A panel of industry leaders discuss the challenges facing digital media right now and how to overcome them as part of The Drum’s Digital Transformation Festival.
Every business in our industry has been impacted by the coronavirus.
Discussing the impact that the crisis has brought to the world of media was Newsworks’ Tracy De Groose, The Ozone Project’s Damon Reeve, MediaCom’s Geoff De Burca and moderator Stephen Lepitak from The Drum.
One of the key changes for many said De Groose was how lockdown has encouraged business leaders to look at ways to “remerge stronger”.
For De Groose and the news industry, this means focussing on the impact of ad blocking, which is now more important than ever.
Although audiences are flocking to quality journalism to get their latest coronavirus news, inventory is being blocked and as a result, the industry is set to lose £50 million.
Providing an advertiser perspective, De Burca commented: “As market leaders, our [MediaCom] responsibility is to ensure we have a sustainable media industry that has quality placements where our clients can get their messages out.
“We should be supporting media owners that are providing these quality environments.”
As a result of the recent focus on blocklists, MediaCom is encouraging all clients to remove ‘coronavirus’ from blocklists.
Emphasising the importance of ensuring that the news industry gets the funding it needs, De Burca commented: “News brands have become an absolute vital source of information of the nation.”
The panel was part of The Drum’s Digital Transformation Festival and you can watch the full panel discussion here.
