June 12, 2025
In this week's edition: the state of the consumer, Pew's news media tracker, the reputation equation, how AI slop is warping metrics, zero-click searches, the UAE's new media law, and much more...
Well, it ain’t pretty. But, despite the holidays, we got it out. We’ll definitely put more effort into it next week. In the meantime, enjoy.
State of the Consumer 2025: When disruption becomes permanent - “Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers’ crisis-era habits have lingered. Here’s what organizations can do to outcompete in the second half of the decade.” (McKinsey)
Social media creators to overtake traditional media in ad revenue this year - “User-generated material to surpass advertising income from professional media amid change in viewing habits.” (Guardian)
News Media Tracker: How Americans Use and Trust News Sources - According to its creators, “as the news media landscape continues to evolve, Americans’ news habits are changing. This tool is meant to be a digital product that provides the public with up-to-date, easily accessible key information about what news sources Americans turn to and trust.” (Pew)
Speaking of which: Democrats trust more news outlets than Republicans, new Pew tracker shows - “Republican news consumers have a more compact media ecosystem… They rely to a large degree on a small number of outlets and view many established brands as not trustworthy. Democrats, on the other hand, rely on a wider number of outlets.” (Nieman Lab)
Perspectives: Reputation Matters More Than Ever. But You Have to Earn It - “Clients want proof that reputation isn’t just a qualitative good, but a quantifiable driver of revenue, market share, talent and shareholder value.” (PRovoke)
The reputation equation: ‘hard to measure when you have it – but you know when you’ve lost it’ - “Corporate reputation – invisible when it’s intact, but it’s all anyone sees when it’s gone. And CMOs are uniquely placed to protect and strengthen it. Business leaders reveal why and how the CMO is increasingly the CEO’s greatest asset at Bloomberg Media’s Leaders Roundtable, Paris.” CMO? or CCO? Is the ‘customer’ the only, or most important, arbiter of reputation? (The Drum)
Trends - Artificial Intelligence - Mary Meeker’s annual opus on current and emerging tech trends. “The pace and scope of change related to the artificial intelligence technology evolution is indeed unprecedented, as supported by the data. This document is filled with user, usage and revenue charts that go up-and-to-the-right often supported by spending charts that also go up-and-to-the right.” (Mary Meeker)
WTF is AI slop doing to warp media metrics? “There has been a 717% increase in AI slop sites detected in the last year… There are telltale signs for a lot of them. Fake bylines, or even no bylines, fabricated writers that have no digital footprint, clone-like design similarity — like basic templates that make for a fairly generic design experience. And their content is plagiarized, mercifully scraped from other sites that have paid writers to create it. So a lot of the time, it’s hallucinatory and nonsensical.” (DigiDay). Speaking of which: Politico’s AI tool spits out made-up slop, union says.
Zero-click searches: Google’s AI tools are the culmination of its hubris - “The specter of AI hangs over every SERP. The unhelpful vibe many people now get from Google searches, regardless of the internal metrics the company may use, may come from a fundamental shift in how Google surfaces information in the age of AI.” (ArsTechnica)
Conflicting Global Perceptions around AI present Mixed Signals for Brands - “In (its) fourth annual survey into global attitudes surrounding AI, (Ipsos) place a spotlight on how companies and brands might use AI in the future – and how these uses would impact public trust.” (Ipsos)
Podcasting leads US media in ad recall and audience trust - “A new report from Sounds Profitable has found that podcast advertising delivers the highest ad recall rate across all media platforms in the US.” I am trying hard to trust this. (Podcasting Today)
For communicators in the region where I currently work, and in case you didn’t know: UAE Media Law: Social media influencers, content creators must get business licenses - “The new licensing system aims to build public trust, protect audiences.” (Gulf News)
And finally, the most popular article from last week was Why CEOs Should Think Twice Before Using AI to Write Messages by HBR.