 Good afternoon everybody. I'm Chris Aaron's managing editor of ad week and we are here for another edition of ad week together This is day four of the series that we've been producing and this week. We've talked about Multiple topics in the industry that has everyone talking including retail as well as streaming and today We're going to talk about publishing and I'm very excited to be joined by my colleague Well, normally we sit next to each other in the office, but now we're a few states apart Sarah journey our publishing editor Sarah. How are you doing? Well, how you doing Chris? I'm doing great So we're also on LinkedIn and if you if you see me looking over a little bit every once in a while at my monitor It's to check the engagement there. We've got about 500 viewers so far. So Let us know what your comments are and we'll be happy to Answer your questions that you have questions comments as we get through today's episode. So publishing Lots of things to talk about in the space number one Some really interesting covers which we're going to talk about with Sarah some really interesting Platforms and different solutions that some of the publishers are using But I want to start off by sharing with everybody this ad console spot That was released earlier this week and then talk a little bit about it on the other side So let's take a look at that We know that we're asking Americans to do a lot right now So we're asking everyone to be selfless for others so that we can protect those who are most susceptible to this virus A question I often get asked is why should young people care about the spread of coronavirus? Well, we know that people with underlying medical conditions over the age of 60 are at highest risk But they've got to get it from somebody Social distancing is really physical separation of people. It's what we refer to when we ask people to say at least six Not going to bars not going to restaurants not going to theaters where there are a lot of people at all just means Physical separation so that you have a space between you and others who might actually be infected or affect you We all have a role to play and preventing person-to-person spread of this disease, which can be deadly for vulnerable groups For more information on how you can social distance, please go to coronavirus.gov So Sarah that was from the ad council the ad council has been around since World War two and really its mission is to work with advertisers Video platforms television networks to get the message out in times of crisis. So there you saw Dr. Anthony Fauci certain general Jerome Adams Deborah Birx who's on the White House Council of COVID-19 We wrote about this earlier this week our colleague Minda Smiley talk a little bit about how they work with Publishers. Yeah, I mean as you said when crisis has come around like this I mean everyone turns to publishers to really just distribute the information and get the information out there as quickly and most Concisely as possible. So in this case partners like Facebook and Google and publishers like Group 9 and ad tech firms all Agreed to run this sort of PSA They have said that they would open up ad space on their sites and on their feeds to let this message run And it really just goes to show you how quickly these publishers and partners can pivot in these times of a global pandemic like this Lee it's it's more regional in nature when when something like this happens Or in a time of war as I said at council going back to World War two But to see it on such a national scale here It's something that really at the end of the day the publishers are giving their time over to get the message out And it can cost them as well, right? Yeah, absolutely I mean they have chosen to give up the space and almost a pro bono effort to Really prioritize getting the information out there and we'll talk a little bit later about all the different products These publishers have launched but really it has been crunched time for all these ad tech partners and these publishers to make sure What they're distributing is accurate And information to get there out as quickly as possible I mean to look at the timeline of how quickly this has developed here in the US We're only in what like the third week of working from home and really tackling this issue as it's spread to homes throughout the United States So this information has had to get out there quickly And this is the ad council's response to making sure that that information is out there and provided Regardless if they may be taking a hit in digital advertising right exactly and in terms of how you've been covering this working remotely You're a publishing editor So you've been kind of monitoring what some of the magazines have been doing both on the digital side But also on the print side still getting their issues out there sports illustrated had a really interesting cover this week, right? Yeah, their process was Really kind of interesting to take a look at because they had their magazine ready to go The week actually that coronavirus hit really spectacularly here in the US I mean they had the magazine all designed They had a cover that was going to feature an NBA player talking about the NBA playoffs and really within a weekend's time They had to completely scrap the magazine and redo the cover and a lot of the material inside to focus more on the coronavirus The cover that you just saw was of an empty stadium that really represented How fans had to turn elsewhere For entertainment and to consume media once all the different sports games Were canceled or postponed in that first week that it hit And of course these mags Terminal during daytime with light shining through it was just really sort of captured the the mood right now in New York City of Empty public spaces empty parks empty streets and over this weekend I know New York City is going to be shutting down several streets and making them pedestrian only Park Avenue Which is a pretty busy thoroughfare on any given day is going to be shut down Around midtown from about 28th Street to 34th Street and leave it just open to pedestrians So that's been an interesting thing to look at as well Time magazine had a really Compelling story that actually had been in the works for quite some time Um, but then they pivoted the story behind it. You see Jose Andres Who's the celebrity chef owns about 26 different restaurants across the country in new york in las vegas and In washington dc and he's been known in times of crisis to convene his world food kitchen And what that does is it sets up? You know food operations to feed those in need and in the story in time he talks extensively about what how how much how big covid-19 is is going to be in terms of Being able to to fulfill his mission of feeding as many people as he can Saying that government alone is not going to be able to take organizations like his as well as other non-governmental organizations to sort of get through this so Interesting coverage there from different magazines Different products sara alluded to this she wanted to talk a little bit about Different things that some of the publishers are doing creating new podcasts creating new offerings for For for customers and for clients if a client comes in and wants to to sort of sponsor One of these products, you know, I know our sales team speaking speaking for ad week Is being aggressive and trying to bring in as as many of our community and as many of our clients into different products this being So what we're going to do is we're going to take a little pause here for a second We're going to try to bring sara back in and talk a little bit about some of the other topics She's written about including brand safety And and what this might mean for the industry at large Considering what the future may bring in terms of layoffs and furloughs and things like that more publishers are doing So let's take a little break. We'll bring sara back in and we'll be right back the Suffolk county new york bureau is here the Cleveland ohio bureau is over here and yes, there's going to be technical Challenges as we work our way through this. So sara welcome back. Thank you so much Okay, so we were talking about some of the covers I talked about Time and what they were doing but time for kids is also doing some pretty interesting things as well, right? Yeah, so as uh all of us and some parents start working from home They also have to think about child care who are also being sent home From their daycare centers from their schools. So time has done something really interesting and focused primarily on that audience They have opened up their iPrize for time magazine for kids and are offering that resource available To children who are interested in the content that they might otherwise have gotten in the classroom and They're really sort of homing in on that print experience So when you look at it digitally, you're going to be able to flip through the pages like you would an actual magazine But something to keep into consideration when you're home and you're going nuts because the kids coming up and in the background of your zoom meetings So between that I've heard yoga for kids on youtube I mean the options are endless and it's kind of nice to see the publishers get involved and You know, it's an opportunity to reach new audience and maybe you'll have any subscribers by the end of all this Exactly exactly and another challenge Or opportunity depending on how you look at it Is brand safety And a hot topic for the last couple years about advertisers and how their position next to certain content And now as so much coverage is is devoted to coronavirus What are you hearing in terms of the people you're talking to about about those brand safety issues? Yeah, so you almost can't really talk about this lovely ad industry that we're in without mentioning brand safety Can you but that conversation has definitely extended to coronavirus coverage? In what we're seeing in these last three weeks is an extraordinary amount of traffic going to publishers Pretty much across the board publishers who are investing and creating Coverage around coronavirus have seen a huge uptick in coverage I reported last week that parsley said The news shifted from Trump and politics being the main driver of coverage that week and nearly doubled to all things coronavirus So newsrooms are certainly producing this kind of coverage in waves And are doing it to meet audiences because that's what they want to read and consume right now What the trouble then is how you can capitalize on that traffic? And what we're finding is that brands who are still investing and want to make that investment in digital ad dollars that want to be around coverage Which is a little bit stickier. It's less fun and evergreen as some of that other content So it's really become brand safety concern and publishers are left trying to think through how they're able to attract those digital ad dollars When most of their coverage is tagged with keywords surrounding coronavirus where a lot of the newsrooms are devoting their coverage right now right and Some of the other things concerning anybody who works in Well anybody who has a job frankly the concern is will I have a job six weeks two months down the road? And that's also true for publishers if you work for an editorial department and some big publishers digital platforms Have have been very open with their employees about this is this is not something that's going to come and go quickly And we have to make some tough decisions. Can you talk about some of the reporting you've done there about what some of the publishers Have decided to do Yeah, I mean it's almost a joke at this point Talking about how in battle the media industry has become. I mean they've been at the front lines of all these changes To print advertising as digital ad dollars also see changes I mean the media partners are front in line to watch and have to pivot to see how they're going to be able to change along with them So even though we're only about three weeks in we're already seeing the digital ad dollars shift And especially given those brand safety issues the conversation becomes really Sort of muddled and hard to navigate with for publishers who are also trying to cope and deal with The coronavirus from a personal and workforce perspective So I've chatted with and have been chatting with a lot of publishers about What their business strategies look like in dealing with all this and honestly chris one of the biggest issues is the timeline is really unknown I mean this is three weeks in we've already seen The digital ad industry take a pretty big hit really big hit to print advertising And a lot of these buys have already been locked in so really you're going to see some big changes in q2 and q3 once we've been in this for some time and we're Relying on zoom conference calls to have that in person contact and to make those sales pitches and to have those source meetings So in some respect, it's a it's a wait and see game to see just how effective these publishers are going to be Some publishers have gotten What they've said is ahead of the curve to try and protect their businesses as much as they can as we had into this crisis Publishers like buzzfeed and future media group have gone so far as to tell their staffers that they're going to have to freeze their pay Buzzfeed in particular has said depending on the Salary bracket that you make that you're going to have your pay frozen until at least may at which case They're going to then assess it by a month to month basis to see what they might be able to do there for staffers Which you know is an interesting business decision and I think you can Discuss and debate maybe what the staff morale then becomes But it really just goes to show you that all industries are going to be affected by this media certainly included And at the end of the day, is it better to have your pay cut by five to ten? You know, however much percentage then to go through unemployment be completely Up It's a horrible thing to think um And it just shows you how quickly this has affected all these industries were only three weeks into this and these conversations are already being had It's true in newsrooms across the country ours included But not just in the in the news media publishing companies businesses across the country are all having these really tough conversations about how they move forward after this I just want to make a quick mention as I look over here We are streaming this out on edweek.com, but also on linkedin LinkedIn's been a great platform for us as well. Just getting a lot of greetings from Nigeria Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tehran, Mizzou, Brazil, Spain Thank you everybody for for tuning in and trying to come together a little bit and talk about these topics that affect our industry Um, sarah talk about um because you've been covering this part of it too Some of the other new products in the new platforms I mentioned when we were under before we went to our little pause that this show that we're producing here at week together is something That we're experimenting with but but talk about some of the other things that publishers are doing Yeah, I mean I heard I mean I mentioned the time for kids project So uh kids content is something that publishers are getting into and they hadn't necessarily been in this space before Really trying to see what an opportunity for them might be able to lie in with all of these children now at home We're seeing publishers launch different podcasts associated with coronavirus coverage and nearly all websites and publishers and including adweek In this have put together a live blog sort of tracking how it is affecting the respective industries Especially, you know, it's so important especially that live blog bit because This information is updating daily and by the minute I think it's also important to note that a lot of these publishers have dropped their paywall So that this information can be accessed for free And so thinking about from the business perspective how you weigh monetizing this coverage But also, you know, just to get that information out there and the importance of that I think in a lot of ways that's why media is is considered an essential business At least in this stage of the coronavirus taking effect here Um, but you know, like you mentioned this show is something that has come together What within a week's time chris? I mean you were in charge of that. What did that look like for you? Yeah, it was um, uh, we started testing it late last week and you know using skype at first and and trying to stream it out That way and we have this platform called wire cast and wire cast is really dynamic in terms of when it works It's working pretty well today It's pretty dynamic in terms of being able to switch between two different cameras Web cameras nick who's the producer this has been producing all week can roll in different b-roll as you see The stories that come up. That's actually he's created a digital file for that so that he can insert it into this Um, yeah, and then you know as as we try to do I mean the the the goal of this was to inform and to educate maybe even entertain and bring people together Sort of in the middle of their day do it live Um have that kind of conversation have the interaction Um, again, if you have a question pop it into uh to linked in and I'm happy to answer it for you Um, but yeah, it's it's all about adapting. It's all about testing Um, and at the end of the day if it's if it's something, you know that can turn into some That we use you know throughout even after we get through this Um, I see it as you know with my background a great tool to be able to communicate with our audience Yeah, definitely. I know it's at least nice to kind of just take a break and chat with someone who is not my three-year-old nephew Away from the work for a little bit Yeah, as I said at the at the top of the show Ordinarily we're sitting right next to each other in the office or desert jason to each other So it's good to see you even if it's in a double box or of course on our 1030 zoom call in the morning Talk about I know you have another story in the works on alt weeklies, which you know Are important to a lot of big cities in terms of for advertisers to get their message out, but then To to really create a sort of very localized almost hyper local Sketch of what's going on in a certain city, but they're often handed out on the street or in the subways in places like that And and we're not in the subways in the streets these days Right, right. Yeah. So this is really Hit local newspapers and particularly alt weeky alt weeklies and city magazines really difficulty because You know, they rely so much on that local advertising So when these local businesses don't have to advertise that they have events or drink specials Those dollars aren't coming in and we have seen that already hit really hard at alt weeklies Which you know, again, it is just remarkable to me that we're only three weeks in And some alt weeklies have had to lay off 50 70 80 percent of staff members who usually are Producing local journalism around these different community events and you know The local land local media landscape was already so challenged to begin with And the thought that we might lose actual partners in And players in alt weeklies and local magazines is is really devastating Particularly, I mean just not from a news consumption level, but An alt weekly or a local magazine is a lot of times how people come together It's your source of information To really, you know interact with your community in a different way I was talking with an owner of alt weeklies and several cities throughout the u.s earlier today um who mentioned that uh days after businesses were asked to You know close down and go to delivery only they had a huge festival planned Surrounding um a fun brunch to get everyone together in the community It was a ticketed event and they had hundreds of people already who purchased tickets for that and they just had to cancel Um and then had to go and temporarily lay off a few of their staff members um So hopefully and and this owner in particular was still hopeful that the that they'll be able to return to business um later this year But as I mentioned, I mean this timeline is so difficult to work with That publishers are kind of having to really just guess to see when those ad dollars are going to return to the marketplace I don't know what you've been reading because but it doesn't seem like until much later this year that that might actually be the case Yeah, I think that's true. I think we're we're you know across industries We're going to get a really good next friday We'll get the march unemployment numbers after yesterday's in the jobless claims, which are massive historic in terms of the size And then we're going to start getting first quarter at least quarterly reports at the end of march And that's really going to set the stage for really put the rest of the year brings so Lots to cover here. Um, I want to wrap this up. But uh before I do sarah Share with us something a tip that sort of gets you through the day I know you drove back to ohio last friday, and I've been working there all week be closer to family. So What's your tip? Yeah, it's been really helpful being around family But like you mentioned chris. I mean we sit just a few spaces across from one another and I have a little candy jar that I like to give out um and Looking back Looking back may it wasn't the most healthy thing to make everyone put their hands into the candy jar Given this is striking. Um But I have just tried to surround myself with things that make me smile as much as possible So I have all my plants here with me from my apartment. Um So yeah, we're just doing the best we can aren't we? We certainly are. Um, all right. We're going to wrap this up sarah Can't thank you enough for joining us today And I know there's going to be a lot more to follow in your space. So we'll keep looking for your stories on adweek.com Uh, everybody else. Thank you so much for joining us this week and ad week together We're going to be back next week On monday's show. Stephanie patrick will be hosting and she'll be joined by co in who's our department's editor for adweek Co is with her family in south korea at the moment. So we're going to get the the Sort of she's going to be able to set the scene what's happening in Seoul and in south korea As they sort of come on the other side of the coronavirus crisis. So again, thanks everybody for joining us this week And we'll see you next week. Have a great weekend Thanks chris