Hi all, Lucinda Southern here, Adweek media editor. 

Safe to say most people will be happy to see the back of 2020. Not least embattled publishers who have faced multiple blows from canceled ad campaigns, decimated live events businesses, vendors defaulting on payments, virtual event commoditization… the list goes on.   

Despite ongoing hardships, publishing executives are looking towards brighter days in 2021, according to research by Adweek. Not only that, about 68% of respondents say they were either very or slightly optimistic about the year ahead. For the most part, publishers anticipate their business growth rate next year between 5% and 30%, with business-focused publishers more bullish on that amount.

We’re at that time of year where people like to make predictions—it amazes me after the year we’ve had people are still keen to share these—so the fact that execs are feeling, it would seem, more confident in their forecasting and calling when a semblance of normalcy will return, well, that can only be a good development.  

Check out the exclusive research, which was taken ahead of Adweek’s Elevate: Publishing event last week.   

I also want to point you towards David Cohen’s piece on Facebook Diem (née Libra). A changing cycle of members, name rebrand and watered down offer is, according to David’s reporting, in no way going to silence the critics already concerned about Facebook’s market dominance.

“They have a big fight on their hands,” Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor and Real Vision Group. Hear about its struggles and what more needs to happen before we're more formally paying for stuff via Facebook.

On that note, if you can, consider taking out an Adweek Pro Subscription to get access to all our reporting. 

Thanks for reading! Lucinda

Much has changed since the project was unveiled in June 2019.

Digital is a bright spot for an otherwise hard-hit advertising industry.

But most seasons, and bonus footage, will be restricted to the platform's Premium tier.

Creators on its platform have received over 5 billion Stars over the past year, netting them roughly $50 million.