News Take Episode 102: Tech Trends: What Publishers Need to Know

Staff — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:00:57 +0000

Guests: Aram Zucker-Scharff, The Washington Post

“For the first time, we actually have the potential to create a real shift that benefits our users, our business, and our society, and that’s a win, win, win.” – Aram Zucker-Scharff on the shift to contextual-based targeting

Ad tech, Privacy and Performance, oh my! News publishers working to adapt to a privacy-first digital landscape before the inevitable end of the third-party cookie can easily become overwhelmed and may not even know where to start.

What does the shift towards privacy mean for news publishers and how they approach ad targeting? Is decreased reliance on third-party tracking a good thing for the industry? What are Core Web Vitals and why should news publishers care? How does my news site’s performance tie in to reader trust? What are things publishers can do right now to improve site performance? What is W3C and how can publishers take advantage to get their voices heard?

These questions and more will be discussed on this episode of News Take. News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern had an energizing conversation with Aram Zucker-Scharff, Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, that got in-the-weeds about the kitchen sink of ad tech topics, including site monetization; improving privacy and the user experience; optimizing site performance using Core Web Vitals; and more.

This episode was so full of interesting facts and actionable insights, we didn’t want it to end. The nuggets of wisdom will come faster than you can write them down, so it’s a good thing this conversation was recorded and you can re-watch it to your heart’s content!

Listen now or download the audio file to listen offline:

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Download closed captioning transcript

Speaker bio

Aram Zucker-Scharff is the Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, where he works with publishers to maximize site performance and revenue. He has also worked on The Post’s Ad Tech R&D and Big Data teams. Aram has developed open-source tools for publishers and consulted on content strategy and digital newsroom workflows. He was one of Folio Magazine’s 15 under 30 in the magazine media industry.

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

Audio & Video Engineer: Current Media Group

The post News Take Episode 102: Tech Trends: What Publishers Need to Know appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Rising Star: Mark Hannallah

Kirsten Ballard — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 20:20:16 +0000

Mark Hannallah sees the forest instead of the trees. It’s what makes him a successful product manager at USA TODAY Network. “For me, the ‘why’ is about the forest, and that’s the first step in which other things are built from,” Mark says. “We have to know why are we doing this thing, then once we know that, it’s how and what are the constraints — those are the trees. But it all backs up to the ‘why.’”

He credits his coworkers as his favorite part of the job, saying he’s surrounded with really great, smart people who solve challenging problems. “It’s an organizational effort,” he says. “Anything that made me look good was because of other people.”

To stay fresh, he recommends reading and doing things not related to work. “It provides perspective,” he says, noting that he reads fiction novels and business books to diversify his knowledge. “Media is an interesting industry to be working in at the moment,” he says. “I’m thinking about the future and what’s ahead, making and providing clarity where it doesn’t exist and formulating a strategy.”

In his role, he oversees design, development and deployment of web products to more than 25 newsrooms. He works with diverse stakeholder groups across brand, editorial, subscription, revenue, and technology teams.

“Before I stepped into the product management role, I wanted to [build up my] expertise,” he says, explaining that the teams usually consist of different specialties like design, development and product leader.

Mark started at Gannett in the user experience track. He wanted to focus on the paths users take to accomplish a goal and distill what’s most important to them. “I am a user-first product manager and I think that’s gone a long way,” he says.

He has always been interested in entrepreneurial pursuits, and considers his role as product leader to be someone with a vision that works with a team to build it together.

“We did a great job crafting a new gallery experience,” he says, praising his team for their work shifting the experience from a one-by-one horizontal carousel to a vertical scroll with a more natural flow. Not only does the new layout scroll deeper into the article experience, it allowed more flexible ad units to appear within the gallery.

He believes as the digital age progresses that we’ll see more experiences catered to specific groups of people.

“A lot of the content online is crafted for everyone. In the future, the experiences will be more unique based on who is viewing it,” he says. “I think publishers have a commitment to their users [to deliver] a valuable experience. That’s worth giving time and money toward.”

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