Digital ad revenues continue to be swallowed up by big tech giants, while publishers still need to rely somewhat on platforms for reach. Publishers have an air of realism despite the challenging conditions and looking to non-ad revenue streams like subscriptions and commerce to protect their businesses. In Milan, Italy, 150 publishers gathered at Digiday's Publishing Summit Europe this week to discuss their growing reader revenue strategies, difficulties with attracting and keeping talent and the changing programmatic landscape. How to convince readers to pay"As premium publishers, we've made a huge mistake in allowing consumers to believe they can consume content for free. I can have the biggest brand but still be competing with all the content for free online. Two years ago, we gave away content on Facebook Instant Articles; it increased traffic but revenue was significantly cannibalized." "It doesn't matter how cheap it is, €1 or £1; if you're not using it there's no value. Subscriptions sound more transactional; memberships are more inclusive." "Reconciling members versus subscriptions, some of our sites have really hardcore tech readers, that can lead to a level of toxicity. We need to balance subscribers and members and building a community people want to engage in." Getting tech talent to stick"We aren't the Googles of the world. We're publishers. Keeping talented tech people is a challenge. I hear the story all the time: How can we be innovative in publisher technology? But you can't keep people just with money alone." Read more