Challenges to publishers after the pandemic

Challenges to publishers after the pandemic

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There has been a lot of talk about how the pandemic has affected business, with many failing to survive the past couple of years. Those who did survive had to alter their business plan, which included doing more online sales and services. While you might imagine that is good news for online publishers who rely on ad revenue to keep their websites afloat, the reality is that they have challenges of their own. We are going to take a closer look at a few of these issues below, so let’s jump right in.

Advertisers out of business

As we mentioned at the top of this piece, many businesses were active advertisers but they were unable to cling to life during the pandemic because of frequent and unpredictable shutdowns, supply chain and staffing issues. This means you might lose some of your existing advertisers and have to look for new ones. With so many economic uncertainties, the potential pool of advertisers that are looking to spend big on ad serving is smaller. Even those that made it and are still in business are looking at a limited budget that might not stretch all the way to spending a lot of money on online ads. Publishers may be forced to adjust their strategies and even lower rates in order to retain or bring in new ad campaigns.

Industries disappearing

For those who have blogs or websites specific to a genre or subject, things might become even more challenging. The hospitality and travel industry as a whole took a big hit during the pandemic, with travel still somewhat restricted in many places. You can also think of businesses like movie theaters, all-you-can-eat buffets, print newspapers, point-andshoot cameras, department stores and more. Many are now considered somewhat endangered species. They might disappear, get replaced or need a reinvention. If you are a publisher in one of these industries, there is a degree of concern because less business means less advertising money.

Problems with relationship building

A major part of the success of any business is building relationships with your clients. This has become a little harder to do during the pandemic, as face-to-face meetings are harder to accomplish because of all the travel restrictions and crowd control measures. The good news here, though, is that there is a solution for this particular issue, with video chats/meetings via Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Team. It’s convenient, efficient and often good enough as a way to meet and greet new and existing clients.

Change to customer habits

If we have learned anything about consumer habits during the pandemic, it is that they can quickly change without warning. It is not just businesses that need to adapt to these changes, publishers need to be ready to move along with their advertisers. Using an on-demand software-as-a-service ad server will help you stay nimble and agile for whatever may come or change. If you are not able to go with the flow and adapt on the fly, you will get left behind and end up with fewer ad campaigns. It is not easy to plan for all scenarios ahead of time but you should be prepared, be flexible and be ready to pivot when needed.

Uncertainty remains

While it does appear that we are past the worst of the pandemic, there is still the chance that restrictions and other issues might still be in place for a while. Publishers and advertisers need to stay up to date with what is happening and be willing to be flexible. Those who can do that will be the ones that will survive and thrive for as long as this pandemic continues. There is no knowing how much longer all of this will continue, so for now, it’s all about a willingness to adapt and go with the flow.

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