Category results for "Industry-Research"

Industry Research

Older listeners are as likely to pay to avoid ads as they are to stop listening altogether

May 16, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Consumers value access to ad-supported content when they feel that there’s a fair trade between the content and advertising. The study, “Consumer Sensitivity to Audio Advertising: A Field Experiment on Pandora Internet Radio,” examines the balance in this relationship. Specifically, the research analyzes the correlation between the number of advertising breaks, the number of ads, and content consumption. While Pandora sells display, video, and audio advertising, this study focuses on audio ads. Today most of Pandora’s advertising revenue is generated from audio advertising.

Jason Huang, David Reiley, and Nickolai M. Riabov created an experimental design using more than 30 million Pandora listeners. The design included nine test groups (1% of listeners) and a control group (10% of listeners). Each test group received either three, four or six ad interruptions per hour. And each interruption was comprised of either 1, 1.5, or 2 ads. By varying these two dimensions, the research assessed whether listeners prefer more commercial interruptions or longer commercial interruptions. The control group received Pandora’s normal advertising experience: four interruptions with 1.5 ads per interruption. The level of audio advertising remained consistent for each test group for the 21-month duration of the research.

Quantity Matters

The findings identify aclear relationship between the quantity of hours listened and the number of audio ads per hour. Interestingly, the number of commercial interruptions per hour showed little impact on listening behavior. Reactions in the test groups in the final month support these findings.

The findings identify a clear relationship between the quantity of hours listened and the number of audio ads per hour. Interestingly, the number of commercial interruptions per hour showed little impact on listening behavior.

Results across all nine test groups included:

A 41% percent decline in the number of active Pandora listeners,
A 41% decline in the number of days per active Pandora listener, and
An 18% decline in the number of hours per active Pandora listener.

Of the three reactions, the most common (82%) reaction involves a decline in listeners or listening sessions.

Age Impact

Further, the decline in demand for Pandora’s ad-supported product that was triggered by an increase in ads suggests a potential opportunity to transition consumers to an ad-free alternative. The findings show that the correlation is highly significant and increases the older the consumer. Therefore, the probability of leaving Pandora entirely due to an increase in ad load decreases with age. It turned out that older consumers were just as likely to switch to an ad-free paid subscription as they were to leave the Pandora service entirely.

Huang, Reiley, and Riabov use of an experimental design allows for a better understanding of causal relationships. Each independent variable, the number of ad interruptions and the number of ads per interruption, is important to evaluate. Examining the impact of the independent variables and the correlation with listening time (the dependent variable) offers a dynamic learning environment. Interplay between the elements identifies the variable impacting a change in behavior.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Why being more transparent about data may make your ads more effective

May 9, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

As Microsoft founder Bill Gates said this week, “People don’t mind having a little bit of demographic information about themselves used to target ads. That’s value added to the user.” When data is clearly used to improve the relevance of the ads consumers see, it can improve their overall experience.

Unfortunately, the amount of data collected and the myriad ways in which it is used are opaque to most consumers. And, when they get a glimpse behind the curtain, (as with Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica dealings) consumers grow mistrustful of data collection—and even online advertising—as a whole.

However, it is possible that if consumers are more informed on the tracking process and what’s going on behind the scenes, advertising would be more effective and impactful. This is what Tami Kim, Kate Barasz, and Leslie John examine in their study, “Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The Effect of Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness” published recently in the Journal of Consumer Research. Their research analyzes the impact of ad transparency on ad effectiveness.

Today, some websites and advertisers are informing users (albeit in a limited fashion) about what they are tracking and their data practices. Some sites may display an adChoices icon that indicates an ad is targeted based on user characteristics. Consumers can find out why the ad is being displayed to them by clicking on the icon. Other websites are alerting visitors, upon first visits, of their tracking user software and practices (e.g., cookies).

The Ad Transparency Effect

Kim, Barasz, and John conducted five studies using the Facebook platform. They analyzed the findings to identify the core dimensions of ad transparency needed to positively impact ad effectiveness.

Study 1 allows consumers to select acceptable tracking methods from a pre-defined list. The analysis identifies two important ad tracking practices consumers find acceptable: 1) the information is obtained from tracking within the site and not outside of it; and 2) the information (attributes) is provide by the consumer and not inferred by the site.

Study 2 tests the effectiveness of revealing data tracking practices within a site versus across-websites. Participants are shown an ad. Then, they are shown either no information or messaging as to why they are seeing this ad (message a: the ad has been generated based on user information obtained within the platform or message b: the ad has been generated either based on information obtained cross-platform). The results from Study 2 confirms that transparency messaging increases ad effectiveness especially when it reveals the information is obtained within the platform and not from cross-website tracking.

Study 3 examines the impact of revealing a targeted ad is based on stated attributes versus inferred attributes. Participants are shown an ad and then given one of two messages (message a: the ad is generated based on information stated by the consumer or message b: the ad is generated based on information inferred by the site). Results for Study 3 indicate that privacy concerns are higher in the inferred attributes and detracts from advertising effectiveness.

Study 4 looks at the role trust plays in a site’s data transparency and its impact on ad effectiveness. The results of this study indicate that users who trust a site are more likely to engage with an ad that offers ad transparent messaging than those sites they distrust.

Study 5A and 5B explore the impact of ad effectiveness when there’s both trust of a site and ad transparent messaging. Study 5A divides consumers into two groups, half are assigned to a loyalty program (higher trust of site) and the other half to a non-loyalty program (no trust of site). Personal information was obtained transparently from the loyalty program consumer group.

This study found consumers are more willing to click on recommended items, spend more time, and purchase more when they both trust the platform. They will also provide their own data (attribute information). Study 5B includes two additional consumer groups and offers messaging regarding shared or inferred user attributes. Message group one: Recommended based on what you’ve shared with us (implies data user provides). And message group two: Recommended (implying the data is inferred about the user). Study 5B reveals that consumers are more likely to have a higher propensity to click on recommended items if they state their attributes than those targeted based on inferred attributes.

Kim, Barasz, and John’s research is an important step to understand how consumers’ readiness to engage with digital ads is affected by their awareness of the data practices used to deliver such ads. Ad transparency messaging is a critical step to increase advertising effectiveness on your site.

Industry-Research

How these 5 reading behaviors predict audience engagement

May 2, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Digital media offers publishers new opportunities to better understand audience engagement. Using post-click measures within an article page of the client-side logging system provides insights into audience preferences and retention. Nir Grinberg, a research fellow at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science together with the Northeastern’s Lazer Lab, reports on new post-click user engagement measures. His report, Identifying Modes of User Engagement with Online News and Their Relationship to Information Gain in Text, identifies metrics that will help publishers anticipate how long a reader will stay with an article and improve the recommendation process for new content.

Grinberg’s analyzes 7.7 million-page views from Chartbeat data on seven different news publications with articles across finance, how to, magazine (longer-form), science, sports, technology, and women.

Grinberg enlists three core metrics in his study:

dwell time (an estimate of the total time a user spends on a page)
scroll depth (the furthest position the user reaches on the page)
page interaction (the amount of interaction with the page through any form of input such as touch, mouse move, etc.).

His first step is to project the modes of behavior present in the individual page views. Then, he uses this information to predict the common behaviors of a larger audience. Identifying the modes can enable publishers and recommendation system to distinguish between different forms of reading, scanning and other lighter forms of engagement.

More Metrics

While Grinberg valued the original three metrics, he finds the information they provide limiting. His next step combines and correlates the original metrics with new measures. For example, he analyzes the proportion of an article that is visible on a user’s screen (relative depth) with how quickly a user scrolls through the visible part of the page (average scrolling speed).

Combining these two measures provides information about an overall navigation experience throughout an article. This information also allows recommendations systems to distinguish between audiences reading, scanning and other lighter forms of engagement. Based on these findings, Grinberg’s classifies reading behavior into five types: “Scan,” “Read,” “Read (long),” “Idle,” and “Shallow” (plus bounce backs for users who get to a page and almost immediately leave). This offers insight into the variety of reading behaviors and the level of engagement present when a user is consuming content.

As an example, the chart above reflects the relationship between different reading behaviors and their levels of engagement. The top right panel shows that the median article on a sports site has about 28% of page views that are scanning the article. The percentage is considerably higher than the rate of scanning in the other content categories. This suggests that people consume sports articles with a different intent, perhaps simply looking for quick games scores and/or result of a sporting event. This data helps characterize the likely user behaviors and intent of the page view and factors into content recommendations.

Information Gain

In addition to user behaviors, Grinberg identifies a measure that he calls “Semantic Information Gain” (SIG), the flow of information on a page. SIG captures how quickly an article moves toward its final point, It can be very helpful for publishers to use to see if or where a reader gets lost in an article. SIG can be highly predictive of audience engagement.

Practical and informative measures of post-click user engagement can improve recommendations of news content and enable more informed editorial decisions. Distinguishing between different modes of engagement with an article, such as scan, skim, or in-depth reading, can enable recommendation systems to better match articles with potential readers based on their engagement profile.

Industry-Research | Perspectives | Revenue

3 questions to ask your data when evaluating a paywall

April 30, 2018 Clare Carr, Vice President of Marketing—Parse.ly

While the digital publishing world seems enamored with direct reader revenue lately, here’s a quick reminder that it is difficult to ask people to pay for something that used to be free. And there are a lot of decisions that go into setting up a successful program such as determining the threshold for a free article limit, deciding on a call-to-action, and identifying the right people at the right time.

We wanted to understand the existing subscription model landscape, so we analyzed 1,870 domains in the Parse.ly network. Just under one third (29%) use some type of paywall. The majority of those use some type of membership paywall or a metered/partial paywall. And barely 2% of our entire network deploy a full paywall.

If you’re considering moving from that 71% group into the reader revenue group, you probably have a number of questions, starting with: is this the right move? Other big things to consider include: Who should be seeing your call to action? And what’s the ideal “free article” limit?

Parse.ly’s Head of Audience Development Solutions, Kelsey Arendt, encourages clients to find the answers in data for these three questions when evaluating which paywall method makes the most sense for your site.

What subset of my audience are “super-users”?

Super-users are your most consistent and reliable audience. They appreciate your content and they trust you. That makes the valuable as a target group for a paywall call-to-action and as an exclusive audience for premium advertising partners or for VIP offers.

Selecting the right paywall method hinges on an understanding of audience loyalty distribution. To determine whether you have a sufficiently-monetizable subset of loyal superusers, ask yourself:

How often do my visitors read?
How engaged are they each time they visit?

Reader frequency and article engagement help you decide what the cut-off for your call-to-action to subscribe should be, whether it’s a paywall after five free articles or 10.

To illustrate this, we took a look at a sample of aggregated data from the Parse.ly network. Seventy percent of the audience to these sites visit a single website four times or less per month. They also read less than 10 articles per month. Said another way, those readers would not be affected at all if a site implemented a metered-paywall with a limit of 10 free articles a month.

The promising opportunity lies with the other 30%. Take one of the smallest groups, the 3% of the audience who visit a single website nine times per month or more. This loyal group can, and should, be identified if they are the ones who are most likely to convert into subscribers.

Imagine a moment when you walk into your favorite store, the one you go to all the time and where they know you. If someone tells you that they have something special for you, you tend to trust them and consider their offer. Audiences that have made it to that “circle of trust” for your site, might be more receptive to the idea of a paid membership model, thus increasing your chance of converting them.

What content belongs behind a paywall?

Another way of asking this question is: What content resonates with your super-users? To find out, consider the sections or topics your most loyal audience already loves. Figure out what your most loyal audiences pay the most attention to and consider making one of your premium offerings.

Measuring total engaged time reveals the content that resonates the most with readers. Total engaged minutes encompasses both breadth and depth. The team at Slate focuses on engaged time for exactly this reason.

Am I adding value for my readers?

While you have to examine the data behind the potential audience and what they’re most interested in, you should also ask yourself what else you can offer them.

The reason why readers subscribe will always come down to your unique voice and your brand. But as much as people like your content, they also value their time. So, any moment with them must either add value to their life or come at the right time.

There are so many ways to add value to a membership or subscription model. A few that have been explored: exclusive benefits, an ad-free experience, discounted events, direct input into editorial, or VIP access. But don’t limit yourself to what you’ve seen. Maybe your audience would sign up in exchange for a book of coupons to local stores or for an exclusive app download that made them more efficient with their time.

Ask not what your readers can do for you—ask what you can do for your readers.

Paywalls: Not always the perfect solution

At the end of the day, if you want your readers to pay attention to your work, you need to pay attention to their needs and interests. Data can help you understand whether a subscription model might work, and how to get your subscription offer in front of the right people at the right time.

And what if the data shows that paywalls don’t make sense? Paywalls, meters, and memberships are just a few methods of monetization. Even if you can successfully monetize that 3% of super-users, you’ll still need to explore other revenue options.

The other 97% of your audience can still help you generate other types of revenue, like native advertising, merchandise, or advertising. And of course, data can help you find opportunities for those options too.

Industry-Research

Bots are busy on Twitter, where non-human activity is common

April 25, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Bots are software applications that typically run repetitive and easily-automated tasks. You can find bots posting content or interacting with users online without any human involvement. They are a valuable tool, often employed to answer questions and post updates to articles. However, there’s also a dark side to bots. Their malicious behaviors include the ability to spread fake news and influence online rating and review systems.

According to the Pew Research Center’s new research, Bots in Twittersphere, bots (be they”good” or”bad”) create 66% of all tweeted links across all web content and among popular news and current event websites, respectively. Bot percentages are even higher (89%) among popular aggregation sites that compile stories from around the web. Interestingly, a small number of highly active bots are responsible for a significant share of links to known news and media sites.

The Pew study analyzed 2,315 of the most popular websites, examining a random sample of 1.2 million tweets over six weeks in the summer of 2017. To identify the bots, Pew used the Botometer, a tool created at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. The Botometer estimates the likelihood that any given account is automated.

Analyzing bot traffic is a prevalent research topic with several noted academic reports in the marketplace. One study from the University of Indiana and the University of Southern California, Online Human-Bot Interactions: Detection, Estimation, and Characterization, estimates up to 15% of all Twitter accounts are bots and another study from Rice University, Hunting Malicious Bots on Twitter: An Unsupervised Approach, estimates up to 23%. The Pew analysis focuses on the content of the tweets to understand the proportion of bot links, many of which refer to sites outside of Twitter.

It’s not surprising that automated accounts provide links to a higher-than-average number of sites without a public contact page. Lacking a contact page, omits the opportunity for reader feedback that provides an opportunity for corrections or additional reporting. This can sometimes be an indicator of malicious bots directing users to fake content sites.

Intriguingly, automated Twitter accounts share a larger volume of links, 57% to 66%, from sites that are more centrist and an ideologically mixed. The analysis does not show that automated accounts are politically biased toward liberal or conservative in their overall link-sharing. Bot accounts share approximately 41% of links to political sites of liberal audiences and 44% to political sites of conservatives.

Social media makes it easy for automated accounts to create content and interact with users with no direct human involvement. It’s seamless and usually undetectable to the user. Bot accounts play an important part in the social media ecosystem. The provide automated news updates, answering questions and offering immediate feedback and more. Nevertheless, what impact do bots have on the user experience? Additional Twitter research is needed to focus on bot engagement. Understanding to what degree bot accounts engage users and to what degree bot accounts, when combined with human-sourced accounts, impacts engage offers insight into the complete user experience on Twitter.

Industry-Research

Meeting connected consumer digital expectations

April 18, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Digital devices, especially mobile devices, give greater control to consumers whose expectations are high and constantly evolving, according to INMA’s new report “How the Connected Consumer Is Redefining News Media.” Once individuals experience a positive interaction or service with a brand on their mobile device, they expect other brands to provide similar offerings. Unfortunately, this presents a challenge for publishers because so many of these interactions and/or services are not necessarily set by media companies. Publishers now compete with expectations set by Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, brands that often deliver positive consumer experiences in searching, shopping and connecting.

Therefore, publishers need to rethink how they engage with their audience. Consumers are more digitally connected (and less physically connected) and this constant connection to content can lead to information overload. The INMA’s research suggests that publishers can better meet the connected audience’s expectations and digital relationship by employing “connected marketing” strategies. The approach includes two core principles:

Create, develop, and maintain a brand that recognize the needs of the connected individual.
Strive to merge and coordinate the physical, digital, sensorial, and emotional experiences to best meet the needs of connected individuals.

The brand is sum of total experiences. Connected individuals are looking for ease, engagement, interactivity, experience, and control – all in real time. Basically, they expect to connect with the publisher wherever and whenever.

Publishers should also think about targeting users outside of traditional audience segments and demographics. New audience targeting segments should include more custom and personal audience slices. Additional helpful strategies include:

Build a deeper audience understanding

Understand short-form or long-form content consumption the audience seeks.
Identify your content’s unique offering for each user segment.
Know what they content they are looking for on mobile – app, search, etc.

Understand audience commonalities

Find the commonalities among audiences. Connected consumers expect to be able to choose the frequency and depth of their involvement.

Develop connection points

Allow the audience to comment or even create content.
Help in their content discovery.
Build their understanding of issues through content that helps answers questions.
Help them shape opinions through content that provides options and different opinions.
Allow them to share content they value.

Digital devices present new ways for content offerings to be even more essential to the connected user’s day-to-day life. Publishers must work to simplify the user experience and serve content the audience values. Connected marketing strategies allow publishers to strategically use data, personalization and content discovery to simplify through commonalities, build understanding and and leverage the value of journalism.

Industry-Research | Innovation

Local TV news looks to digital for innovation

April 11, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

When one thinks of local news, the immediate distribution points that come to mind are local TV, local newspapers and local radio. According to the Knight Foundation’s new research, Local TV News and the New Media Landscape, Local TV news is the most profitable one. Local newspapers are on shaky ground, continually losing circulation (and advertising dollars) and local radio is holding its own. However, it is significant to note that local TV news stations are looking to digital for innovative ways to tell their stories and to attract new audiences.

The Knight Foundation cites findings from the Radio Television Digital News Association Annual Survey that 65% of station innovations are focused on digital platforms. The other innovative areas include technical (17%), alternative approaches to newscast presentations (14%) and new organizational structures (4%). Clearly, local TV news is building a digital presence.

Online Innovation

An important strategy for local TV news is the digital first approach. Many local stations are broadcasting their content, especially bigger projects, first on digital platforms before on air. This type of strategy shifts focus on audiences and where they want to access their content.

Further, more than three-quarters (78%) of TV news directors report putting new and important content online now. Their strategies include:

Moving newscasts online: More newscasts available online or conducting live events online.
Web-only content: Local TV news stations are also creating content specifically designed for web and mobile platforms.
Leveraging digital to improve storytelling: Stations are experimenting with user generated content for new POVs and storytelling opportunities.
Developing new properties for younger audiences: Stations are also developing digital assets to target younger adult,

Social Media Strategy

In terms of attracting a younger audience, 55% of local TV news stations are emphasizing social media. Fifteen percent are pushing specific social platforms or features (e.g. Facebook Live, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and others). Additional efforts also include content creation on digital social platforms targeted toward millennials.

Knight’s social media analyses indicates digital strategies are paying off for many stations in terms of reach and audience engagement. Further, in a content analysis of more than 1,100 posts (on human interests, entertainment, politics, public policy, etc.) for four stations with the highest engagement levels shows increases when social media components are added.

Efforts on social media are paying off and ratings are highest on local news stations when there’s activity on social media. This suggests that the content on social media is additive and not necessarily replacing the local station as an access point of information. Still, local news stations need to find a balance in using social media to find audiences and deliver news.

Advertising | Industry-Research

In good company: Advertising context matters

April 4, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Marketers are concerned about brand safety and focused on investing their media dollars wisely to ensure that their ads are seen in a good environment. And rightly so. A new Australian study from Galaxy Research, The Company You Keep, provides insight into consumers views on trust in relation to the media and advertising they consume.

The framework of Galaxy’s study was the Adtrust Matrix, academic research published in 2009. The Adtrust Matrix is a recognized set of dimensions and elements used to measure trust in advertising. It includes four key characteristics, which breakdown further into 20 attributes:

Reliability: honest, truthful, credible, reliable, dependable, accurate, factual, complete and clear
Usefulness: valuable, good, useful and helps people make the best decisions
Affect: likeable, enjoyable and positive
Willingness to rely on: willing to consider the ad-conveyed information when making purchase-related decisions, willing to rely on ad-conveyed information when making purchase-related decisions, willing to make important purchase-related decisions based on ad-conveyed information and willing to recommend the product or service that I have seen in ads to my friends or family

In total, almost 3,000 Australians adults rated the content and ads against the 20 Adtrust characteristics across Newspapers (National, Metro, Regional, Community), Television, Radio, Magazines, Cinema, Outdoor, Digital news media (newspaper-based websites and apps), Social, Search and Any (other) websites.

Net Trust

The research findings identify newspapers as the medium scoring the greatest in consumer trust in advertising, followed by cinema, radio, magazines and digital news media. Further, the study shows social media scores lowest in consumer trust in advertising.

The Galaxy research finds a high correlation between trust in advertising and the content experienced in the same environment. The consumer scores offer a strong link between the content experience and the advertising experience. An overall high degree of trust in advertising occurs where there is a positive net trust in content. An overall low degree of trust in advertising occurs when there is negative net trust in content.

These findings were similar to those from DCN’s research study, Trust as a Proxy for Brand Value, which also found a high correlation between consumers trust in content and their trust in ads in the same environment. In the DCN study, consumers scored branded sites high for trust in advertising while social media scored the lowest in trust for advertising. Both studies confirm that greater trust in content leads to greater trust in ads.

Trust Drives Purchases

Importantly, the Galaxy research also shows greater trust in ads yields greater purchase intent. In fact, 50% of respondents agree that the more they trust an ad, the more likely they are to buy the product/service.

The Galaxy research finds once again that the environment, or context, in which the ads appear, has an impact on the ads receptivity and effectiveness. It reaffirms the value and importance of working with trusted publishers in the marketplace.

Industry-Research

10 big trends impacting news and media

March 21, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Consolidation across the media continues in 2018 as does business decentralization according to the Future Today Institute’s 11th Annual Tech Trends Report. This year, the Institute identified 225 trends and examined how these changes and new technologies might impact the marketplace in 2018 and 2019.

Here are 10 trends that will affect the news and entertainment media:

Natural Language Generation (NLG): a processing task where computers generate the language humans use in a different situation. NLG can rewrite content for all different types of readers. News organizations can create different versions of the same story for different audiences based on educational and reading level. The facts (data) remain the same but the vocabulary would be modified based on each of target audiences.
Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR): an investigative journalism technique. Reporters find public records and documents to mine. Using machine learning algorithms can analyze the data to help find hidden storylines.
Voice interfaces: Siri, Google Now, Amazon’s Alexa and others will soon offer more than one set of facts and opinion on a topic. There is emerging research into using voice interfaces to help professionals understand different sides of a discussion or argument.
Audio search engines: These are essential as podcasts continue to grow in popularity especially as a new platform for news commentary. Several companies are working to off audio in a searchable manner.
Niche publications, podcasts and digital content and AR: Augmented Reality integrations are expected soon in these different content offerings.
Software as a Service: in this licensing and delivery model, users pay for on-demand access. Offering access to systems that automatically generate reports using news organizations’ archives and databases can create a new revenue stream.
Immersive storytelling: Storytellers started producing stories built specifically for immersive environments. Publishers are experimenting now with POV storytelling templates and story formats specifically developed for new technologies.
Fake news: While Facebook and Twitter promise to curtail bot-generated content operations on their platform, fake news continues to spread. Unfortunately, in 2018, little success is anticipated. In fact, as social media companies experiment with improved ways to stop the spread of fake news, more problems and potentially more fake news stories continue social platforms.
Limited-edition news products: these offer an opportunity to provide audiences with temporary podcasts, newsletters, chatbots, and text messages about topics like weather events, big sports games and elections. They also provide a unique opportunity for revenue, audience engagement and data collection.
Historical preservation: Efforts to protect and safeguard historical digital news records are growing. Identifying the policies for record retention and backups needs to be addressed as an industry.

Several of the trends identified suggest new opportunities to drive change and increase revenues. Publishers that lean in to these possibilities can transform trends into growth.

Industry-Research

Understanding the science of fake news so we can fix the problem

March 14, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Fake news has a long history in media. Propaganda has been around as long as there have been sides of a story to spin. Even though journalists set their goals on objectivity and credibility, propaganda still makes its way into media coverage. Now with the Internet, it’s easy to quickly access and disseminate false information. Add to that the fact that social platforms amplify homogeneous opinions, whether they are true or not. And let’s face it: People do little to correct falsehoods in their closed social echo-chambers.

Today fake news is a global concern. And it is helpful to explore the mechanics of fake news (the mechanism that put it in place). New research, “The science of fake news,” from Professor Matthew Baum from the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor David Lazer from Northeastern University, offers insight into how the Internet spreads false content and how citizens process the news and information they consume.

Definition

The report defines fake news in terms of process, “information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent.” Fake news intersects both misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation (false information that is purposely spread to deceive people). Importantly, the definition speaks to the absence of the editorial process, especially the practice of accuracy and credibility that differentiates fake news from credible.

Estimates

There are inconclusive estimates to how prevalent fake news is today in social media. One estimate circulating states that approximately one to three stories per month were fake prior to the 2016 elections. Facebook claims less than one percent of its civic content shared on its platform is fake. Some estimate that nine to 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots and that there are 60 million bot accounts on Facebook that share fake news. The wide-ranging estimates highlight the lack of collaboration between social platforms and academics, which is required to clearly define the scope of the problem.

Interventions

Baum and Lazer identify two categories of potential interventions to prevent fake news:

empowering individuals to evaluate the fake news they encounter, and
creating structural changes on social platforms aimed at preventing exposure of users to fake news in the first instance.

Empowering users to question false news is not so easy. Baum and Lazer cite outside academic research showing that people do not question the credibility of information unless it violates their preconceptions. Since people on social media tend to align with others with similar beliefs in their community, they question little. In fact, once concern is that individuals fact-checking context, may increase their likelihood of accepting the information as true and share it, when in fact it is not.

There is also evidence, experimental and survey research, that confirms that the perception of truth increases when misinformation is repeated. Even if the misinformation is paired with an effective retraction, it is still often viewed as being true. Teaching individuals to be critical-thinkers, especially when using social media, may assist in preparing students to ask questions about the credibility of the content and sources.

In terms of interventions, the platforms can implement policies and technologies to deter the spread of fake news. The inclusion of quality sources in algorithmic rankings of content, the limit of personalization of political content and the prevention trending content including any with bot activities. The platforms claim some integration of these policies. Yet little to no evidence is shared with policy-makers or the general public on the research or its effectiveness.

Call for action

Direct government involvement is sensitive and carries a risk. Any process by which the government or the platforms prevent users from seeing content raises concerns about censorship. While the 1996 Communications Decency Act protects social media for the false content written and shared on their platforms, their involvement and accountability in affecting the human experience should be questioned. Baum and Lazer call for a redesign of our information ecosystem that promotes a transparent and truthful news media experience. Publishers, social platforms and academics must collaborate to conduct a detailed and transparent audit on how the major platforms filter information.

Industry-Research

Navigating nine paths readers take before they subscribe

March 7, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

It’s essential for publishers to understand the different pathways to subscriptions to deliver value and engagement to consumers in the process. In new research, “Paths to Subscription: Why Recent Subscribers Chose to Pay for News,” the Media Insight Project—a collaboration of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research—surveyed more than 4,100 recent newspaper subscribers to understand their motives and mindsets at the time of the decision-making. The report identifies nine distinct paths from reader to subscriber. (Some individual subscribers may fit into more than one group.)

The nine paths from reader to subscriber:

1. Digital Paywall Converters (21% of total respondents) buy a digital subscription for its unlimited access. They subscribe because they like to read interesting articles and want to support local journalism. Digital Paywall Converters tend to be younger, male, educated, have higher income, and are Democrat.

Digital Paywall Converters are twice as likely to subscribe to large metro newspapers compared to other subscribers. They like to share content and are more likely than other subscribers to use the paper’s mobile app and access articles through search engines. They are a digitally driven user segment. Nine in 10 Digital Paywall Converters (86%) state that their favorite benefit of their subscription is unlimited access to online content

2. Topic Hunters (23% of total respondents) are motivated to subscribe because of local politics and/or local sports (college or high school). They tend to be well educated and favor the digital experience. They often convert to subscribing because they are very engaged and hit a paywall meter limit.

Since Topic Hunters tend to be more digital, the best time to convert these readers to paying subscribers is when they are online. Using analytical tools (e.g. API’s Metrics for News) to track readers by topic is helpful in the conversion process. Newsletters can also be useful to engage readers around their interest areas and can help lead to paid subscriptions.

3. Locally Engaged subscribers (18% of total respondents) are interested in content about the community. They like being engaged and informed locally. They report that access to local news and politics are the major reasons they subscribe to newspapers. These subscribers are “news junkies,” especially about where they live, and want the news regardless of a discounted sale. The Locally Engaged are an important segment for smaller publications. Nearly half of the Locally Engaged subscribe to a small or medium-sized paper. Further, the Locally Engaged are more likely than other subscribers to value the accuracy and reliability of the news publication.

News alerts and email newsletters on local government, neighborhood, and other local civic topics are goods ways to attract and engage these subscribers.

4. Social Media-Mobile Discoverers (19% of total respondents) are subscribers who engage socially and use their mobile to access newspapers. They are very active with newspapers through news alerts, following journalists on social media and by sharing content.

Once they reach their metered limit, this segment (25%) is motivated to subscribe, particularly if they receive a promotional offer for unlimited articles. It’s important for publishers to consider mobile and social as two important paths to discover this segment of young readers.

Social Media-Mobile Discoverers tend to skew slightly female (53% vs. 46%), are much younger (51% are under the age of 60 vs. 28% of other subscribers) and are likely to be Democrats.

5. Journalism Advocates (24% of total respondents) subscribe to newspaper to support journalism. This segment values supporting news publishers and also likes to keep political leaders in check. Most Journalism Advocates identify themselves as Democrats. They are more likely than other subscribers to have a college degree (76% vs. 64%) and are also younger (40% under age 60 vs. 30%).

Journalism Advocates are much more likely than other subscribers to mention they were attracted to subscribe because they witnessed attacks on the news media (25% vs. 2%) and because of they saw messaging to support local journalism (23% vs. 1%).

6. Life Changers (16% of total respondents) subscribe because of a transition in their life, be it a move or new job. For Life Changers, a subscription is not based on the editorial or marketing offer of the newspaper. Life Changers highly value local news and want to support local journalism. This segment is likely to prefer the print access over digital.

To target Life Changers, publishers should find readers who are new to the area, recent graduates, retirees or transplants. They should seek partnerships with local organizations or groups, such as realtors, colleges, or employers, to offer discounted subscriptions. Life Changers and Locally Engaged both have an affinity for following local news.

7. Coupon Clippers (12% of total respondents) subscribe to newspapers because of the value of the discounted offer. Discounts and promotions motivate Coupon Clippers to subscribe. This group is more likely to be women, identify as Republicans or independents, have less education and lower incomes, live in the suburbs and prefers print.

8. Print Fans (16% of total respondents) like the experience of reading a printed newspaper. They are big fans of print home delivery. While they also use a newspapers’ digital app, they like to start their day with a hard copy of the news. The majority of Print Fans are female and more than half live in the suburbs.

This segment is very interested in gaining access to exclusive content that is available only to those who subscribe to both print and digital.

9. Friends and Family (15% of total respondents) subscribe because they see it as a way to connect with loved ones. The paper is an extension of their social lives. It’s what they talk about over dinner or in a telephone conversation. Local news is important to Friends and Family but current events and other topics (lifestyle, sports, etc.) are also important. Friends and Family tend to skew heavily female compared with other subscribers (60% vs. 45%), be Democrats (61% vs. 48 of other subscribers) and are slightly more urban (36% vs. 27%).

Publishers should think about testing “refer a friend” programs, where subscribers can refer friends or family to receive a discount or as a gift. Publishers should also offer discounts and benefits to those who refer new subscribers.

Consumers interact with a newspaper and its journalists in many ways before subscribing. It’s important for publishers to study these interactions and identify the moments of engagement. Identifying these moments along with important background factors are strong targeting opportunities to add subscribers.

Industry-Research | Revenue

Strategies for building audience revenue

February 28, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Publishers are rethinking their editorial practices and diversifying revenue streams to become less dependent on advertising or foundation funding. They (especially digitally native publishers) are implementing mixed revenue approaches, which include advertising, corporate underwriting, foundation funding, article syndication, events, affiliate programs, merchandise, and book sales revenue. The newly released report, Guide to Audience Revenue and Engagement from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, provides insights on strategies for building audience revenue and engagement.

To win a share of consumers’ valuable attention and money, paid news products (whether supported thorough subscriptions or member donations) must be vital to the subscriber. They must also clearly represent an editorial mandate they support.

The Tow Center identifies key strategies to support the develop of direct audience revenue:

Offer a unique perspective as a publisher. Readers become members when they want to be part of a unique community and access a valued news brand.
Clearly express your mission to accurately reflect the values you provide the world and your member community.
Identify activities and programs that are interesting, valuable and useful to retain members
Develop a strong editorial engagement with readers.
Build and monitor the steps in the audience revenue program conversion approach: research, expose and attract, engage and deepen, convert, and sustain.
- Research (to learn about prospective member needs)
  User experience research
  Segmentation: reach different audience groups strategically
- Expose and attract:
  Increasing reach through social media
  Increasing reach through in-person community events and conferences
- Engage and deepen:
  Editorial engagement
  Article pages and site structure
  Email newsletters
  Using events to engage readers
- Convert:
  Campaign structure
  Managing data infrastructure
  User data effectiveness
  Giving and asking frequency
- Sustain:
  Recognizing and thanking members
  Engaging and sustaining members
Engage your audience through your journalism, face-to-face interactions, product design and email newsletters. Each is a great way to build a loyal and engaged audience.

Importantly, when developing editorial products, it’s important to ask what do people want (desirability), can we make what they want (feasibility), and can we make what they want successfully (viability).

Further, developing audience segments based on user research and site analytics is important in understanding the different reader experiences. It’s critical to maximize the individual user segment experiences to ensure each is fully engaged.

Overall, online news consumers aren’t used to paying to support publishers. However, this transition is evolving. That’s why it’s important to establish a series of interactions to engage individuals to help shift the occasional reader into a paying supporter.