{"id":5053,"date":"2021-02-03T04:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spot-on.com\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2021-02-03T04:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T04:00:42","slug":"holy-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spot-on.com\/2021\/02\/03\/holy-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Cow!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spot-On normally uses the first newsletter of the year to reflect on the last and look ahead. This year we feel it necessary to start by channeling the late great Yankee shortstop (and poet<\/a>) Phil Rizzuto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Holy Cow!<\/p>\n

There’s a lot more we could say – but none of it is printable.<\/p>\n

A lot of things changed last year<\/a> and some of those changes are going to keep rolling through this year. We don’t pretend to know the end game here; too much is still unresolved and incomplete. So rather than our usual predictions<\/a>, we’re going to go with some observations that we hope are helpful.<\/p>\n

We Are All Georgia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that it’s won big and won in the clutch, it looks like the Stacey Abrams approach<\/a> to voter outreach is here to stay.\u00a0 This could mean real battles in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and – this year – in Virginia as both parties look not at the lists of who’s voted but start compiling lists of people to encourage them to vote.<\/p>\n

Local News On The Rise<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s a trend complementing the Abrams-style outreach. Readership for local news sites – and elected officials interest in supporting those sites – has increased in the past year<\/a>. News readers are voters – or likely to be voters.<\/p>\n

Buying ads on local sites has two benefits. Campaigns and advocacy efforts can talk directly to people who are active and interested in their communities and likely to be voters. They can also talk to editorial teams and publishers – supplementing earned media coverage.<\/p>\n

There’s a trend complementing this shift: Publishers are showing a much stronger interest in setting ad rates for their sites and reaping that revenue directly<\/a> rather than from remote third parties. So many are curtailing platforms’ access and looking at their subscribers, the first step in being able to talk to advertisers in detail about their readers.<\/p>\n

Targeting on the Decline<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year started with a slate of privacy law changes at the state level but most were delayed by Covid stay-at-home orders. This year, with lawmakers finding ways to work with social distancing in mind, passage of these laws is likely to accelerate.<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s the first blow to the use of voter data to target ads. There are some others.<\/p>\n