Content delivery continues to evolve, but how has this changed the relationship between advertising and publishing?

Monetisation initially in the publishing world was simple: products were sold for money ot the end user, and income was generated by selling access to the audience to advertisers.

This was true for early newspaper publishing and early broadcast media.

Since that simple time, media agencies have sprung up to orchestrate the conversations between advertisers and publishers.

Space on the page was finite at this point in time, so advertising rates supported the industry.

Then web content was introduced, and the parameters changed.

Distributed content undermined traditional methods, as it generated more advertising revenue than content creation ever did.

But what's next for this tumultuous relationship?

With the limitations of the web being recognised by the publishing industry, will the industry itself go backwards? With a greater appreciation for the simple structure of the past?

Readers are still willing to pay for high quality content, and the popularity of ad-blocking.

Publishers may look to working closely with advertisers, to align brands and audiences through data collection, which may lead to readers only seeing advertisements that are interesting to them.