Google has joined Meta in blocking news links on its Canadian sites, rather than pay publishers as now required by law. The company was less confrontational than Meta in their language, and probably does a better job of blocking misinformation. But the effect is still to make it harder for Canadians to receive reliable news.
The Canadian government said it’s still in discussion with Google.
How ever offended the tech giants are at the effrontery of payment demands from local news sites, blocking those sites does diminish the value provided to consumers. That’s not necessarily the best move when 77% of UK and Nordics respondents to this Precis Digital survey are already concerned about how social platforms use their data, and 57% see no benefit in sharing data with brands. Just 7% would trade more data for more relevant and personalized ads, compared with 35% who prefer no data sharing and irrelevant ads. Another 41%... Read More >
Media mix models (MMM), originally developed in the 1960’s, have undergone a resurgence as new technologies make them easier to execute and click-based attribution becomes less credible. But evaluating MMM brings its own challenges. Australia-based Mutinex offers a vendor-neutral Open Source MMM Validation Framework which is now available for free to North American marketers and agencies.