Pricey Readers, search engine marketing Professionals, and Digital Entrepreneurs,
Good day, I’m Jenise. I’ve been on the SEJ helm for 15 years, with Loren Baker and Brent Csutoras at my aspect as majority house owners and working companions.
Yesterday, I woke as much as a monumental piece of stories: search engine marketing information writer Search Engine Land was purchased by marketing tool company Semrush.
There’s an elephant within the room, so let’s begin there.
What occurs when a big search advertising and marketing business participant buys a distinguished media outlet centered on the search advertising and marketing business?
Will the writer’s protection stay goal and agnostic? Will its authoritative guides embrace the breadth and depth of instruments and platforms and providers accessible – a few of that are in direct competitors with Semrush?
What occurs to Search Engine Land’s reams and reams of present content material – articles, white papers, ebooks, movies – that seek advice from Semrush rivals (umm, to not point out their backlinks)?
What about credible viewpoints from revered authors that run counter to the brand new company occasion traces in a roundabout way? Will these voices nonetheless be revealed, amplified, quoted on SEL? Or watered down, and even silenced?
So many questions.
Group reactions, up to now, have been both of a benign, congratulatory nature or else centered on issues of bias.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, October 2024
Screenshot from X (Twitter), October 2024
Screenshot from LinkedIn, October 2024
Screenshot from X (Twitter), October 2024
Screenshot from X (Twitter), October 2024SEL and Semrush each have been energetic in responding on social media, reiterating that:
“Our plan is to proceed to stay unbiased and unbiased. Our aim is to supply high quality data as we at all times have.”
I do consider that these are their intentions for the present editorial workforce, for now.
I’m curious to see whether or not this independence will stand the check of time, after the mud has settled and the information of this acquisition is lining our digital fowl cages.
I’m curious about discovering out if SEL’s editorial freedom will stand the check of shareholder pursuits in an NYSE-traded firm that made $305 million in income final 12 months. I feel we might want to wait and see.
Right here’s The place Search Engine Journal Stands
As one of many final unbiased publishers within the search engine marketing business, SEJ stays bootstrapped and unbossed.
Nobody pulls SEJ’s strings, controls our backlinks, our protection, or our messaging.
That’s proper. SEJ is the honey badger of search engine marketing journalism: We report what we would like, after we need, how we would like.
SEJ continues to be dedicated to reporting the reality (properly, the reality till issues change with the algorithms) about what is occurring in search engine marketing and advertising and marketing.
SEJ continues to be dedicated to offering unbiased schooling and greatest practices for our readers.
A.ok.a. enterprise as common right here at SEJ.
Who Is Search Engine Journal In any case?
Our workforce of 26 of us world wide is made up of writers, editors, designers, technologists, the again workplace who maintain issues operating easily, gross sales operations. They make me so proud, if I’ll brag a little bit.
We encourage transparency, experimentation, accountability. We don’t tolerate workplace politics or poisonous conduct. I wish to assume we’re close-knit. We share, we cuss, we amuse one another with foolish memes. We’ve got laughed collectively and cried collectively.
Most significantly, when the sh* hits the fan, we pull collectively. We rally. We get gritty. Time and again. I ask the workforce to attempt once more, to enhance, to continue learning – they usually do it. And that’s when you realize you have an A-Team in your arms.
That’s the complete roster 😎. SEJ has no buyers. No company overlords. And we would like it that method.
Our independence has been difficult at instances. It might be good to have a company Daddy Warbucks who can “darken the skies with folks,” as certainly one of my favourite consultants appreciated to say.
And so it does give me pause when a rival writer is now backed by a multi-national firm with over 1,000 staff. That’s a monumental quantity of assets, firepower, and attain.
However through the years, SEJ’s independence has ensured our workforce’s means to supply 100% unbiased journalism and schooling for the search advertising and marketing neighborhood.
We do what we would like. And that is what I place confidence in: That our readers, our advertisers, our neighborhood will present what we must be a formidable David to this new Goliath.
I welcome your feedback, suggestions, and concepts to make Search Engine Journal what the search advertising and marketing neighborhood wants it to be now. Leave me a message here, and I promise to reply.
Jenise Uehara
CEO, Search Engine Journal
Featured Picture: Tanveer Anjum Towsif/Shutterstock
