In response to an initial coronavirus news bump, a number of outlets witnessed record traffic to their sites, as well as a growth in subscribers.

At the same time, however, they also had to contend with a major slump in advertising revenues as marketers shut their chequebooks.

This meant that despite some publishers benefiting from increased reader revenue, this income did not act as a like-for-like replacement for the revenue losses being felt from other income streams (such as advertising and events).

Moreover, as we shall see, the nature of modern-day advertising technology (Ad Tech) also further compounded the financial challenges that publishers were experiencing.

Here’s a quick overview of the key Ad Tech issues that publishers have had to contend with while navigating the COVID crisis, and seven potential solutions to them.

In response to an initial coronavirus news bump, a number of outlets witnessed record traffic to their sites, as well as a growth in subscribers.

At the same time, however, they also had to contend with a major slump in advertising revenues as marketers shut their chequebooks.

This meant that despite some publishers benefiting from increased reader revenue, this income did not act as a like-for-like replacement for the revenue losses being felt from other income streams (such as advertising and events).

Moreover, as we shall see, the nature of modern-day advertising technology (Ad Tech) also further compounded the financial challenges that publishers were experiencing.

Here’s a quick overview of the key Ad Tech issues that publishers have had to contend with while navigating the COVID crisis, and seven potential solutions to them.

Challenge 1: Keyword Blacklisting

In March, BuzzFeed News’ Craig Silverman reported that Integral Ad Science, a digital ad verification company, had over 3,000 advertisers blocking the term “coronavirus.”

This double-whammy followed reduced ad spend in many categories, like travel, which had already hurt publishers’ revenue streams.

Moreover, as the team at Branded, a newsletter written by Claire Atkin (@catthekin) and Nandini Jammi (@nandoodles), reminded us:

“Blacklisting keywords without whitelisting legitimate news sites deprives news organizations of ad dollars. By doing this, we are keeping ads away from real eyeballs. Worse, where do those ads go? They are likely ending up on fake news sites that know to avoid the word “coronavirus.”

Research from IAB has reinforced this, finding that “news publishers are twice as likely to be blacklisted vs. others.”

“This extraordinary event is exposing how brand safety tech works — using stupid keyword lists — it is not happening more often, it is just more evident,” ad fraud researcher and consultant Augustine Fou told Digiday earlier this year.

“Previously it was not as visible how bad keyword blocking was for legit publishers,” he said.

Fou’s comments came in response to moves from some advertisers to ensure that their ads didn’t appear on websites mentioning “coronavirus.”

As a result of keyword blacklisting, publishers including Der Spiegel, the Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, as well as countless others, have all been impacted.

In the UK it is estimated that news publishers lost around £50m in online ad revenue between April and July due to this practice.