No Newsroom To return To, As Many Newspapers Retire During COVID
After a rough phase of destruction by the COVID pandemic, media companies are planning strategies to re-open their businesses. The bad news is that many of them don’t have an office to return.
The Tribune released a statement last week. They have decided to close their New York daily newspaper and several other offices at different locations. According to a statement provided by them to the New York Times, they would “reconsider their need for physical offices” as they are fighting the way through pandemic and “as needs change.”

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According to Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium, media houses aren’t just buildings; they are the landmarks, representing culture, heritage from centuries. Frank is an owner of around 4,000 memberships. These memberships include radio, newspaper, online-only news outlets, and TV. Frank added, “They are a big part of a lot of the downtowns in a lot of their communities.” The pandemic broke the backbone of the news industry.
Emily Bell, professor at Columbia Journalism School, tweeted last week, she stated that the closure “represents institutional weakening. The dilution of solidarity against power, the snuffing of a beacon,”
They are the much needed times for newsrooms and newspapers to action around the world, especially in the US. With an ongoing pandemic and rising anger of communities to end discrimination and upcoming elections in November, the US needs its media houses even more now, than ever.

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However, media houses have lost the trust of their readers. A 2019-2020 Gallup and Knight Foundation poll of more than 20,000 Americans showed that the Americans no longer trust their media and have a negative viewpoint towards them. The numbers are even lower when compared to the poll conducted in 2017.
The summary of the report states, “Americans have not only lost confidence in the ideal of an objective media, they believe news organizations actively support the partisan divide.”
The biggest challenge faced by the industry is to maintain the real state that they have accommodated. With several heads to feed, it became difficult for the newspapers to sustain their accommodated newsroom, which was the finest venues, but mostly rented. Also, the decline of the trust of their audience has forced them to stay in low visibility. Now, they gradually try to step up on the ladder of consumer trust, to re-gain their reputation.
Although, the possibilities of media houses losing their trust with the audience even increase with them being in lower visibility. These times should be considered dangerous, the lower visibility might propagate a negative sentiment across the audience’s minds, as the industry work on its cost-cutting plans involving the evacuation of the real estate.
In 2017, The Dallas morning news downsized itself from the famous building “Rock of Truth”. However, they made a smaller iconic version of the monument. The new inscription on the glass states, “Build the news upon the rock of truth”. The new owner of the building states that they will preserve the exterior of “Rock of Truth”.

Image credit – Markd.Roberts
According to Wills from Local Media Consortium, “It would be beneficial for companies considering moving out of their offices to continue to have some sort of presence or some sort of way their landmarks can be preserved in their communities.”
Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, thinks that this could be an opportunity for the newspapers to go back to their audiences. It will also promote cross-team collaboration and can be useful for sales teams which can spend more time with their audiences.
According to Jarvis, “Slack is a poor substitute for the sound of ringing typewriters, but you start to see the beginnings of that kind of office buzz being recreated.”
The factor of collaboration is not just limited to the sales teams and newsrooms. Even the local outlets are collaborating.
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, stated, “Collaborations among formerly competing papers and other news entities have taken off like a rocket over the last few years.”
As an example, Story share launched in February by the AP, a tool that allows more than two dozens of newspaper to share their content plans and also helps them to republish each other’s stories. Nearly, 18 news channels joined hands in Florida to cover the climate changes happening in the states. These included The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times.
However, journalism seems to be entangled in the cobwebs of old myths, and traits of the days of ink and paper. Journalism needs to break its chains and explore the possibilities of ideas and innovation.
Spotify Ends The Search For Promo Code With Its In-App Offers Feature
Spotify has recently announced its new feature. It will end customer hustle to search for a promo code online. Customers can buy a subscription of their favourite podcasts with on discounted prices with these promo codes.
Now, the customer will see an embedded link on the podcast. Just by clicking on this embedded link, the customer will be able to avail the promo-code. The link will automatically redirect the customer to advertiser’s website. Once the customer is on the website of the advertiser, the site will automatically detect the promo-code and will show you the discounted price.
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Image credit – TheVerge
Currently, Spotify is testing its “In-App Offers” feature. It will be a great relief for the consumer. Now, they don’t have to remember the promo code and march from pillar to post to get discounts.
According to Spotify, this is just the beginning of its interactive advertisement. The company states that they are researching for more ways to “create more of a direct funnel for brands.” It will create a strong impact and bring more live audiences to the Spotify platform in search of promo code.
Jay Richman, Head of ads business and platform at Spotify stated,
I think you could start to then piece together what a potential roadmap could look like, just based on the model with which we view this opportunity.
So, it is one step in a larger innovation path to productize the coupon code.
The first test conducted on Harry’s in the United States of America. The podcasts which participated was “Last Podcast on the Left and with Hello Fresh in Germany on the podcast Herrengedeck.” The promo code will be visible to a limited number of listeners. It will be visible only during the campaign time frame.
Spotify started inserting advertisements in podcasts from the month of January. They did this using their Streaming ad insertion technology. This technology is also known as SAI.
SAI inserts ad to the podcasts when people are listening to them. The SAI technology is advance and targets the audience based on their demographic and data-driven synergy.
Now, with SAI, Spotify is planning to expand its advertisement market in the US and some parts of Germany. SAI is a Spotify owned technology and is currently possesses an approximation of 100 monetizable shows.
It will give an upper hand to Spotify in capturing the advertiser market. Hence, it will lead to advertiser’s spending more money. Spotify will make sure that advertisers get better results for their advertisement.
For now, Spotify has opened the window for advertisement on the shows in its purview. Although, there are chances that Spotify might open the gates to the outside world and may charge revenue for the ad sales.
Making Video Campaigns on Spotify Is Now Easy with Sound-On Video Ads!
Key Insights:
- The Ad studio debuted in 2017 and thereafter Spotify has nearly doubled its user base.
- Spotify witnessed an 11% rise globally in mobile downloads.
- Spotify reports an average of 25% of overall ad revenue from video accounts.
- In the past one year, Spotify has witnessed a 68% increase of active advertisers, with double the ads running.
Spotify has announced video advertising on Ad studio, its self-serve platform, in Canada, the U.K, and the U.S. This update is available to select advertisers in the recently added test markets to Ad Studio in April.
The Ad Studio was created initially for small and medium-sized advertisers to connect with Spotify listeners and create budget-friendly, customized audio ads for the platform. In April, it had expanded to 18 more markets and exited the beta version.
Spotify Push into Video Ads can increase brand awareness and brand recall.
Spotify said that often users on other platforms prefer viewing video ads muted, however, Spotify listeners are’ engaging with their sounds on.’ Complimenting their audio ad offering, video ads will give brands a visual storytelling opportunity for the in-focus moments.
The streaming giant further notes that running video ads with audio produces higher brand results than going solely for video ads. Video ads with sound-on lead to 1.9x ad recall and 2.2x increase in brand awareness, according to the company data.
The company said in a statement,
“Unlike many other platforms, on Spotify, listeners are already engaging with their sound on, offering a valuable opportunity for a brand’s message to be seen and heard. This multisensory experience can extend a brand’s audio ad strategy, providing another touchpoint to capture listeners’ attention and share messages across all relevant moments.”
Rise in advertisers using Spotify Ad Studio’s creative perk
Ad studio that is available in 22 countries globally has leveled up the playing field in creative production by offering a free service to generate a brand’s ad spot. Advertiser on Spotify’s Ad Studio can upload a script and in as little as one hour (48 hours in some cases) they will deliver a fully produced ad that includes music and voice over.
The company said that 37% of Ad Studio customers rely on their free voiceover tool for ad creation. Additionally, 50% of its advertisers used this tool in May, which is an 11% rise from March.
Ad Studio offers two options of ad format for video ads- horizontal video and vertical video. Horizontal video can run across all platforms and vertical video is optimized for iOS and Android.

Image Credit: Adweek

Image Credit: Adweek
Why should brands advertise on Spotify?
The company reported recently that it has 286 million active users and 130 million paid subscribers. Spotify is the third-largest advertiser in the world after Facebook and Google.
Spotify Ad Studio enables brands to reach targeted and relevant customers. Their programmatic audio advertising is the best way to reach Gen X and beyond.
If you think ads may annoy the listeners of Spotify, think again. Statistics by Acquisio states, 75% of digital audio listeners think commercials are totally fine on a free streaming service. 47% think ads are even less intrusive on Spotify than traditional radio.
For instance, brands targeting the hip audience that are interested in current trends can consider advertising on Spotify. Advertisers can take advantage of the Spotify data of logged users like moods, preferences, listening habits, interests, and activities. This will help brands to create customized ads.
Learn more: Spotify Adds $1.7B To Market Cap In 23 Min Post A Deal With Joe Rogan, World’s Leading Podcaster.