Beyond Taboola: how to monetize without spending trust

In early July, journalist Bari Weiss resigned after spending three years as an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times. Her resignation letter details her intense struggles to bring a measure of viewpoint diversity to the paper. What struck me most was what Weiss had to say about the truth:

“…a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”

It’s a poignant snapshot of how many publishers have come to think about truth online. Readers don’t look to publishers to help them discover what they don’t already know but to reinforce or defend what they already believe to be true. If that’s the case, then the way to earn trust isn’t to challenge the reader’s viewpoint; it’s to confirm it.

It’s no wonder public trust in the media has plummeted to 41%. The news has gone tribal, and publishers (large and small, left and right) have little incentive to appeal to readers outside their tribe. There’s more money to be made in toeing the ideological line than following the truth wherever it leads.

Not every publisher’s traded discovery for orthodoxy. Nevertheless, they’ve all had to get with the (lowercase) times and align their business goals with this new normal. This places trust, truth, and treasure in paradoxical balance with one another.

The paradox: publishers generate revenue by spending the trust on which they depend.

In Taboola We Trust

Publishers like the Times know their audience well. So do their advertisers, and their clients are willing to pay handsomely to reach the precise crowd the publisher has cultivated. This is true across the publishing spectrum; it’s how advertising works.

Enter a plethora of platforms following the Taboola and Outbrain (who recently merged) model. These sophisticated advertisers use machine learning to analyze a publisher’s site and serve up sponsored content and ads on every page.

This is a slick solution, offering publishers a simple and direct path to revenue. But does it alter the publisher’s incentive structure?

Algorithmic advertisers don’t pay for journalism; they pay for eyeballs and clicks. The pieces that generate the most revenue, all too often aren’t the ones that report the news with clarity and conviction. They’re the click-bait listicles and shock-pieces that draw in as much traffic as possible.

The problem: clickbait damages trust.

Monetization Readers Can Trust

Clickbait is entertaining, but it often lacks authority. Even if the site tries to defend its own brand of orthodoxy, it trades loyal readers’ trust for cash. Once that trust is lost, it’s not easily regained.

The burning question for publishers, then, is this: how can we monetize our brand-loyal reader base without eroding the trust they’ve put in our publication?

On Wednesday, July 29 at 12:50 PM EST, I’ll be addressing that very question at the Online News Association’s Insights: Emerging Tech — a gathering of leaders and experts to collaborate on current challenges in journalism and creative ways to meet them.

One of the things I’ll be talking about is what our company, Our.News, is doing to give publishers an alternative route towards monetization through our Newstrition® labels.

These labels provide transparency about the “ingredients” of every news article, involving the public in the discovery of truth. This doesn’t just build trust in the publisher’s reporting. It also drives engagement and generates revenue by incorporating social polling. These results are aggregated, sold, and a share of that revenue goes to the publisher.

Conclusion: Opening Up a More Inclusive Orthodoxy

Our approach is rooted in trust. Newstrition labels provide access to the data readers need to know whether they can trust an article. At the same time, they invite readers to participate in the process. This means they get to participate in shaping orthodoxy around the truth instead of having it dictated to them by the “enlightened few.”

In allowing readers to participate in the collective discovery of truth, publishers will engender a new level of trust in the media. Even better, they won’t have to choose between funding their journalism and doing journalism worth funding.