Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: Facebook’s latest changes to its algorithm prioritize friends’ posts over publishers’ posts, which may affect referral traffic and reach for publishers (The Verge)
But did you know: Publishers with ‘higher-quality’ content on Facebook may not be as affected by algorithm changes (Ad Week)
When Facebook’s algorithm changes went into effect on Wednesday, some publishers immediately saw a decline in reach and link clickthroughs, but publishers may be pushed to focus on posting less volume and more quality. Mark Zuckerberg has talked about wanting the News Feed to show “high-quality” news and content, and Facebook has made changes to de-emphasize “clickbait.” Publishers will all be affected differently by the changes to the algorithm based on their content and audience — for example, if a user has “liked” fewer content publishers, that user will now see more posts from the same publisher now.
+ Mathew Ingram: With its changes to the algorithm, Facebook exerts control over publishers again (Fortune)
+ Noted: Facebook now delivers 4 million video views per day, up from 3 billion in January and 1 billion in September (Re/code); Google launches Matched Content, a tool for AdSense publishers that recommends content from your site to your visitors (Inside AdSense); New York Times releases update for core iPhone app with content selected by editors (New York Times); Knight-VICE Innovators Fund is now taking applications (VICE News)
How publishing platform FOLD helps you explain to readers what they need to know and keep them on your website (Ethan Zuckerman)
On Wednesday, a team of former MIT students launched FOLD, a new publishing platform designed to help “storytellers to structure and contextualize stories.” Authors can add “context cards” directly to their story within the platform, and cards can contain anything from videos to maps to tweets. Instead of linking out from a story, FOLD helps the reader stay on your story page and builds a richer story right on the page. FOLD is being launched without a clear business model as a platform and an open-source codebase. The team’s former teacher Ethan Zuckerman says: “I don’t think we know what FOLD is good for yet, and I think that’s exciting. It’s possible that FOLD becomes an alternative to platforms like Medium, a place that encourages people to write beautifully on a beautiful platform.”
Twitter teams up with two local British newspapers to hold election forums (HoldTheFrontPage)
The Birmingham Mail and Camden New Journal partnered with Twitter to hold online election forums between candidates and voters. At each newspaper’s event, candidates were quizzed on issues under hashtags and responded by Twitter, which was then followed by an open discussion around questions sourced from Twitter. Camden New Journal’s deputy editor Richard Osley says: “We were deluged with questions on the day and the nature of the format meant the politicians had to cut out the waffle and get straight to the point.”
+ German news sites lose legal battle against AdBlock Plus: Court says users have a right to use the plug-in (BBC News)
How you can host a successful social media event (Inc.)
For small- to medium-sized businesses, hosting social media events can be particularly rewarding because of the connection to your community. Holding a Google Hangout or Twitter chat event is low cost and can help build the conversation with your community. Set clear goals for what you want you accomplish with your event and focus on what kind of value you’re providing to the community. Afterward, send a follow-up survey and analyze your engagement from the event.
Why branded content requires a set of skills that’s uncomfortable for journalists (Digiday)
Effective branded content is easy to read and informative, but the writer also has to answer to people on the business side and take criticism from advertisers, something journalists do not typically have to do. Adam Ashton, head of The New York Times’ T Brand studio, says those conversations with clients and the business side are familiar to people in the ad world, but very new to journalists. After interviewing candidates for content creator gigs at the T Brand studio, Ashton says former journalists do well with writing branded content, but typically don’t have the thick skin needed to deal with advertisers.
+ Gawker interviewed BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith and Jonah Peretti about the ongoing review of the site’s deleted content, and Smith says: We want writers who have a stake in arguments (Gawker)
The Atlantic’s redesign takes out the visual noise for a magazine-style experience (Nieman Lab)
The redesign of The Atlantic’s website launched quietly on Tuesday night, with the goal of offering a cleaner reading experience. The reading experience more closely mimics a print magazine, something Joshua Benton says makes the content feel less newsy. The new homepage also shows less content than the old one, possibly a reflection of The Atlantic COO Bob Cohn’s argument that a homepage is not so much a way to direct lots of visitors to content as it is an image of your brand.
+ Why The Atlantic (and other publishers) chose to omit infinite scroll in its redesign: The benefits taper off as more traffic is referred from Facebook and mobile (Digiday)
The post Need to Know: April 23, 2015 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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