SODP founder Vahe Arabian on what to expect from the upcoming WP (WordPress) Publisher Success Week

For the last six years, State of Digital Publishing (SODP) has more than lived up to its name – the Australian market research publisher acting as a trusted barometer of where online publishing is heading.

Through reviews, educational content, online events and research, SODP helps digital media publishers and editorial marketing professionals develop their skills, gain better insights and grow their audience.

As SODP prepares to host the second annual WP Publisher Success Week from 24-28 February – an online event where attendees get high-impact information and tools in short, intensive sessions to help them migrate to WordPress with a focus on data management, SEO, security and scalability – we caught up with its founder and Editor-in-Chief, Vahe Arabian.

In a time when the media industry faces so many different challenges, how important is it to have an event like the WP Publisher Success Week to bring the community together to exchange experiences and best practices?

In this day and age, publishers are not lacking in resources. There are hundreds of articles and guides published daily on any subject relevant to a publisher imaginable.

The problem is that much of what’s out there focuses on trends – the latest shiny tool, platform, news item. Having an event like the WP Publisher Success Week is an opportunity for publishers to separate the hype from the reality. Many of the WordPress-focused local events are mostly attended by tech and WordPress experts. We strive to provide technical information in a way that publishing professionals working on audience growth, product development, and revenue growth can apply in their daily work. 

What are the major discussion points you foresee coming out of the event?

First off, our audience, understandably, will be looking to understand where WordPress, as an ecosystem, is headed. They come across many news items covering the frictions in the WordPress community and are concerned about how this would impact their digital properties. So, I expect a fair amount of discussion to be based on separating the sensational headlines from the actual impact. Next, there will probably be many questions around what tools and best practices to follow to safeguard and grow traffic – e.g., which plugins to use, how to integrate editorial workflow tools, etc. Privacy and security are always big with our audience – these topics are on the rise across industries, of course. So, I won’t be surprised to hear questions from the audience revolving around compliance and delivering on users’ expectations. Finally, there will be, undoubtedly, questions around AI: from requests for specific recommendations of tools to inquiries on how to integrate such tools in a manner that (1) does not jeopardise security and compliance with regulations, and (2) can be done in a budget-friendly manner.

AI is the most disruptive force in the media and the event features a session on unlocking its potential. How do you see AI influencing the media in the future and, apart from the event, how is SODP helping its community prepare for what lies ahead?

Indeed, AI has taken up a lot of space in conversations with publishers – some are still highly sceptical, while others went full steam ahead. Most are somewhere in the middle, cautiously running experiments and test-driving tools. A big area for us and this event is looking to understand how to drive traffic and conversion from LLM’s. Search is shifting toward navigational, meaning users are using search more for the evaluation stage. As a result, brand reputation is becoming increasingly important. We want to help our audience re-evaluate and adjust their strategies in a way that would actively incorporate brand considerations. In order for publishers to benefit from this shift in search behaviour – as opposed to becoming a victim of it – they need to learn how to be picky about what they make accessible vs not – at least until legislation catches up with the new reality and publishers start getting compensated for the use of their content.

The other important area is testing AI tools. We want to help publishers understand how their peers use AI tools to build their brands as well as their perspectives on how they are building their brands because this ultimately helps publishers become the source of the source for these platforms, whilst achieving a balance in making some parts of their content inaccessible to protect IP.  The subject of AI is something we address outside of the WP Publisher Success Week. For example, it was an important part of PubTech2024 – another annual virtual event we run, this one focusing on tech trends. We also partnered up with Media Collateral. in 2014 for its second edition of a research study on the impact of generative AI on media and communications professionals.

Finally, we regularly review various tools and platforms, writing independent assessments of their capabilities. Many such tools have integrated AI capabilities, and it’s our job to test out such features – among others – and provide our audience with our opinion on the benefits.

How has SODP gone about putting its list of speakers together for the WP Publisher Success Week?

Over the years, we have been lucky to build a strong network of experts. We reach out to experts who are willing to share their experiences as we are looking for first-hand expertise. Furthermore, all speakers at this event share our goal – to make learning free and accessible through community-based knowledge-sharing. Finally, we aim to structure the event and the flow of sessions in a way that provides attendees with a sequence of steps that would enable them to achieve measurable results. 

How positive are you about the future of digital publishing?

I had a lot of concerns in 2024, wondering whether we, as a community of digital publishers, should be re-evaluating how to be in this business and continue to provide value to our audiences. However, I find myself feeling optimistic these days.  I think the industry of digital publishing will see a new dawn of content accessibility and discoverability once we settle into the new status quo, after the proceedings are subsided, and new AI-driven searches become more mature. One of the key strengths of publishers is their knowledge of the fact that change is the only constant. We are used to transformations, so we move along with this change with great enthusiasm.

What does the road ahead look like for the Australian media industry? What are the biggest challenges and opportunities?

The charge and offset model, which the Australian Government will introduce in response to Meta’s ultimatum of pulling off news from their platforms, ensures its viability, and a mini rebuild phase for the industry can take place with support from the government. Advocacy groups such as LINA and the DPA are maximising on this through their advocacy support, training, and other services. The policy needs to continually evolve to reflect all news consumption habits as it doesn’t factor channels like WhatsApp, Apple News, YouTube, etc. We hope to advocate for such changes and complement them through our education, research, and other initiatives by, among other things, bringing global practices locally.

You can sign up for the WP Publisher Success Week here.