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You might have heard: Facebook’s algorithm is largely a mystery to publishers, but it’s been making tweaks to make the news feed more relevant to users, such as adding a tool that lets users choose what appears at the top of their feed and prioritizing friends’ posts over publishers’
But did you know: Facebook says it’s using feedback from user surveys to select stories to show in the news feed, which may have an effect on some publishers’ referral traffic (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook says it’s making some changes in how stories are selected for users’ news feeds. Facebook says it conducted a representative survey of 1,000 people to see what kind of content they actually want to see in their news feed. It will be using the results from that survey, in combination with the kinds of actions people take on a post (such as liking, sharing, commenting), to determine where stories appear in the news feed. Facebook says some publishers may seen an effect on their referral traffic as a result: “Pages might see some declines in referral traffic if the rate at which their stories are clicked on does not match how much people report wanting to see those stories near the top of their news feed.”
+ In other Facebook news, Facebook is adding emoji reactions to posts, which Porter Bayne writes has implications for publishers: “If you must optimize your content to get a like (or a smiley or an angry face) to improve distribution, and certain kinds of content gets more likes, then the content can start to look the same. … We need publishers to have their own unique voice, and community, and perspective. And so, our filters need to be just as unique.” (Antenna)
+ Noted: Marissa Mayer is expected to announce a drastic cost-cutting program for Yahoo, including cutting up to 15 percent of its workforce and closing several units (Wall Street Journal); Refinery29 launches its first app, a curated news app with eight stories each day called “Refinery29 This AM” (TechCrunch); Samsung adds support for ad blocking in its default web browser on Android smartphones (TechCrunch); The Atlantic is named magazine of the year by the American Society of Magazine Editors, beating out The Hollywood Reporter, National Geographic, New York and The New Yorker (WWD)
When autoplay video should be used and when it shouldn’t (Digiday)
“Autoplay absolutely makes sense when the consumer mindset is about checking out different things,” says Horizon Media’s SVP and managing director of digital Charlotte Cochrane about autoplay video on Facebook. But in other contexts, Cochrane says autoplay video doesn’t make as much sense: “When it’s distracting the consumer or preventing them from getting the content they want, it doesn’t.” Many publishers use autoplay video on article pages, but the user’s mindset for video isn’t quite as clear in those contexts.
The Guardian’s financial losses show that digital ‘success’ is measured by growth, and there’s no way to cover the costs of its growth (USA Today)
BuzzFeed and other digital start-ups are able to fuel their growth with rounds of investments, but Michael Wolff writes that publications such as The Guardian are in a trickier place: “Losses at some point overwhelm available capital.” While The Guardian cuts 20 percent of its costs, it will still have to find ways to sustain digital growth — but digital growth costs money, and The Guardian has refrained from implementing a paywall in favor of a membership model.
+ What The Guardian needs to do to get out of the red: Achieve higher scale to make its “open” model more successful, double down on its membership program, create higher quality branded content, and use data to drive subscriptions (Digiday)
How to use the ‘edge strategy’ to discover new business opportunities (Harvard Business Review)
Opportunity resides along the edges, Alan Lewis and Dan McKone write, or the borders between what your business does and what it doesn’t do. Lewis and McKone say there’s typically three kinds of “edges” framing a business: the boundary between the business and the customer, the points where the customer relationship currently begins and ends, and the edges around intangible assets like user data that could be valuable in other ways. Lewis and McKone write: “The approach is to look beyond the core business to near-field offerings, where the most leverage (and, importantly, the least risk) resides.”
Some online publishers are looking the other way on ad blocking out of a fear of upsetting readers (Bloomberg Business)
Curbing the use of ad blockers is in the best interest of online publishers who depend on advertising for income. But Joshua Brustein writes that some publishers are hesitant to do anything about ad blocking for a fear of upsetting users. According to research by MediaRadar, only 4 percent of large online publishers (as ranked by comScore) are taking any visible action to prevent people from using ad blockers.
+ Facebook acknowledges that it’s starting to worry about ad blockers: It noted ad blockers in its annual 10-K filing for the first time, saying that ad blockers have had an effect on revenue from “from time to time” (Business Insider)
BuzzFeed’s clients are increasingly asking for proof that native ads are working (Digiday)
BuzzFeed is generally ahead of the curve in terms of distributed content and native ads. However, its clients are starting to ask for more proof that native ads are effective for more than just getting clicks and shares. Lucia Moses reports that agencies working with BuzzFeed haven’t seen native ads lead to an actual intent to purchase. Senior VP of Digitas Studios (which works with BuzzFeed) George Hammer says that BuzzFeed is experimenting with ways to tie ads to performance.
The post Need to Know: Feb. 2, 2016 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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