“A purely ad funded digital model would not work”: The Irish Times’ David Murphy on the importance of diversified revenues
Founded 165 years ago, The Irish Times holds the distinction of not only being Ireland’s leading newspaper but also the country’s newspaper of record. Ahead of Revenue Europe in Berlin on October 1st, David Murphy, Head of Digital Media Solutions at The Irish Times, explains why diversified revenue models are critical in the modern media landscape.
At Revenue Europe in Berlin on October 1st, a key speaker will be David Murphy who will be giving a special presentation looking at first party data strategies and their role in maximizing audience engagement and revenues.
Based in Tara Street, Dublin, with 420 employees, The Irish Times has suffered (like most newspaper organisations) from dwindling print revenues and a hugely challenging publishing landscape. Despite these headwinds, the title has prospered and still publishes six days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Key to the title’s stability, aside from its editorial success under Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, has been its ability to shed outdated, legacy traditions and become pioneering in the way it harnesses new tech and diversified revenue streams.
It’s nothing new either. As far back as 2011, David himself was a lecturer training his peers on search marketing and eCommerce measurement as part of Irish Times Training, itself a diversified business comprising 50 subject matter experts in downtown Dublin.
With revenue diversification a hallmark of The Irish Times, and in advance of his appearance at Revenue Europe, Berlin, we asked David for a few insights into his role and current thinking…
Imagine our audience will meet you for the first time. Can you briefly introduce yourself and The Irish Times?
My name is David Murphy and I’ve worked with publishers, agencies and sales houses in the digital advertising sector for more than 20 years. For the past 8 years I have been serving as the Head of Digital Media Solutions at The Irish Times, leading their digital advertising monetisation strategy.
The Irish Times, one of Ireland’s oldest and most trusted titles, publishes a number of national and local/regional news titles in Ireland along with some digital exclusive titles. Like many other legacy publishers, The Irish Times Group has branched out from the written word to provide audiences and advertisers with audio, video, events and numerous other platforms to engage audiences and drive results for our advertising clients.
When it comes to monetisation, the only way for media to survive commercially in the modern media landscape is through building diversified revenue models. Could you briefly explain to what extent you agree/disagree with that statement and why?
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. As an aside we even renamed our ‘Advertising Department’ to ‘Media Solutions Department’ in order to better reflect the diverse advertising services we offer!
At a very high-level the diversification between digital advertising and consumer revenues is essential for our legacy titles. Print sales continue to decline and dwindle, but are necessary for supporting our journalism and reporting. A purely ad funded digital model would not work in our market without significantly higher traffic levels or a heavier ad experience, which ultimately can have a negative impact on readers and advertisers. Consumer revenues can also be more predictable and stable, unlike advertising which has peaks and troughs.
From a digital advertising perspective I also believe diversification is required to yield the best return from our properties and audiences by being able to deliver comprehensive solutions. The digital advertising ecosystem is very competitive, and much of the inventory we used to place high values on has been commoditised, so it’s important that we can respond to briefs convincingly and include as much as possible to give us the best chance of delivering the clients’ objectives and winning the business. For us this means, video, audio, content, events, creative services, brand effectiveness and attention measurements.
Can you share a little more about your core revenue streams and the challenges you had to overcome to implement them successfully?
Our core digital advertising revenue streams are:
- Commercial/Sponsored Content: Our biggest challenges here were our own internal framework, the wider market education (quality vs quantity consideration), and amplifying promotion to deliver KPI’s.
- First Party Data: Here it was important to get executive buy-in and board support. We also needed to prove the efficacy of audience targeted inventory.
- Video: Low levels of inventory.
Looking at the future, how do you see Revenue Technologies shaping revenue growth and profitability in the media sector?
From a technology perspective I think AI will continue to have an impact on individualised ad experiences by analysing vast amounts of reporting and audience data to identify and deliver highly effective targeting. I am, however, less certain of the role of generative AI in digital advertising.
Environmentally sustainable digital advertising practices and systems can also drive revenues.
Attention as a measure of digital performance is becoming more widespread; ad experiences and creative technologies and tactics designed to improve these metrics will be valuable, especially for publishers that are positioned as branding platforms.
You will speak at Revenue Europe in Berlin. Off-stage, what are some of the conversations you’d be keen to have with fellow attendees?
I’d be very interested to talk about attendees’ experiences with Attention measurement as well as any innovative solutions implemented for users that reject cookies/advertising personalisation.
I’m also interested in discussing rate increases/media inflation as experienced in Europe.
Finally, I’m also interested in speaking to anyone with experience with data matching and clean rooms.
Meet David and your peers tasked with monetising media at our Revenue Europe summit in Berlin on 1st October. Find more information and sign up here. We hope to see you there!
