Events Giving Media a Boost; But Still Some Uncertainty
We’ve got a couple of additional pieces this week, including a look at Janice Min’s The Ankler and how the in-house creative agencies spun up about various publishers are doing these days. Take a look. Plus, I’m currently in Spain for the MX3 event, so if you’re going to be around, let me know.
There is an intense narrative breakdown in media. Many people at media companies, in both editorial and the business side, have lost their jobs, leaving them in an industry with less scale and opportunity. On the other hand, many publications are seeing strong economics.
So, which is it?
This is where A Media Operator has an advantage and disadvantage in covering the space. I’m in New York, which means that I am surrounded by the doom and gloom of New York media that loves nothing more than to write for New York media. And yet, I find this navel-gazing so intense that I’ve spent my career looking for other opportunities. I think that’s why I settled into b2b media.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of good happening in media despite uncertainty. I attended the Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) BIMS event last week in New Orleans for the first time and met a lot of really interesting people. The conversations these operators were having were not about life or death the way it is here in New York. Things are actually looking up for these publishers.
Readex Research surveyed 466 c-suite B2B media executives to understand the community’s feelings about their businesses.
- In 2024, 76% of publishers are expecting an increase in revenue with an expectation of a 14% increase.
The fundamental reason is the rapid return to in-person events, leading to year-over-year revenue growth. This makes a lot of sense, actually. B2B and enthusiast consumer media have always had a closer relationship with its readers, making event monetization easier. It’s the same for AMO. 56% of my revenue last year was tied to the AMO Summit.
Another reason is that most B2B marketers only use events. Todd Krizelman, co-founder and CEO of Media Radar, told the room of executives that 83% of companies only buy live events. Let that sink in. If your industry has 500 prospective advertisers, 415 of them will only work with you if you have an event. It’s no surprise that for B2B media companies executing events, revenue is up.
The problem is that it’s easy to oversaturate the events circuit. When it comes to M&A, prospective buyers want the top brand in their market. And so, it is going to be unbelievably important that operators differentiate their events and, more importantly, make them worth attending. I believe we’ll see a barbell take place in events like in media. Last February, I wrote:
And then there’s the middle. These are the events that are neither scaled nor curated. You’re not bringing together everyone in your industry, but you’re also not bringing together niche audiences.
There were dozens of middle players in crypto. They were always underwhelming to attend because it didn’t have the scale of Consensus nor was it as niche enough as Blockworks’. I’ve seen far too many images of empty ballrooms from these depressing crypto events.
This is where a lot of event operators were puttering along before the pandemic and will die now. And it boils down to user priorities. Before the pandemic, we had to go to as many events as we could because it was the only way to network. Now? People have choices. We’re more comfortable virtually. And so, we’re going to see people attending fewer, more impactful events. They’ll go to the big trade show because everyone does. Or, they’ll go to that single, high-impact event that has the exact people they want to meet.
And so, publishers will need to either make the event the biggest in their market, which is costly and difficult, or become the premier niche product. That’s what I intend to do with the AMO Summit. And I suspect it’s where a lot of other media companies will also play. Attempting to be the #2 or #3 tradeshow in an industry is a bad move.
But all of this talk about events presents an educational opportunity. If we return to that statistic about 83% of b2b marketers only using events, we realize two points:
- There’s a big upsell opportunity if we can get these marketers to see the value of digital products.
- M&A could get complicated for diversified media platforms because events are seen as the most valuable asset.
On the first point, we have to focus on the quality of our 1st-party data. B2B marketers like events because they’re tangible – they see the person’s name badge and know they’re talking to a real person. And so, we need to help these marketers understand that there are potential clients they can reach.
And look, there is obviously money here. According to Media Radar, $421 million was spent on b2b ads in January, with software up 28% year-over-year to $26 million. But that number should be bigger. It’s on us as publishers to articulate the value.
On that second point, it’s something I have heard a lot over the last few months. Obviously, 2023 was tough from an M&A perspective. At the JEGI Clarity event, Elizabeth Deeming, CEO of MVF, talked about M&A. “I’m a very ambitious buyer, but I am also frustrated,” she said on stage. In her first couple of months on the job, she tried to do two deals. Both of them got far, and then the deals fell through. Not only did they fall through, but no one transacted. She said:
It’s the divide between an interested and ready buyer, but an unwillingness to overpay. And a hesitancy of sellers. There’s a hesitancy amongst sellers to do it this year.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that a major nine-figure deal didn’t get to the finish line, with the PE owner deciding to double down on the company. No one wants to make a mistake, but as one banker said to me earlier this week, “the number of pitches my team is working on has never been higher.” Maybe things will be okay after all?
It’s an interesting time. Many of these media companies are profitable. But if the gap between sellers and buyers remains wide, the year could continue to be bumpy. At least interest rates are calming down.
The Ankler’s Janice Min Sees a Path to $10m in Revenue
After spending years working on magazines, including Us and The Hollywood Reporter, Janice Min has decided that it’s time to focus on something that she owns directly: The Ankler. And things are going well.
According to her:
- The Ankler booked more than $1 million in revenue in the first two months of this year
- “Our revenue for the first six weeks of this year has exceeded all our revenue for our first year of business, 2022,” she says.
- Sixty percent of that revenue is coming from ads, and 40% is coming from subscriptions
And since she’s building on Substack, she doesn’t carry many of the inherent costs that other media companies—including her former employers—carry. All in all, she sees a path to $10m in revenue next year thanks to the rapid growth that The Ankler has already seen.
How Have Publishers’ In-House Creative Agencies Adapted to Changing Advertiser Priorities?
In the early 2010s, when the need for revenue diversification really began to bite, many media companies launched in-house creative studios. By leveraging their content capabilities these teams were able to capture large amounts of spend from advertisers looking for bespoke creative – and teams like Guardian Labs and Vox Creative have contributed significantly to their parent organisations’ bottom lines ever since.
Since then, however, the digital advertising ecosystem as a whole has changed dramatically. The usurpation of mass reach by tech companies, the rise of retail media, and the death of the third-party cookie have all changed advertiser priorities on a global scale.
Faced with those changes, how are in-house agencies altering their pitch to advertisers, and what strengths of their parent organizations can they now leverage? Between pre-existing work that demonstrates strong ROIA, first-party data and AI capabilities, and demonstrable content creation capabilities, is now the time for in-house creative agencies to take their place at the top table for publishers?
Thanks for reading. If you have thoughts, hit reply or join the AMO Slack. I hope you have a great weekend!
