Eric Shanfelt shows media companies how to use programmatic advertising on owned and operated media. He focuses on the practical business decisions behind filling unsold inventory on your site and in email newsletters, while protecting user experience, staying on the right side of compliance, and having an actual impact on your business.

Topics covered:

• Owned and operated vs non-owned programmatic advertising
• When programmatic backfill is worth using
• Why B2B sites often have a more difficult time with programmatic backfill
• Different types of programmatic backfill
• Programmatic in email newsletters
• Overlay ad formats and user experience considerations
• Affiliate links and how to stay compliant legally and with SEO

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this week’s High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt and Jez Walters break down the biggest digital media issues publishers should pay attention to right now, and what to do about them.

They cover a major Google Discover update, why transparency matters more than ever, and how AI is reshaping on-site engagement and search behavior.

Topics covered:

• What the Feb 2026 Google Discover update targets
• Why “show your sources” is becoming a ranking and trust advantage
• How spammy content is impacting Discover quality
• Why paid subscribers should get an ad-free experience
• What Taboola’s “Deeper Dive” means for conversational, on-site search
• Why publishers need a real video strategy (not just articles on social)

Links and resources:

• Next Gen News: https://www.next-gen-news.com/
• Google Discover documentation: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-discover
• Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console
• Collaboration for publishers (James Breiner): https://jamesbreiner.substack.com/p/youre-not-alone-find-a-partner-and
• Digiday on AI rewriting publisher sites: https://digiday.com/media/bold-call-ai-will-rewrite-publishers-websites-in-2026/
• Marfeel community thread on Discover shift: https://community.marfeel.com/t/google-discover-s-shift-to-ai-youtube-and-x-what-publishers-are-losing/131424
• Simon Owens on subscriber experience: https://simonowens.substack.com/i/187043016/why-does-business-insider-hate-its-subscribers-so-much
• Taboola Deeper Dive: https://discover.taboola.com/deeperdive-ai/
• Direqt: https://www.direqt.ai/
• A Media Operator on the data + subscription + events model: https://www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/data-subscription-events-the-media-model-driving-ma/

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Eric Shanfelt joins the Local Media Association to take an in-depth look at whether publishers should block AI bots from their websites and, if so, how to do it. He explains the tradeoffs between AI visibility and website traffic, then walks through simple, real-world defenses you can implement without overcomplicating your stack.

You will learn:

• Traffic vs visibility: which matters more right now
• How to use robots.txt (and what not to block)
• How a firewall service like Cloudflare or Amazon Web Services can help
• Why local publishers should consider blocking international traffic
• The “back door” way AI bots can still index your sites.

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to the Local Media Association for hosting this session and for the work they do every day to support local publishers. Learn more and please consider joining LMA at https://www.localmedia.org/ 

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this week’s High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt breaks down a common problem that costs publishers renewals and credibility with advertisers: you are driving traffic, but your advertiser’s Google Analytics is not giving you credit for it.

Eric explains where “hidden traffic” shows up (often as Direct/None, generic email platform sources, or social referrals) and shares a simple system you can use to make sure clicks from ads, newsletters, dedicated emails, sponsored content, and social campaigns are properly attributed to your publication.

You will learn:

• Why your traffic shows up as Direct, Email, or “missing”
• A simple UTM setup that makes attribution clear
• Source and medium naming that stays consistent
• What “normal” tracking gaps look like (and why numbers will not match)
• How to handle advertiser-provided UTMs without creating reporting messes

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt is joined by Jez Walters of What's New in Publishing to unpack what the latest AI and distribution shifts actually mean for magazine and news publishers.

The conversation gets practical fast:

- How much traffic are publishers really seeing from ChatGPT?
- Is it worth optimizing your content for AI?
- Is Facebook going to start charging for link posts?
- What is changing inside Google Discover.
- A cautionary tale about a large paywall vendor causing big problems for a major publication.
- And more ...

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this kickoff episode for 2026, Eric Shanfelt runs an “ask me anything” session focused on real-world problems publishers are dealing with right now, including ad strategy, performance, analytics, and the growing impact of bots and AI on measurement.

You will hear practical guidance on whether you should rotate or refresh ads, when AMP still matters (and when it does not), why email click data can be distorted by security bots, and how to think about AI crawlers and AI-driven discovery without losing control of your content. The episode wraps with a clear walkthrough of Core Web Vitals and what typically causes publishers to fail, especially cumulative layout shift from ad rendering.

Resource mentioned:
Google PageSpeed Insights: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

Key topics covered:

• Rotating and refreshing ads: why “more impressions” can create advertiser trust issues and hurt CTR
• AMP today: where it still shows up for some publishers, especially in Google News, and what to do if you do not have it
• Email measurement: how security bots can trigger false clicks and how to interpret click performance
• AI and publishers: indexing, sponsored content considerations, and what “value” looks like from AI surfaces
• GA4 basics that trip up dashboards: active users vs engaged users vs new users
• Core Web Vitals: what they measure, why they matter, and how to reduce cumulative layout shift by reserving fixed ad space

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

If you are a local or regional publisher, your Google Business Profile is one of the most overlooked assets you have. It is not just a “listing.” It is a credibility signal, a discovery surface in Search and Maps, and a practical way to build trust in your brand, your website, and your audience in Google’s eyes.

In this session, Eric Shanfelt breaks down how Google Business Profiles work for media companies, what matters most inside the profile, and how to turn it into a trust channel, not a set-it-and-forget-it directory entry.

You will learn how to:

• Claim and complete the core business info that Google relies on.
• Choose categories, service areas, and hours in a way that fits publishers.
• Build momentum with photos, reviews, and reputation responses.
• Use Posts and Offers to promote stories and subscription campaigns.
• Embed your Google Business Profile on your site.
• Tie it into your site’s entity signals and schema.

Key links:
https://business.google.com/

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

AI junk content, Meta’s new AI licensing deals, Google’s latest core update, experimental pay-per-article wallets, and creator-journalists with bigger followings than local newsrooms all collide in this episode of “What’s New in Publishing.”

Eric Shanfelt and Jez Walters unpack how these shifts are reshaping the playing field for news, magazine, B2B, and city/regional publishers, and what practical moves you can make right now.

In this conversation, they dig into:

• The surge of low quality AI content and why platforms should be forced to label and filter it.
• Meta’s AI licensing deals with big legacy brands and what they signal for everyone else.
• The Tow Center’s “AI deals and disputes” tracker and how publishers can use it. https://tow.cjr.org/ai-deals-lawsuits/ 
• SuperTab’s wallet based, time-boxed access model and where it might actually work.
• The November Google core update, AI overviews, and why generic how-tos are losing out.
• The reality of AI driven subscription pricing versus keeping things simple.
• The rise of creator-journalists like “Cody the weather guy” and what that means for local publishers.

If you run a niche B2B brand, a city or regional publication, or a specialist news site, this episode will help you sort out what actually matters in the current AI and search upheaval and where to focus your effort in the coming year.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Should publishers block AI bots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity from crawling their sites? If so, what is the smartest way to do it?

In this session, Eric Shanfelt shows you how generative AI is impacting publication search traffic, which types of publications are most at risk, and a practical framework for deciding whether blocking AI crawlers makes sense for your business. He then breaks down step-by-step how to actually block these bots at the robots.txt and firewall level without accidentally cutting off Google and other legitimate search engines.

You'll learn:

• How quickly generative AI usage is growing and what that means for publisher traffic.
• Which publishers face the highest AI threat level (national news, hobby/enthusiast, B2B, city and regional lifestyle, city and regional business) and why.
• Real examples where blocking AI bots did not impact on organic search or overall visits.
• A simple recipe for blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt and keeping that list updated.
• Why you also need firewall or hosting level rules, not just robots.txt.
• When it makes sense to geo-block your site from countries with heavy bot activity.
• Common mistakes to avoid, including accidentally blocking normal search engine bots.

Whether you run a national news or B2B trade site, or a local consumer or business publication, this episode will help you decide where you stand on AI crawlers and give you a clear, practical playbook for protecting your content.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Eric Shanfelt teams up with Jez Walters from What’s New in Publishing for a concise, no-nonsense update on the most important stories and developments impacting the future of publishing.

In this session we cover:

• OpenAI honoring robots.txt, but getting around it using Common Crawl.

• Who is actually losing traffic from AI overviews ... and who is actually gaining traffic.

• How publishers are making money by licensing their archives.

• Nextdoor News accounts and Reddit Pro tools for publishers.

• Third party cookies / Privacy Sandbox update and implications publishers.

• The email deliverability bar is getting higher.

• Looking to sell your media company? Buyers now expect a clear AI strategy.

Key links:

https://whatsnewinpublishing.substack.com/

https://about.nextdoor.com/publishers

https://www.business.reddit.com/blog/reddit-pro-for-publishers

https://collingwood.group/the-collingwood-market-report/

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/