‘A billion dollars in the room’: Indy publishers bid to get media buyers to walk the talk on audience diversity, head-off Facebook, Google headwinds with collective upfront

News 15 Aug 2022 - 2 min read

‘A billion dollars in the room’: Indy publishers bid to get media buyers to walk the talk on audience diversity, head-off Facebook, Google headwinds with collective upfront

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"Not the usual sales pitches." Tim Duggan says independent publishers have diversity in spades for buyers that seek it.

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Tags: Digital Publishers Alliance Tim Duggan Independent publishing independent agencies contextual advertising

Australia's indy publishers face a cocktail of challenges amid digital platform strategy shifts and consolidation of both media buys and the broader publishing landscape. But they're mobilising in a bid to take a greater share of brand and agency ad dollars via a collective upfronts event spearheaded by the Digital Publishers Alliance.

What you need to know:

Digital Publishers Alliance will host 'Independents Day' upfront, 2 September, Sydney.
It's bidding to convene 250 advertisers and buyers representing circa $1bn in spend.
20-plus publishers to present at combined upfronts.
Aim is to underline "diversity, impact and influence" of Australia's independent publishers and their audiences – and take a bigger slice of ad budgets.
Alliance now circa 50 members a year since launch.

Australia’s independent publishers are bidding to secure a bigger chunk of brand dollars by bringing 250 brands and buyers representing upwards of a billion dollars in media spend to a collective upfronts.

The Digital Publishers Alliance (DPA), spearheaded by former Junkee co-founder Tim Duggan, is behind the push and has acted as a co-ordinator of member publishers' pooled commercial contacts in a bid to maximise the brands and buyers in the room.

The move comes as some publishers warn of potentially significant sector consolidation amid referral traffic collapses as a result of Facebook's pullback from news, and Google’s latest stay of execution for third party cookies, and resultant delay to potentially higher yielding contextual buying strategies.

While Duggan played down Facebook's impact, stating "smart publishers have diversified referral traffic and revenue" to avoid over-reliance on a single platform, indy media companies have also been grappling with how to compete with the Australia's large incumbents around tech, data and scaled audiences.

On the flip-side, media buying groups like GroupM have indicated a push to buy more diverse audiences across a greater number of channels, a potential reversal of the a consolidated buying trend of the last decade. CEO Aimee Buchanan in April told Mi3 that diversity of media was essential to reach diverse audiences “that may not necessarily be consuming mainstream channels.”

EssenceMediacom boss Pat Crowley agreed publishers face a challenging time in a world where global platforms are taking an ever increasing share of digital ad dollars.

"I think it's a really difficult time to navigate – because we've only got 25 million people [in Australia] and we’re a market of $16-$17 billion in investment," he said. "It's a tough world – and how that plays out determines how diverse we can be in reaching niche audiences and where we reach them to deliver client outcomes.”

'Diversity, influence, impact'

Duggan indicated that the event – DPA Independents Day – aims to underline “the diversity, influence and impact of independent digital publishers” and secure a greater slice of brand budgets.

While one DPA member suggested indy media agency trade association the IMAA “could do more to encourage indy agencies to work with indy publishers,” the IMAA indicated that approach could prove problematic.

“The IMAA well understands the benefits of being independent, however our members have a duty to publisher neutrality to provide clients with the best outcomes and the most effective media channel, regardless of ownership,” per a spokesperson.

Circa 20 publishers will be presenting at the Ovolo Hotel, Woolloomooloo on Friday September 2, including Ausbiz, Avid Collective, Broadsheet, Concrete Playground, Interplay Media, Limelight Arts, Luxity Media, Man of Many, Pinstripe Media, Pro Bono Australia, Scout Publishing, Squiz Media, Star Observer, The Daily Aus, Time Out, Urban List, We Are Explorers and Your Life Choices.

They hope to woo advertisers with a series of “informal panels and presentations … not the usual sales pitches” per Duggan.