Sol Wise
ArtsHub, the art and culture news website, has survived almost a quarter of a century when its competitors were overwhelmed by the avalanche of social media.
The publisher, claiming the title of Australia’s longest-running independent, digitally native arts and culture website, says the key is maintaining trust and relevance in an evolving market.
Sol Wise, CEO of ArtsHub, identified the challenges for the publishing industry as “digital disruption, economic cycles and sector upheavals”.
The company has undergone several evolutions, from its inception in 2001 as DramaticOnline, to rebranding to ArtsHub in March 2003, and in 2007 was acquired by Simon Baker, the then CEO and managing director of the REA Group, the company behind realestate.com.au, and a group of investors.
In 2012, ArtsHub acquired Screenhub.com.au. In September 2021, it took control of gameshub.com.
Wise said he’s stayed “agile” by diversifying audiences and expanding revenue streams. The pillars of success have been a diversified customer base, adapting to technological changes, a team passionate about the creative industry, a supportive board and shareholders, and balancing the needs of various customer segments.
This has been key to out-living competitors and maintaining trust and relevance in the evolving market.
The company’s commitment to “championing creative communities” has remained the foundation.
“So really sticking to our core responsibility to the arts sector, and our mission to support and inform and actually champion creative communities, has been our constant,” he said.
Earlier this year, the company launched a network-wide membership offering which has boosted revenue growth.
“Deepening partnerships and really providing strategic, visible solutions for our new memberships,” he said.
“We were always trying to reinvent and improve our member proposition.
"So what we did is driven by our chief commercial officer, Melissa Mimi Curran, who's been great, and identifying packaging up some of our products for an all round, yearly offering.”
As the events and media industry started to “dry up” over the COVID shutdown, the team also had to rethink and expand other revenue streams.
“We invested in improving our value proposition around our subscriptions, because it was our subscriptions revenue together with obviously job keeper and a bit of shareholder support that got us through that period,” he said.
“It’s adjusting to them to meet the needs of the market, in terms of external economic factors, as well as trying to identify where we can lean harder into improving our value proposition for our customers, across memberships.
“So remaining agile in terms of seeing what's happening in the landscape in terms of business models and digital innovation has really helped us to remain relevant for our customers.”
ArtsHub expanded the revenue model beyond personal subscriptions, which in the early stages of the company, accounted for roughly 80%.
“So what the business has done over a period of time is diversified,” he said.
“It's business model, it's customer base, it's membership base, across, a diversification of subscriptions, as well as classifieds, as well as ad media, sponsored content, etc.”
He would reveal revenue numbers.
“What I can share with you is that now our four pillars -- media revenue, classified listings, organisation subscriptions and personal subscriptions -- roughly, would equate to four equal pillars of our total revenue.”
AI Mode has changed how websites once maintained relevance through search engine optimisation and keywords. While many are adapting strategy to prioritise generative engine optimisation, this is just the beginning of what’s to come.
“It's no longer just AI engine optimisation, right?” said Wise, “The second pillar is really just trying to understand and try and foresee and keep up with technological change.”
He warns of the “tipping point” of AI implementation, to either strengthen a business’ offerings or undermine its trust.
“You got to find that sweet spot between the absolute enabler that AI is and is presenting to be on so many different fronts.”
There have also been challenges from AI Mode on Google search. But quality will win.
“At the end of the day, what's going to become more important, and it’s certainly the narrative when I speak to a lot of other publishers, is that quality independent content is going to just increase in value.
“That's super important, because at the end of the day, you need to distinguish yourself between what AI can produce for the audience.”
Wise noted the dual nature of AI, calling it a “duble-edged sword”. For a large part, ArtsHubs' audience is job seekers and advertisers, who can benefit from using AI-powered data and optimisation to increase targeting for job listings.
“We sit on a lot of data and content that the arts sector provides us, so being able to surface those in better ways and more productive ways makes sense for us,” he said.
However, if over-used, or mis-used, it also threatens why audiences and customers turn to brands and publishers in the first place.
“AI is a double-edged sword. If you use it wisely, it can make significant improvements to the business on lots of fronts, but if you misuse it, certainly at the risk of blowing up trust in your own brand,” he said.
“And so we're moving carefully on that front, where we're looking at what's happening in the sector. We're looking at what some of the bigger publishers are doing, and educating ourselves in terms of where that's all going.
“We're certainly using AI to help with productivity across the business, and even in just introducing some of our products to assist our customers.
“So, for example, if you've got a customer that wants to create a job, being able to provide them with some of the smart tools and to help them in their productivity in producing ads on our platform, those sorts of things that we're investing to improve on in terms of our user experience and productivity of our customers and using our products."
He said publishers must maintain that transparency. He also backs human-creativity and skill, as many across the industry accelerate on AI integration.
“Transparency is going to be absolutely key,” he said.
“Because as I come back to that, ArtsHub has been around for 25 years for a number of reasons. That commitment to supporting artists in the sector adapts independence. It's a real belief in the transformation power of creativity.That’s the trust we've built over 25 years.”
Part of its strategic evolution has been investing in a multi-channel approach, through videos, podcasts, EDM’s and growth from social media.
“Our brand is represented across five or six different social media channels. It's represented by a website. It's helped represent it through our EDM campaigns, etc. Sojust try to maximise what you can get from the original content that your team produces, and be smart about how you can repurpose it and optimise it.”
“One channel to drive that allows us to really also meet the needs of our advertising customers.”
As for what’s next for the publisher, he said it’s a balancing act between taking on innovation to strengthen offerings and engagement and retaining the backbone of the creative sector. This is through human touch points, trust and authority. The company also benefits from being a digitally native company.
“For us, it's about grappling with the changes that are taking place now, and really looking to the future, which is all about innovation.
“It's about access and deeper connection. We're expanding how we're telling stories and how we support organisations and how we help our audiences discover the best in the Australian creative land. We've grown up in the sector, and the sector has rewarded us by being loyal.”
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