. That makes it a lot more attractive to advertisers, especially since 3rd party data from cookies is going out the door.

📲 Product Updates – Newsletter Tools

We have product updates from Ghost and ConvertKit (finally a week without a beehiiv update!).

Ghost’s New TK Reminder

You’re writing something and need a placeholder for stuff that hasn’t been published yet—that’s when you use Ghost’s [TK] feature. You can imagine how a placeholder will cause problems when you forget to replace it, and your newsletter is already posted to thousands of readers. This product update by Ghost prevents that by showing a reminder about the TKs left in your document when you press Publish.

ConvertKit is releasing an analytics feature (in beta)

ConvertKit is inviting some users to try a closed beta version of the new “Insights” feature. This seems to be an analytics dashboard that helps users optimize their websites and newsletters. The ultimate product may end up with some changes, but I think it will be a valuable addition to ConvertKit.

👀 What Caught My Eye This Week

I was impressed by Maglr’s creative case study: an interactive article about helping one of their clients get better results and publish more engaging content.

I also liked Aakash Gupta’s incredible guide on Wireframes for product managers. It’s comprehensive and covers the basics, ending with tips and best practices. Product managers are a vital part of the media ecology, and resources like this are a good place for product newcomers to learn.

This is it for this issue. Please subscribe to Product in Media for more curated updates on tech and product for media operators.