The Relationship Status of Publishers and the Duopoly: It's Complicated

Why they're growing skeptical of Facebook and Google

An interview with:
Michael Zimbalist
Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer
Philadelphia Media Network

There's some tension between publishers and the internet's biggest behemoths. Michael Zimbalist, chief strategy and innovation officer at the Philadelphia Media Network—which operates Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News—spoke with eMarketer’s Yory Wurmser about the challenges publishers face when working with the duopoly, and the problems Facebook and Google have to solve. Zimbalist was interviewed as part of eMarketer’s June report, "Mobile Time Spent 2018: Will Smartphones Remain Ascendant?"

eMarketer:

The Columbia Journalism Review recently published research that showed that several large publishers have stopped using Facebook’s Instant Articles. What's driving this?

Michael Zimbalist:

I was at The New York Times when Instant Articles rolled out and was very much involved with it. Facebook's original intent was to create a better user experience, and there are page speed improvements with Instant Articles. But now there's the same opportunity with Google AMP [Accelerated Mobile Pages], so there's that competitive factor in the market.

Interview conducted on April 27, 2018

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