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Innovation

NewsON: delivering local news anywhere, anytime

A fortuitous result of the ever-proliferating sources for news has been that Americans are consuming more of it than they have in a long time. And the majority of Americans—nine out of ten—follow news about their local area very closely or somewhat closely. However, the proportion of Americans who get news from traditional media platforms—television, radio and print—has been stable or declining in the last few years (though for local news, television still holds its own).

Along with a glut of “news” content we’re also seeing content consumption habits evolve: more and more people consume news on mobile—which is not simply a result of the popularity of mobile devices, but reflective of consumers’ anytime, on-demand expectations. This proliferation of news sources and changing consumption patterns has created issues for content companies and consumers alike. Certainly, it increases competition. But it also causes quality issues, as it can be difficult to find trusted and reliable information, particularly for an audience unlikely to sit down to watch the evening news every night at six.

However, broadcast media veterans are not standing idly by. NewsON—launched by ABC Owned Television Station Group, Cox Media Group, Hearst Television, Media General, Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., and Raycom Media (with Sinclair Broadcast Group joining as a partner)—was founded to provide local news to mobile consumers nationwide. As CEO Louis Gump put it, “In an age where fragmentation is common, we believe creating something that makes it easy for viewers to find trusted news brings great consumer benefit.”

interactiveThe NewsON app provides access to live and on-demand local newscasts and local news clips. The free, ad-supported app features flexible navigation that encourages discovery, offering instant access to broadcast-quality video. It also enables people to search by market via an interactive map and for curated content that links coverage of breaking news events from multiple stations. NewsON is available for Apple iPhone and iPad, Android phone and tablet, and on the Roku platform.

While many of the broadcasters with whom NewsON works have individual apps and make much of their content available digitally, Gump points out that the app has the advantage of offering information from multiple sources within a given local market, which allows consumers to dig in on topics of interest. It also allows people anywhere to find locally-produced video on a given topic, which is likely to offer insights and depth not available from national sources. As examples, Gump sites the New Hampshire Presidential primary and weather events such as the January 2016 blizzard that affected several east coast states, with distinct coverage being offered in local markets.

For the broadcasters that work with NewsON—120 stations in 92 markets, covering 76% of the U.S. population—Gump says NewsON delivers expanded audience reach across all demographics. While Gump would not comment on specific financial terms, he says “the economics at NewsON are weighted heavily in favor of the stations.”

A third benefit, which Gump describes as “kind of extra credit,” is shared learning. “Any TV station group that doesn’t have a strong digital offering and isn’t investing in innovation probably has some big problems,” he said, also pointing out that NewsON provides additional opportunities for experimentation and shared learning among participants. He’s seen confirmation that there’s an increasing desire to time-shift news viewing, but also sees behaviors that debunk the popular notion that people only want to watch short-form video.

NewsON, says Gump, was founded on three main principles: “Do the right thing; serve our customers; and move forward.” As he points out, people are looking for content that meets their needs, on their terms and it is essential to focus on those needs and expectations—with a consistent future-focus. And to that end, he says we can expect to see more partnerships this year, with the goal of increasing local content offerings in existing markets and adding new markets to the mix, as well as significant product updates and evolved advertising capabilities.

Perspectives

There’s more than one way to succeed at digital

Back in the 1990s in the early days of the World Wide Web, media companies created websites, sensing that distribution was changing, even if they didn’t completely understand it. At the time that meant creating content for print or broadcast and then after some period of time dumping it onto the website. Today, those delivery silos are gone and editorial and product work side by side in a symbiotic relationship, moving the content wherever it needs to be in whatever format makes most sense.

That sounds obvious enough, but in reality even the most successful digital media companies haven’t figured it all out. It’s hard to do when new delivery methods turn up all the time. That’s why organizations that have made a successful transition to digital like CNN, The Washington Post and the New York Times are constantly experimenting.

They understand that none of this is fixed in time, and whatever you think you know about digital delivery, it’s probably going to change.

Giving the user control
Understanding that change is constant, media companies strive to deliver that content wherever the user happens to be. That could be a SnapChat story, SMS headline alert, sharing a story on Facebook or the new Facebook Instant, accessing content on the company’s mobile website or via a company app.

“My sense is that we’ve optimized operations so that news is the driver and then we distribute it to where and how people are consuming the news,” says Alex Wellen, chief product officer at CNN. The tech and editorial voice needs to meet consumers where they are, he explained.

Julia Beizer, who is director of product at The Washington Post says for her publication, it’s a marriage of technology and content including embedding 100 engineers in their building and bringing on new writers over the last couple of years who understand the cadence of online writing. After that, it’s a matter of developing those products and services alongside editorial to deliver content to multiple delivery channels.

Putting the content in context
The Post must be doing something right. comScore reported that it had an all-time high of 76 million monthly digital users in December. Beizer says one of the reasons for that success is that they have been paying attention to what people want in their digital content, and it’s not always bite-sized chunks.

“One of the early misplaced assumptions around mobile was that mobile users are standing in line waiting for coffee. A lot of people are doing that, but a lot of people are on their couches at home too. Research shows upwards of 70 percent are at home,” she said. She adds that in that context the idea that people only want snackable content doesn’t hold true.

Then there’s the on-going battle of developing apps versus building a good mobile website. As with everything else, there is room for both and it depends on your goals — engagement or views.

Consider that in its study of apps versus mobile websites between June 2014 and June 2015, comScore found people used mobile websites twice as often as mobile apps. While both boasted impressive year over year growth, apps were growing at 21% year over year with the mobile web showing 42% growth.

The important thing to remember is that this isn’t about rigid choices: Each channel has its own purpose. Mobile web is about single engagements, while a consumer using a mobile app tends to be constantly engaged with the brand. Wellen points out that they see four times the engagement on mobile apps, but the mobile web has six times the audience of their apps, so you can’t choose one over the other.

What the app demonstrates is loyalty to your media brand. As a brand, you can learn what the consumer likes and there is an explicit relationship between the two that you don’t necessarily have on the mobile web, comScore’s VP for marketing and insights, Andrew Lipman explained.

The desktop lives on
Yet even while we have all of these new digital delivery channels, the oldest one, the desktop, still lives, even as PC sales are plunging. The most recent IDC numbers for the 2015 fourth quarter show PC sales down over 10%, but Lipman says it’s a mistake to think of the various channels as a zero sum game. He points out that lots of people access content on their PCs at work or laptops wherever they happen to be (and those are still technically PCs).

“This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see out there. Often in the media, it gets framed as a zero sum game. Since the clear winner in recent term is mobile, then desktop must be the loser,” he said. In reality, they both have importance and it depends on what the audience needs to access your content at any given moment in any particular channel.

It’s clear that companies that have successful digital strategies are always looking for new ways to engage with the audience, even while continuing to develop the older ones. As Beizer points out, when she started at the Washington Post 40% of the people on mobile were accessing their content on a BlackBerry. That’s obviously changed and it’s constantly changed.

That keeps things interesting for folks working on digital products inside media companies. “It would be boring if we had it all figured out,” she said.

Ron Miller is a Freelance Technology Journalist and blogger. He is enterprise reporter at TechCrunch and Contributing Editor at EContent Magazine.

Innovation

Q&A: Gilles Raymond, News Republic Founder and CEO

European-based global news syndicator News Republic has made its mark as a disruptive, ‘mobile-first’ provider of highly personalized, and hyper-relevant news by delivering people what they want, when they want it, to their device or format of choice. With apps for smartphones, tablets and wearables, readers can customize their News Republic news feed from over 1 million topics, drawing from 50,000 articles, 40,000 photos and 1,500 videos that are easily, intuitively and algorithmically nano cast to literally go with the news flow. Peggy Anne Salz — mobile analyst, nine-time author and Content Marketing Strategist at MobileGroove — catches up with Gilles Raymond, News Republic Founder and CEO, to map the developments since 2008, when his company sparked a global news revolution by giving the power of information back to the people — completely ad-supported and enabled by mobile technology.

GRaymondNews Republic has been named the world’s largest news provider with millions of readers and 1,650 licensed publishing partners globally. Please update us on the key stats around partnerships, readership, and what you think is driving your app growth?

Gilles Raymond: Today our partners include AFP, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, India Today, Reuters, Russia Times and Tencent. We count 12.5 million active users generating well three billion news views. We purposely made the decision not to crawl the Web and grab RSS feeds because we didn’t feel it was right or fair to the media ecosystem. We took the higher, harder road to syndicate content, signing deals one by one, that has allowed us to grow and be a truly global new provider. We have chosen an approach that benefits the ecosystem — which is how we have sealed deals with more than 1,650 media companies worldwide, content we offer via our app in 40 countries and 37 languages. We publish 50,000 articles a day, full articles, and give our readers all the content on the mobile platform, as well as on a tablet and a smart watch.

News Republic is available on a variety of platforms. How important is it to be ‘mobile-first’ and what platforms are working best for your content?

Gilles Raymond: Mobile is a must — which is why we chose from day one back in 2008, when we set up the company, not to go to desktop. We made the connection that personalized news made the most sense on a personal device, so we bet that mobile would be the number one medium people would use to access content, especially news, and we do not have a presence on desktop to this day. We are also not convinced about the opportunities on smart TV — at least not for accessing news content.

For now, we focus on platforms: smartphone, tablet and, increasingly, on smart watches. The News Republic app was awarded Best Mobile Media Publishing App at Mobile World Congress 2015, and we made that app available for Apple Watch in April 2015. We’re thrilled to be an early pioneer on wearable devices, and to extend our content to the Apple Watch platform. We were one of the first developers invited to Cupertino to create for the Apple watch and we created a unique user experience tailored for it – one that optimizes “Glance Journalism” and seamless connectivity between devices.

You are obviously focused on being on the bleeding-edge of mobile, but you have also begun to unbundle your offer to provide channels of content not just channels of access. How has this progressed to date?

We started by following our readers and reading the data. The average user is reading or viewing 186 pages per month. So, the figures basically show the average user is reading a book of nearly 200 pages dedicated to news that interests them. Then we started to drill down and saw that we had a huge audience for tech news, for example. We decided to provide them an offer and a platform that was more tech oriented. We later did the same with news and reviews about video games. This way the user is in control and decides — and that choice is now between three apps that we publish: News Republic, which is all the news content, filtered to show people what matters to them, and Appy Geek focused on tech news and Appy Gamer that showcases games and gaming news.

You offer all of this content for free. Explain your decision and how you have been able to create and cultivate an ecosystem that brings together both publishers and advertisers to make this possible — while also making sure your content — and advertising — remains relevant, not annoying.

Gilles Raymond: Our mission is to deliver news to each citizen of the world and that to do that we believe that the appropriate business model is to give news for free supported by advertising. Some of the advertising is banner, which has been by default the most successful format. But while the reader might still see a banner, they’ll also see a list of articles of related and recommended reading where the suggestions are mixed with native advertising, which is contextually relevant because it fits with the content.

So, the sponsored post makes a comeback — and a lucrative one at that?

Gilles Raymond: Well, it is clearly marked as “advertising.” We have just formatted it to fit less intrusively into the content flow. The benefit here, for readers and brands, is the relevance of native advertising. It’s highly personalized, which means the advertiser is not shooting into the dark. They are promoting to a target audience and in instances where the additional information makes sense. Another format where we see a significant revenue stream, and as well as usage, is video. We have seen a three times increase in the number of mobile video ad views over the last 12 months, which is why we are convinced of the power of this medium

That’s a great segway to discussing the user and usage trends you are seeing. Last year you surveyed 14,000 app users across six countries. What insights can you share?

Gilles Raymond: We did the survey to find out why readers consume news and the platforms they prefer, but we also gained much more in the process. First, we found out that readers consume news to stay connected to the world. The majority of our respondents, 73%, consume news on apps several times a day — and over one-third check their apps between 30 and 60 minutes during the day to check daily news.

In every country tech news was the most popular. But readers in different countries saw different value in reading new in general. Americans read news to “engage with people” and “feel smarter”; British like to share news to amuse their friends; French are more likely to share news in order to scorn the subject of the news report; Germans access news in order to have interesting conversations and be ‘in-the-know’; Italians are the most averse to people and celebrity news; Spanish and Mexicans appreciate more “shocking news” and Spanish, in particular, are enthusiastic about the possibility to access news on wearables. Meanwhile, Russians are the least likely to share news to support a cause. They also consume news because they believe keeping up with news is the way to make better decisions.

Your global data reveals your users have many diverse views when it comes to value of new content and how to consume it. How do you intend to make sure your content — and how you offer it — is sticky and compelling?

Gilles Raymond: If you look at the big picture you see that there was never a time when so many people were spending so much time reading news — they just want to have it their way. We believe the best editor-in-chief for the news you, Peggy, want to read is you, Peggy. Therefore, we have built in a system where we push and recommend the news on the topics the reader is genuinely interested in, either through a manual filter or through a curated filter.

But, to be fair, you aren’t the only news company offering personalized content…

Gilles Raymond: Yes. But we are the one with such a vast array of content — 50,000 articles, 1 million topics — that we make it possible for people to personalize their news and 60% of them do, even if their interests are at the very end of the Long Tail. I call that a big differentiator. The other is convenience. People don’t need to open a Web browser or mobile web browser or even an encapsulated browser.

First, we created the audience with a great app experience. Since we didn’t have a big, beautiful brand like the New York Times, or the big marketing budget you get when you are VC-funded, we had to say our differentiator will be our focus on quality. Thankfully, the app experience delivered and we have been featured many times in the App Store. That, and the fact that we are in 37 languages and 40 countries, allowed us to approach the OEMs.

Today we have partnered with leading mobile manufacturers including HTC, Samsung and Acer. etc.. They like the fact that they can take our application, put it on the handset and immediately appeal to 90%+ percent of their user base — especially in territories where English isn’t the leading language. Coming from Europe being global and open is in our DNA— and handset makers in countries like China appreciate this. Our partners also appreciate that we have signed deals with media companies for the content, so the level of exposure of liabilities is zero compared to other companies that take feeds without checking on the terms and conditions associated to the feed.

Peggy Anne Salz is the Content Marketing Strategist and Chief Analyst of Mobile Groove, a top 50 influential technology site providing custom research to the global mobile industry and consulting to tech startups. She is a frequent contributor to Forbes on the topic of mobile marketing, engagement and apps. Her work also regularly appears in a range of publications from Venture Beat to Harvard Business Review. Peggy is a top 30 Mobile Marketing influencer and a nine-time author based in Europe. Follow her @peggyanne.

 

Advertising | Industry-Research

Advertisers direct ad spending towards higher-quality inventory with better targeting

Industry leading stakeholders have set out to eradicate suspect impressions on a global level throughout the past year, and premium publishers and advertisers have begun to feel the impact of this industry shift to quality. Our Q4 2015 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) report, released today, shows that advertisers are directing ad spending towards higher-quality inventory with better targeting capabilities, especially through more transparent mobile private marketplaces (PMPs). As a result, premium publishers are garnering higher prices for their inventory and attracting more mobile ad spending.

This past holiday season, major brand advertisers looked to target mobile consumers with relevant advertising messages through mobile private marketplaces (PMP). This dynamic caused a 45 percent increase in weekly mobile PMP volume from the first week of the quarter through to the week of Black Friday. Looking ahead, the volume spikes in mobile PMP during Black Friday and Cyber Monday suggest similar rises in mobile ad prices and spending around this year’s landmark events, including the 2016 presidential election and major sporting events. Agencies looking to effectively execute on their advertiser clients’ strategic plans around major events should look to PMPs to buy timely, premium inventory, at scale.

The market opportunity in PMPs is significant, as eMarketer estimates that ad spending on PMPs in the U.S. will reach $3.65 billion this year, up from just $80 million in 2013. Globally, MAGNA GLOBAL projects that programmatic spending, which includes open auction, PMP and automated guaranteed, will rise to $37 billion by 2019.

PubMatic’s Q4 2015 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) report found five key trends that demonstrate mobile monetization growth:

  1. Advertiser demand shifts towards higher-quality mobile PMP inventory to target mobile-obsessed holiday shoppers. Advertisers increasingly sought higher-quality mobile inventory to target holiday shoppers on mobile devices, as evidenced by mobile private marketplace volume spikes. Weekly mobile PMP monetized impression volume increased 45 percent from the start of the quarter through the week of Black Friday (Nov. 27).
  2. By vertical, retail and technology spending drove PMP growth. Within mobile private marketplaces, the retail and technology verticals showed major volume gains ahead of Black Friday shopping, demonstrating that e-commerce and consumer technology sales likely drove ad spending. The increase in weekly PMP volume in retail and technology over that period was even higher, at 106% and 285%, respectively.
  3. Opportunity for mobile growth remains strong on a global scale. The Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) represented the largest opportunities in terms of volume, but the Asia Pacific (APAC) region was the fastest-growing mobile opportunity.
  4. The Android app ad awakens. Android app ads increased the most in terms of both price and volume, while CPMS increased across all mobile platforms, including IOS app, mobile web and tablet web.
  5. Mobile gap remains closed. Mobile CPMs are still higher than desktop CPMs, and both mobile and desktop CPMs grew a healthy 36% year-over-year.
Perspectives

Get ready for “concierge” media

There is an untapped distribution channel for publishers to create private,
intimate and tailored relationships with the audiences they serve.

NBCnewsPeople have always had the desire to be informed. In the pre-industrial society, news was limited to conversations and gatherings. The arrival of pamphlets, edicts, ballads, journals and the first newssheets allowed information to spread regionally, while the Internet, social networks, smartphones and messaging apps instantaneously push data globally.

In particular, messaging apps also provide an untapped distribution channel for publishers to create private, intimate and tailored relationships with the audiences they serve — a concierge media service.

From search to social to messaging

Since the recent advent of the Internet, publishers have been trying to leverage distribution channels — such as search and social media — to grow their audiences. Huffington Post saw immense growth by mastering the art of search engine optimization and BuzzFeed capitalized on social sharing to become the media brand everyone talks about.

A significant opportunity for the next generation of media companies will come from knowing how to play in messaging apps. For journalists, brands and media creators, that means reimagining how they create content, how they engage users and how they generate revenue.

Messaging is ubiquitous in our lives. Apps can provide unique opportunities for giving audiences direct access to content and publishers, be it through tailor-made WeChat platforms or public chats on Viber and WhatsApp.

Why concierge media will become the way audiences consume content by 2020

Mobile messaging and chat apps will explode.
According to ComScore’s 2015 U.S. Mobile App Report, Millennials spent the majority of their time (over 90 hours a month) on smartphone apps. And guess what services they use the most? Messaging and social networks.

According to Global WebIndex, smartphone owners aren’t necessarily exclusive in choosing one specific messaging app. For example, 7 in 10 Snapchat users also use Facebook Messenger while 5 in 10 also use WhatsApp. People will be consuming content across chat platforms.

The leading publishers are starting to experiment with messaging content creation.
fm2According to a recent Tow Center research report, The Wall Street Journal is among the news organizations that have more than a million subscribers on LINE, Japan’s largest messaging app, experimenting with different content and daily alerts and breaking news. BuzzFeed, a more recent entrant to the platform, has taken a very different approach by building audiences through push notifications, stickers and comics.

BBC News was the first to experiment with editorial content on WhatsApp in 2014, most notably with its WhatsApp “lifeline” information service targeting communities in West Africa affected by Ebola. However, WhatsApp is not engineered to work efficiently as a mass push-notification service, and much of BBC News’ recent strategy on the platform has focused on audience engagement through user-generated content and newsgathering.

Some publishers are also linking journalists salaries to performance on messaging apps in an effort to grow digital audiences. For example, the Times of India is making its contributors file a minimum of 3 WhatsApp alerts every week

How to start experimenting
(Kik Partnered with Ad Council on anti-bullying campaign by creating a collection of stickers)
(Kik Partnered with Ad Council on anti-bullying campaign by creating a collection of stickers)

It is important to remember that these platforms are still in their infancy. They are, in most cases, longer-term play, rather than ones that will bear immediate fruit if referrals and audience reach expectations. Concierge media builds on people’s intrinsic desire of wanting to follow others, their own curiosity and the private nature of conversations and higher level of intimacy.

With that said, a team of editors can create specialized channels and seed it with content updates native to those platforms using automatic messages. These include text messaging, alerts, stickers, trivia and emojis.

This seed content will engage members to participate in the discussion and elevate the level of the conversation by sharing unique perspectives. This model of journalism and media creation mimics what happens in the real world, where a person surfaces a topic and the group engages in an active exchange. This is what gives value to the story; the journalist is responsible to initiate the debate and moderate it. He or she can add value to the discussion by fact-checking or providing more information when needed.

The key takeaways
Photo courtesy of The Associated Press
Photo courtesy of The Associated Press
  • Concierge media on messaging apps can be built by developing hyper-specialized verticals across topics such as sports, entertainment, lifestyle and general news.
  • Messaging apps provide a space for news outlets to engage their audiences with different — and possibly lighter — types of content.
  • These verticals are managed to follow the interest levels of news stories and dynamically adapt to the news cycle. If a certain topic ceases to be meaningful, the editor of a certain channel needs to make a decision whether to sunset the channel, maintain it or create a sub-channel.
  • Automation and bots will be a central piece of the content publishing strategy.
  • Monetization opportunities will come from sales of digital goods such as stickers, e-commerce or micro-events such as paid live programming.
  • Concierge media could reinvent the concept of newsroom to be inherently mobile and global. Reporters would not have to come to a physical space.
  • A big opportunity exists to build contributor networks of individuals with specialized knowledge of niche topics.

With time spent on messaging apps exploding, will the next generation consume most of its content on the small screen?

I’m the Strategy Manager for The Associated Press and fellow at Columbia Journalism School. I write about media, storytelling and innovation. Let’s connect. (@fpmarconi)

Perspectives

Breaking down Google’s AMP rollout for publishers

Google’s dominant hold over mobile (and desktop) search means that anytime it makes an announcement that can potentially influence how often and the format in which consumers see your content, it’s best to pay attention. Of course, the immediate impact isn’t always clear.

Most recently, Google unveiled its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, and there are a few key things publishers should know about it.

What is Google AMP?
Google AMP permits faster mobile websites by loading the text and images first, leaving JavaScript to load last. It aims to improve the individual’s mobile browsing experience but also that of the publisher, relying on critical ad dollars.

The search behemoth wrote: “Publishers around the world use the mobile web to reach these readers, but the experience can often leave a lot to be desired. Every time a webpage takes too long to load, they lose a reader—and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions.”

Mobile advertising is beginning to break records as more and more companies ride this digital wave that shows no signs of losing speed. Advertisers placed a dramatic total of 10,137 mobile ads alone in the third quarter, according to MediaRadar’s findings. Advertisers, of course, are following the consumer whose preference more and more is to pick up that phone or other mobile device to rapidly consume the immense amount of diverse content available at all hours.

What are the benefits?
Google is nudging us toward faster load times. There’s no doubt that consumers will appreciate the quickened, less frustrating mobile experience, which will potentially keep them more engaged with you or your advertiser’s content.

It’s also a clear victory for mobile users who today tolerate slow loading times. And what about for publishers who choose to adopt Google AMP? Your websites will be prioritized in Google search results, leading to an increase in traffic and higher consumption on site.

What are the concerns?
Publishers should consider a few details before jumping in:

  • Your existing technology to deliver ads may not be compatible with AMP’s construction. Google has stated that adopting other vendor technology is possible, but its plan for doing so has not yet been released.
  • There is a general increased dependency on Google and all of its related ad tech if publishers adopt AMP. It’s important to deliberate over whether this is the right path for your organization.
  • Google noted that it wants AMP to “support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies. Any sites using AMP HTML will retain their choice of ad networks, as well as any formats that don’t detract from the user experience.” That last portion, as well as Google’s point that it wants to deliver “compelling” ads provides the technology company with significant discretionary freedom to demerit ads not deemed worthy.

Google admits that AMP, like most of its “projects,” is still in its early stages and is not a final line in the sand by any means. It has marked this initiative as an open-source project, seeking widespread adoption rather than a limited run. So, publishers should not feel troubled by the arrival of AMP. Google is clearly welcoming publisher participation. By staying involved, publishers and media companies can play a hand in the result of this product.

Todd Krizelman is Co-Founder and CEO of MediaRadar (@MediaRadar). Growing up near the epicenter of technological innovation in Palo Alto, California encouraged him to become an entrepreneur and co-found of one of the world’s first social media sites, theGlobe.com. Krizelman also held leadership positions at Bertelsmann’s Gruner + Jahr and Random House. With his expertise in ad sales and innovation, Krizelman joined veteran web architect, Jesse Keller, to found MediaRadar in 2007.

Research

Content marketing, ad blocking and other trends that rocked digital publishing in 2015

2015 was as existential as they come for digital media and advertising. Some of the biggest stories that captivated the industry represented tough questions that have been brewing for years but are no longer avoidable.

So which of these stories captivated the industry? We analyzed 5,600 articles from industry trades that were published between Jan. 01 — Nov. 11, and the approximately 4 million resulting page views to determine which topics resonated most, and when.

General Findings

  • Content Marketing accounted for the most overall page views of the trends analyzed in 2015.
  • Mobilegeddon generated the most page views/story (which we can use as a measure of “degree of interest” in a topic), then effectively vanished from people’s minds.
  • After its initial splash in May, Facebook Instant Articles seemed to vanish from the radar until Fall, when it wasrolled out to more publishers and more users.
  • News that Programmatic accounted for 20% of all 2014 digital ad spend got the industry’s attention in July.

The Ad Block Problem
The conversation about ad blockers reached fever pitch in September, as news broke that Apple’s iOS would let users install ad blockers and that some ads could avoid being blocked… for a price. Advertising Week Sept 28 — Oct 2, was essentially an unofficial summit on how to deal with the rise of ad blockers.

The Mobilegeddon That Wasn’t?
After the initial news about Google changing its algorithm to reward more mobile-friendly pages in its search engine results, interest in Mobilegeddon quickly died down as people realized its impact was minimal or indeterminate on their business.

Fig1Mobilegeddon

Content Marketing Becoming the Norm?
Content marketing is now a routine part of industry coverage, and has been for the last couple of years. Unlike the other trends in this analysis, interest in content marketing was less subject to dramatic spikes and dips, growing steadily throughout the year as marketers focused on tips for doing it better, planning for 2016, and its overall growth in the industry.

Native Interests
Native advertising generated its interest in relation to two developments: Snapchat announcing the creation of a native ad agency with a handful of media companies at Cannes Lions, and Advertising Week, where Ad Blocking dominated the conversation. Native advertising began to resurface as an alternative for brands and publishers.

Facebook Instant Articles
After making waves with its initial announcement and launch of Instant Articles — which hosts a publisher’s content directly in the News Feed — radio silence ensued for the duration of the summer, leaving many to wonder if it was getting off to a slow start. Then in September, Facebook added more publishers to Instant Articles, and in October, rolled it out to all iPhone users, which re-ignited interest.

The spike in intrigue over Facebook Instant Articles perfectly embodies a tough question publishers have been mulling for years but is no longer avoidable in 2015: at what point do I pull back on trying to pool audiences on my own site and invest more heavily in reaching new audiences where they already congregate?

Naturally, the reaction to Facebook’s offer varied, as some wondered how far Facebook would go in using publisher content to fuel their growing media empire, while others urged caution in how much content should be Instant vs. Owned.

But perhaps lost in the shuffle was Facebook’s own justification for presenting a publisher’s content to users in this way, the same justification Google used in its push Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) push.

Fig2FBInstant

A Better User Experience
It almost always comes down to the user.

From the ongoing discussion on what native advertising should look like, to the initial panic over “mobilegeddon,” at heart is how to work towards an Internet consumers are almost uniformly pleased with. In a way, the popularity of both ad blockers and content marketing are symptoms of that ideal.

Brandon Carter is a Content Specialist at Outbrain (@brandedcarter @Outbrain). He began his career as a staff journalist for the Maine weekly ‘The Coastal Journal’ before moving to New York and joining the product licensing divisions of Peanuts Worldwide and Sesame Workshop.

Perspectives

The rise of “homeless” media

We could soon see the emergence of a new wave of publishers that don’t require home pages or apps; their sole purpose is to syndicate content through different channels and social platforms.

Since the advent of the Internet, publishers have been trying to leverage distribution channels — such as social media networks — to drive traffic to their own websites. Now, though, content can be hosted and monetized on these third-party platforms through services including Facebook’s Instant Articles or Snapchat’s Discover. As such, we can see the emergence of a new wave of “homeless” media companies that don’t require a home page; their sole purpose is to syndicate content.

The evolution of digital media distribution

Digital media companies have, to this point, generated revenue primarily through advertising displayed on their own websites. The amount of money earned corresponds at least indirectly with the size of the audience visiting their pages, so publishers turn to external platforms to build their brands. The Huffington Post and Drudge Report utilized search engine optimization to grow, while BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox are prime examples of sites utilizing social media channels to create “viral” content.

In fact, BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti said his company was “a global, cross-platform network for news and entertainment.” According to social analytics company NewsWhip, BuzzFeed earned more than 35 million combined Facebook likes, shares and comments in October alone.

From traffic acquisition to syndication

The goal of acquiring traffic via search and social is coming to an end for some, though. A few publishers are aiming to syndicate their content through various channels, not including a home page or website they own. They instead rely solely on the distribution and monetization from being on third-party platforms such as Facebook et al. A good example of someone using this model is NowThis, which has built a successful content business model despite having a website that currently reads, “Homepage. Even the word sounds old. Today the news lives where you live.”

Why could “homeless” media become a trend?

1. Mobile and app consumption is on the rise.

APMobileIn June, mobile accounted for two out of every three minutes spent consuming digital media in the U.S., according to comScore. In 2014, mobile apps surpassed desktop as the leading digital media usage platform.

Also in June, according to comScore, total time spent consuming digital media via mobile apps reached close to 779 billion minutes, versus nearly 551 billion minutes on desktops. eMarketer highlights that users in the US spent 170 billion minutes on Facebook’s mobile app. It’s becoming clear, if it hasn’t already, where audiences are spending their time — social networks.

2. Third parties are creating platforms for publishers to easily distribute and monetize content.

ZuckApphotoFacebook’s Instant Articles and Snapchat’s Discover allow partnering publishers to directly reach growing audience bases with native content. For example, The Washington Post recently announced it would send 100 percent of its stories to Facebook so all content could be immediately accessible to users of the social network, with no loading time or paywalls to sift through. CNN has a dedicated team of one designer and two edit staffers specifically focused on creating content for Snapchat.

Additionally, Google recently announced its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Program to help publishers create mobile-optimized content and have it load instantly everywhere. Twitter has an opportunity to work with partners on itsMoments feature, which presents a curated section of tweets related to the same topic.

Media companies can benefit by teaming up with these technology firms to create platform-specific content for the distribution channels with the largest audiences, potentially creating more engagement and revenue opportunities.

What does this mean for you?

If you are a journalist or executive at a traditional media company …

The rise of “homeless” media suggests a tipping point is at hand and that media companies will need to figure out how to approach it from both business and editorial perspectives. How much (and what) content should be sent to these channels? What’s the revenue potential in either case?

  • Even if you already have a big following, engagement remains the key. You will need to develop content verticals and unique programming that can attract new audiences.
  • Acquire or partner with smaller niche publications with distinctive voices that can augment your reach and inject innovation into your content.
  • Hire strategic partner managers to develop relationships with the platforms and get you on one of their publishing programs.

If you are an entrepreneur building the next big media brand …

  • Create distinctive content — build a niche audience that enables you to build a following.
  • Because you are not tied to any editorial guidelines, you have the opportunity to innovate on the format and build a following of people who are looking for new content.
  • Create a low-overhead business with minimal product development. Focus your resources on content creation and social distribution.
  • Hire people that have experience with platforms or that have worked at companies like Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat.

If you work at one of the big platforms …

  • Open up the native program to more publishers and provide support on best practices. Collaborate with publishers because the future of your business relies on great content.
  • Create a seamless experience for consumers to watch, read and experience content. You are the new “cable” so it will be important to create an uncluttered experience that centralizes the best content.
  • Share consumption data and help publishers (both new and legacy media) understand what content works so your users’ experience and content consumption can be refined over time.
  • Create opportunities for revenue sharing within the platform and build a safe environment for advertisers to invest their money.

If you are a venture capitalist looking for media businesses with growth potential …

  • Look for new media companies that have a distinctive voice and content that attracts a niche audience of engaged consumers.
  • Identify “content-first” companies with lean businesses and low overhead in product development, websites and mobile apps.
  • Help media startups in your portfolio develop strategic partnerships with larger media brands that are looking for niche content and new programming to grow their social following.

With native content consumption on third-party platforms growing, will it still be relevant for media companies to invest significant resources on running and maintaining their websites and mobile apps?

Francesco Marconi (@fpmarconi) is Strategy Manager for The Associated Press and fellow at Columbia Journalism School. He writes about media, storytelling and innovation.

 Note: This article originally appeared on Medium. Reprinted with permission. 

Industry-Research

Smartphones dominate digital device popularity

Americans have an abundance of devices to choose from to meet their technology needs. Mobile phones have the highest penetration with nine in ten (92%) adults owning either a smartphone or a cellphone. Smartphones have also gain traction with 86% penetration among adults ages 18 – 29 and 83% among adults 30  – 49 reports the Pew Research Center.

Tablet penetration is next highest among adults at 45% with college students having the strongest demographic penetration at 62%. As well, given the popularity of smartphones and their ability to download and play music, MPS players registered a decline in popularity with only 4 in 10 adults (40%) having one.

Ownership of gaming systems like of Xbox and PlayStation remains at a standstill since 2010 at 40%. Portable gaming consoles such as Sony’s PSP or Nintendo’s 3DS are also stalled at 14% adult ownership dating back to 2009. Once again, smartphones may be a big contributor to its of lack growth among adults for handheld gaming systems. Users can easily download a gaming app for a nominal fee or even free on their smartphone.

Almost two in ten adults (19%) report owning an e-reader (a handheld device primarily used for reading e-books). This is a significant decline from last year when 32% of adults reported owning an e-reader. This latest Pew Research Center report confirms the appeal of the multiple utilities of a smartphone.

device pentration

Industry-Research

What’s right for your mobile user experience: app or site?

Often, organizations are faced with a decision to focus development resources on the mobile web or app experiences. Unfortunately, the answer is both—or at least that the answer isn’t as much an either or as a question of user experiences and expectations. Millward Brown explored the question of when people use apps and when they opt for the mobile web and has published the results in The New Mobile Mantra. The study takes a nuanced approach in an effort to get at the consumer psychology and rationale behind the varying use cases. The study, conducted over the course of the first three quarters of 2015, is based on both an examination of click-stream data and consumer survey data (n=2,011 US smartphone owners over 18).

Millward Brown found that while apps command the most user time, “61 percent of smartphone users access their browsers at least once a day, spending an average of 31 minutes in total.”

Other key findings include:

  • Over half of smartphone users have 40-70 apps installed; though many use 4 to 6 apps per day.
  • The main reason consumers delete apps is because they rarely use it &72%) however the sthis is followed by a need to free up memory (51%) and the perception that the app was da battery drain (44%).
  • When it comes to consuming media, smartphone users don’t tend to have a strong preference between apps and browsers except for Sports and Business.
  • Half of those surveyed say that mobile news apps are easier to navigate than mobile websites.
  • An almost equal number prefer the mobile web (48%) because they can browse news on different sites without downloading apps for each.
  • Consumers cite superior search functionality as an upside of the mobile web (36%).
  • Consumers cite notifications (44%) and customization (35%) as app strengths.

Milward Brown concludes that apps should be the focus when seeking to deliver convenience, specialized content, and customization based on saved user information. Browser experiences should be emphasized for research experiences.

MBmobile1

Industry-Research

Instant messaging use rises as more people opt for closed platforms

The popularity of instant messaging (IM) has soared over the past year, with a 12% uplift in daily usage as more people opt for closed messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber. Over half of internet users worldwide (55%) are now using instant messaging every day, while 76% are using it on a weekly basis, according to Connected Life, a study of over 60,000 internet users worldwide from global research consultancy TNS. Despite this, social platforms are still rising in popularity with a 6% uplift in daily usage. As people’s online habits become ever more fragmented, TNS asserts that brands need to tap into the growing popularity of IM and other emerging platforms. The research shows an increased need for a content-driven approach across IM, social and traditional channels.

Among TNS’ key findings:

  • The US still lags the ‘mobile-first’ markets with 35% of US internet users using IM every day, but is catching up quickly (up 10% compared with 2014).
  • Instant Messaging (IM) is particularly dominant in emerging “mobile-first” markets, with daily usage rising even higher in markets like China (69%), Brazil (73%), and South Africa (64%).
  • Facebook has maintained its position as the world’s favorite social platform; almost one third of global internet users (30%) say they use it every day.
  • Facebook’s dominant position among US internet users is even stronger at 53%, followed by YouTube (26%), Instagram and Twitter.
  • TNS found that although IM users are wary of brands interrupting them, they are more concerned with how content they share impacts their own image.

TNS data reveals that consumers are even more connected to each other, and across multiple platforms. While IM popularity is rising, traditional social media platforms are still holding strong, allowing content to go viral more quickly. The challenge, says TNS, is for brands to create content that consumers actually want to share.

Industry-Research | Perspectives

Digital news audiences shift to mobile as platform widens margin vs. desktop

The rise of mobile among digital news audiences has been swift and relentless, and in just the past half year has gone from being neck-and-neck with desktop audiences to nearly 50% greater. How has mobile been able to surge ahead so quickly, and what are the implications for digital media economics as audiences shift?

To better understand the audience dynamics in today’s digital news environment, I conducted an analysis of leading digital news properties along with Andrew Lipsman, comScore VP of Marketing & Insights. We pulled together a selection of 25 leading news publishers, which ran the gamut from traditional print publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post to digital-first news entities like Buzzfeed and Vox, and computed their average audience and engagement metrics across desktop and mobile, app and mobile web.

comScoreMobile
As the above graph shows, the average number of desktop unique visitors to news sites was moving more or less in tandem with the average number of mobile unique visitors until late 2014. At that point there began to be a noticeable divergence in the two curves. As mobile unique visitors continued to quickly rise, desktop unique visitors softened. These opposing trends have continued on through June, indicating that more and more people are choosing to get the news on smartphones and tablets rather than on desktop.

Is Mobile Now Cannibalizing Desktop in the News Category?
The question arises whether it’s fair to suggest that mobile may finally be cannibalizing desktop. But first, some good news: on balance, news audiences are growing overall because the huge gains in mobile audience are substantially outweighing any softening on desktop. So in theory, this should be a boon to the digital news business because bigger audiences should translate into more ad or subscription dollars.

But the economics are not that simple. If mobile ad CPMs are, on average, lower than desktop ad CPMs the potential for cannibalization is real.

What is actually happening in terms of content audiences and engagement? The metrics below suggest that cannibalization might indeed be happening. When we looked at the six-month period beginning December 2014, which marked the start of the trend divergence, desktop news experienced a 13% drop in average audience while mobile news jumped 14% during that span. We also observed a 5% drop in desktop news engagement while mobile engagement jumped 21%.

comScoreMobile2

Mobile is picking up the slack for desktop, and then some. And while desktop is in no real risk of cratering, it’s clear that audience growth today is coming from mobile and that digital news organizations should be pointing their strategy in the direction of that opportunity. This begs another important question as to what is the best path for mobile growth: apps or mobile web?

Apps vs. Mobile Web: Which Matters More to News Publishers?When a news consumer reads a New York Times article on their phone, are they more likely to do so via the newspaper’s app or on the mobile web, and which access method drives more overall consumption of content? The answer is while the mobile web is a much more important driver of audience, apps have a disproportionately high impact on engagement.

comScoreMobile3

The graph above shows that an overwhelming majority – 93% – of these news publishers’ mobile audiences come from the mobile web rather than from an app. This is likely because many people get their news fix by way of social referral, particularly on Facebook and Twitter. This has the positive benefit of expanding news brands out to new audiences, but many of these “drive-by” visitors are more promiscuous with their news consumption. Loyalty is generally not their forte.

On the other hand, while apps comprise an average of just 6% of the 25 news properties’ mobile audiences, they account for nearly half (45%) of the time that audience spends with those properties. So although news apps may not be the most popular access method, their audience is clearly engaged in a way that the mobile web audience is not.

Someone who absently scrolls through their newsfeed on their phone and opens an interesting story only to close it moments later, might also open the New York Times app and spend a considerable amount of time cycling through each section. How they arrive at that content matters, and how they feel about that brand before engaging with the content determines how much time they’re likely to spend with it. “The mobile browser on a smartphone is a point of convenience,” Dow Jones’ chief innovation officer said recently. The app, on the other hand, “is the place where you discover engagement.”

But – and this is a big but – it’s not enough for a publisher to simply get their app on someone’s phone. The app must also occupy that hallowed real estate – often the homescreen – where users are more likely to engage with it. This is easier said than done. However, there are many clever strategies out there that publishers have yet to employ or even yet to discover.

Jacob L. Nelson (@JNelz) is a doctoral student in Northwestern University’s Media, Technology, and Society program and spent the summer working as an intern at comScore. A former journalist, his research looks at news consumption and media metrics.

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