When Google announced it would not (for now) eliminate third-party cookies from Chrome, my immediate thought was about the consequences for the media sector. In recent years, publishers and journalists had been preparing for the so-called cookieless future, beginning to invest in advertising technology, proprietary data, paywalls, and contextual advertising. Now that Chrome will retain third-party cookies longer than expected, it is worth reflecting on what this means for Italian publishing models.
An Unexpected Reprieve: the Google Chrome Third-Party Cookie Case
Google originally planned to eliminate third-party cookies from Chrome in 2022, then postponed to 2023, and subsequently to the end of 2024. The latest announcement caught many by surprise: in practice, third-party cookies will remain active in Chrome through 2024 and beyond, pending the readiness and adoption of alternative Privacy Sandbox solutions. Google effectively chose to take more time rather than rush a technological revolution for which neither the advertising ecosystem nor publishers appear fully ready.
This postponement has significant implications. On one hand, publishers breathe a sigh of relief: behavioral advertising based on cookies will continue to function in the short term, avoiding a potential sudden drop in advertising revenue. On the other hand, Google’s about-face confirms that the transition to privacy-first models will be gradual. Those who had already invested in alternative solutions (first-party data, contextual targeting, mandatory logins, etc.) may find themselves momentarily ahead of the market, but certainly have no regrets: the trend toward greater user privacy is set to continue. In Europe, regulations such as GDPR and ePrivacy have already reduced the availability of third-party data, so the long-term strategy does not change: less dependence on third-party cookies and more focus on a direct relationship with the reader.
A Business Model Based on Third-Party Cookies (Increasingly at Risk)
For many Italian digital publishers, especially small and medium-sized ones, monetization has always depended heavily on programmatic advertising — the automated sale of ad inventory, often managed through Big Tech (Google above all). This model has for years guaranteed revenue through third-party cookies, small files that track users and enable targeted advertising across the web. It is not an exaggeration to say that third-party cookies have been the “fuel” of personalized online advertising: they underpin behavioral targeting and the very functioning of programmatic advertising. Not by chance, the programmatic advertising market in Italy has grown consistently despite the complexities and contractions of recent years, undermined by less-than-inspiring geopolitical scenarios. Many local and vertical news sites have lived off these cookie-based advertising revenues without developing genuinely alternative models. Yet this cookie-based ecosystem is at risk. Safari (Apple) and Firefox, for example, have been blocking them for some time.
Volatile Traffic: the Impact of Google’s Continuous Updates
Beyond the structural transformation in the advertising world, there is another factor that makes the Italian digital media system based on this model fragile: dependence on traffic from search engines — above all, for obvious reasons, Google. In recent years Google has released frequent Core Updates, often with disruptive effects on news site visits. Many outlets have seen significant fluctuations, up to and including outright traffic collapses from one month to the next.
These are sudden losses of audience that obviously translate into advertising revenue losses, since fewer users and pageviews mean fewer sellable impressions.
Added to this is the growing relevance of Google Discover — the personalized news feed that appears on mobile — which for many news outlets has surpassed, or has already surpassed, Search itself as a source of visits, accounting for 70-80% of traffic and reaching peaks of 90%. Discover can deliver avalanches of traffic when it “rewards” a piece of content, but its algorithmic functioning is even more volatile (which is why I often speak about the importance of following the methodology we have developed). Several editorial groups I work with personally have noted that Discover has become crucial and are optimizing their working methods to maximize this channel — but it still means playing on Google’s turf, by rules set by others.
A recent Google experiment highlighted in an almost provocative way how dependent publishers are on Big G traffic. Between late 2024 and early 2025, Google ran a test in several countries (Italy included), removing for a small sample of users all news results from its platforms (Search, News, Discover). Italian publishers, faced with this temporary “shutdown,” raised the alarm: it was proof of how severely they would be penalized if Google decided to cut them off. Commentators read it as a not-so-subtle message from Mountain View: look at how much traffic (and money) you could lose if the relationship with Google were to sour. In fact, by the numbers, the test suggested declines in active news users of several percentage points after just a few days. In other words, Google reminded publishers of the weight it carries in funneling readers to their sites — a power that some have described as almost coercive. This episode, combined with the impact of Core Updates, further underlines the fragility of many Italian online media models: overly dependent on third-party platforms for visibility and traffic.
What does this mean in concrete terms for domestic publishers? It means that those who have lived entirely off hyper-targeted advertising will need to reinvent themselves. Without third-party tracking data, alternative approaches will be favored: for example, investing in first-party data (proprietary data collected with user consent through logins, newsletters, surveys, etc.) and in forms of contextual advertising or interest-based advertising. It is no coincidence that there is so much discussion of data management and cookieless solutions: advertisers are already experimenting with new identifiers and technologies (Google itself is pushing its Privacy Sandbox with APIs for aggregate targeting). However, many small and medium-sized Italian publishers find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, because they do not have the technical teams or user databases comparable to the giants. Many of them risk an initial drop in advertising revenue — some estimates (at a global level) suggest potentially -50% in revenues without third-party cookies — if they do not prepare in time with alternative solutions. It is therefore essential to act now: consolidate the direct relationship with one’s audience, diversify revenue streams, and capitalize on one’s readership.
Alternative Monetization Models
Faced with the cookie crisis, publishers are moving in new directions to monetize their content. A well-trodden path is that of subscriptions and memberships, which allow occasional readers to be converted into loyal, paying users by offering premium content or exclusive benefits. Interest is also growing in dynamic paywalls — variable access to free content based on user behavior — to find the right balance between free audience and paying readers. Many publishers are simultaneously rediscovering the value of contextual advertising, where ads adapt directly to the content of the page, reducing the need to profile individual users while still ensuring effectiveness in a privacy-first environment.
To compensate for the loss of cookie data, the use of first-party data is gaining ground: information collected directly from readers through registrations, newsletters, and direct interactions, fundamental for building a stable and lasting relationship with the audience. Another strong reason to implement strategies for becoming genuine brands.
Among the most advanced technological solutions are Data Clean Rooms — virtual spaces where publishers and advertisers can cross-reference data securely and in anonymized form — and universal identifiers, new standards for identifying users without compromising their privacy.
An interesting trend involves new attention metrics that measure actual user engagement (reading time, ad viewability), rewarding editorial quality and offering a valid alternative to cookies.
Finally, we push many publishers to focus on developing special projects. These tailor-made editorial solutions represent today a fundamental lever for maximizing the value of one’s audience, generating new revenue, and establishing strategic partnerships with advertisers.
Selling special projects allows publishers to better monetize the relationship with their audience, rather than depending exclusively on traffic volumes. The shift is from selling advertising space to selling the value of one’s readers. A well-executed special project is worth far more economically than a few million programmatic impressions: because the brand pays for a quality context, for the association with the publisher’s content, for more direct reader involvement. And these projects often develop cross-media (on the site, on the publisher’s social channels, via email, perhaps also in print or at live events), maximizing their impact.
Running through all these new monetization models is a common thread: the growing attention users pay to their own privacy. Regulations such as GDPR in Europe have radically changed the approach to personal data handling, making cookie-based and invasive tracking profiling increasingly complex and delicate.
Users today are more aware and attentive to controlling their data, and this compels publishers and advertisers to develop strategies that respect that privacy to the greatest possible extent. It is not merely a matter of regulatory compliance, but of rethinking the relationship with the reader in terms of trust and transparency.
A New Equilibrium to Build
The good news is that the sector shows vitality and capacity for adaptation. Italian publishers, even small and medium-sized ones, are becoming aware of the intrinsic value of their audience and seeking to capitalize on it in new ways. Audience development increasingly passes through building direct relationships (first-party data, community) and through creativity in the commercial offering. Tailor-made special projects for brands are the clearest example: they generate more revenue, more loyalty, and differentiate the editorial offering. Of course, there is no magic solution that works for everyone — the transformation journey depends on the nature of each outlet, its niche, and its audience — but the direction of travel is shared.
On this journey, it is essential to maintain a balance: innovating without losing one’s identity. The risk is of chasing commercial opportunities too aggressively and losing sight of one’s editorial mission or the trust of readers. The challenge is instead to integrate brand projects in a way that is coherent with the outlet’s editorial line and values, so that credibility is not undermined — but rather strengthened, if the special content is of high quality. The publisher of the near future will need to be part technologist (to manage data and privacy), part commercial strategist (to invent new revenue formulas), and, as always, a reliable storyteller for their community of readers.
Ultimately, today’s difficulties can be seen as an opportunity to rethink outdated models and build a more resilient and sustainable Italian digital publishing sector. It is a reflection I share aloud, as a colleague within the industry: it takes courage to change course, but the data shows it is an obligatory path. Those who manage to evolve — by capitalizing on the distinctive value of their audience and reducing toxic dependencies on external factors — are laying the foundations for thriving in the new media ecosystem that is taking shape. And perhaps, in the long term, this will lead to a healthier relationship with OTT platforms and users alike, one in which quality content and reader communities return to center stage.
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