Who Really Benefits from “Consent or Pay”? An Uncomfortable Truth

I call that rabbit hole many media owners find themselves in, the “perpetual cycle of emergency”.

It begins with short-term decisions, or a complete lack of them, at key strategic moments in time. It leaves the media brand weaker. It makes them more vulnerable to the consequences of whatever is happening in the industry and the world we live in: an Apple ATT, a Chrome third-party cookie rollercoaster, changes in regulations, a pandemic, a financial crisis, a war.

Each of the situations above will then trigger another short-term tactical reaction, which in turn leads to an even weaker state of those media brands, and so on, until the next challenge. In perpetuity.

Flawed Responses to Industry Challenges

Remember the issue of ad-blocking, a consequence of horrible user experiences, intrusive ad formats, clunky user journeys and abuse of data collection? Some media companies learnt the lesson and tackled the issue at its roots, but many others responded by forcing and shoving more ads down the user’s throat.

“How do audiences dare to grab our content for free while refusing our only source of revenue?” was, and still is, a common refrain among media owners.