Google Changes Hit Catena Media Hard, CEO Cadena Says

Catena Media just published its Q1 results, reporting significant declines across the board. According to the affiliate company’s leadership, the suboptimal results can be attributed to the lackluster execution of the company’s business strategy and Google’s recent changes.

For context, the affiliate company’s revenue declined 49% to $17.2 million, while adjusted EBITDA plummeted to $2 million. To make matters worse, the number of new depositing customers experienced a reduction of 41% year-on-year. Whereas the company recorded 74,186 new customers in Q1 2023, it now recorded only 44,077.

As mentioned, the company said that these results were due to the recent search engine changes. The latest changes, for example, were announced in March, and seek to address site reputation abuse. Google sought to crack down on original content websites that abuse their reputation to promote what it defines as low-quality third-party content. According to Google, reputation abuse can result in low-quality content ranking higher than it should.

However, as an affiliate website, Catena has been “hit hard” by the recent string of changes.

Catena Is Working Hard to Adapt

As reported by EGR, Catena Media’s interim CEO, Pierre Cadena, said that the company is doing everything it can to bounce back. While Cadena agreed that the core updates seek to make Google more helpful and reliable to users, he explained that the recent changes have impacted Catena negatively.  

According to Cadena, the updates introduced between November 2023 and March 2024 have impacted Catena’s business very negatively. He said that his SEO and content teams are now trying to recuperate.

Cadena added that his team has been making some progress in adapting to the new rule set. However, he also noted that some sites and products are experiencing slower recovery than others. The interim CEO added that his team still has a lot of work to do.

Cadena said that the Catena Media team will continue to adapt to the changes and added that his team is more or less accustomed to dealing with such matters.

The Google search-related struggles come amid turbulent times for the affiliate giant. Catena Media has been experiencing significant leadership changes following the exit of CEO Michael Daly. The company recently picked Manuel Stan as its new CEO and proposed new board appointments ahead of its general meeting.