David Arkin Consulting Blog

Imagine having ad units in your newsletter that advertisers sought out, got amazing click thru rates from and were sold out throughout this year. Can you actually imagine? That’s the experience for one publisher in Atlanta that I want to...

I’m seeing more and more useful examples where news organizations are using GPTs to make work faster and more efficient. GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers) offer media companies the chance to build workflows that help save time, generate ideas and boost...

There’s a lot swirling around the industry right now about what the future of search looks like. • Are keywords dead? • Is AI taking over search? • Will AI Overviews kill my traffic? • Where has my search traffic gone? There...

Are editor and publisher notes to readers still effective? They have been around for years and really had become a staple of the first few pages of magazines — both in local and national publications — but, are they still...

David Arkin Consulting is excited to announce the addition of Olivia Sims as its newest full-time Content Writer.  Olivia is the fourth team member to join the growing consulting firm since its inception not even three years ago. She brings...

As we roll into the start of summer, there are a host of ways you can create content that is both really useful for your readers but also ties to what Google prioritizes in their algorithm. Google continues to share...

Media companies have lots of tactics they use to help get branded content distributed, but is encouraging the advertiser to share the content, one of them? It definitely should be. It’s one of those low-hanging fruit opportunities that you can’t...

Have you noticed that Facebook is making a bit of a comeback for publishers?  There have been several stories over the last few weeks that have made mention that publishers’ content is showing up more and more in Facebook’s algorithm....

Graduation season is here and it’s a great time for media companies to create helpful content and showcase these major moments of life in their community. In today’s newsletter, I’m going to walk you through a handful of graduation ideas...

You may have written the most captivating story ever, but without the right headline — one that screams open me! — your story may never reach its full audience potential. That’s why understanding what makes a successful headline and the...

With Mother’s Day around the corner, now is the perfect time to make sure you have a content strategy in place that will engage and help your audience have a great time celebrating Mom. Here are five things to do...

Often when we are visiting with a publisher about their social media strategy, questions about LinkedIn inevitably come up. • Should our news organization be active on LinkedIn?• Should our staff be on it talking about/promoting coverage?• Do we need...

After you have run a branded content campaign for a few weeks, what information are you sharing with an advertiser? And most importantly, are they the right metrics? I’m going to spend some time in today’s newsletter going through the...

Why is my web traffic dropping? This is the most common question I get from publishers: Why is my traffic dropping and what can I do about it? It’s a multitude of things and reasons that are leading to drops...

With more than 250 confirmed cases of measles across several states as of March 2025, many of your readers may very well be wondering what to know and do. This isn’t a widespread infection at this point that’s impacting millions,...

Easter, spring break and Earth Day offer big reader engagement opportunities April is such a fun time of the year for families: The temperatures finally start to feel a little more spring like, flowers start to bloom and there are...

I recently had the opportunity to help host a Lunch & Learn on branded content for a room of 20 advertisers. It went so well, we’re already talking about doing it again in two months. Lunch & Learns are great...

There’s so much opportunity with e-editions Are e-editions still popular and important for media companies to offer? The answer is a hard yes but getting beyond just putting an interactive PDF out to your audience matters today. E-editions work because...

David Arkin Consulting has been selected to be part of the Local Media Consortium’s (LMC) Digital on Demand Services (DODS) program, offering media organizations a suite of services designed to enhance digital strategy, audience growth, branded content, revenue generation and...

There are some very interesting sponsorship opportunities media companies can offer brands that go way beyond ads on section fronts and logos on newsletters. You can offer advertisers the opportunity to be around content they love, share their message in...

The best branded content is always the most creative stuff. Those are the stories that the audience wasn’t expecting but were happily surprised with and the angles that never crossed an advertiser’s mind. I like to call these stories the...

What does it mean for a reporter to be “digital?” For The Albuquerque Journal’s Nakayla McClelland, it meant perfecting a host of new skillets that helped her think about the reader first, reach a wider audience and utilize the most...

I know I have spent a lot of time talking about the importance of Google and SEO but in 2025 you should be shifting some of that attention to search on social media. Why? Because it’s exploding, especially with younger...

Your mind is likely shifting to next year at this point, daydreaming a bit about all of the opportunities and possibilities that are before you. I will write a newsletter at the start of 2025 with some thoughts on the...

There’s been this interesting debate for years about some content not being local but still being relevant. The idea was that readers would still find value in content around things like recipes or parenting advice or home and garden tips,...