Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: Facebook’s algorithm is largely a mystery to publishers, but the company has been using feedback from user surveys to select stories to show in the news feed
But did you know: Facebook will include time spent reading as a factor in news feed ranking (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook is adding a new factor to its algorithm: It will now take into account how long users spend reading or watching a piece of content in their news feed. The length of the article will also be considered, so that longer articles will not necessarily be treated preferentially. Facebook also says it is making an update to increase diversity of sources in the news feed, which will reduce how often people see several posts in a row from the same source.
+ Noted: Disney sell its 50 percent stake in Fusion back to Univision (Los Angeles Times); Editors see the media industry losing ground as a legal advocate for the First Amendment and see shrinking resources as the problem, a new survey from the Knight Foundation finds (Columbia Journalism Review); Medium raises $50 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital, which Ev Williams says will fund its continued move into becoming a platform for publishers (Medium); NY Daily News editor who was fired over plagiarism claims in Shaun King’s columns says the mistakes were the result of a formatting glitch in the CMS that stripped out indented quotations (Medium)
Three strategies for combatting ad blockers include asking readers to turn ad blockers off, blocking access if a user has an ad blocker enabled, or simply continuing to publish ads anyway (Journalism.co.uk)
Speaking at Digital Media Europe in Vienna, publishers including Bild and NYT shared their strategies for combatting ad blockers. Bild’s managing director for digital Stefan Betzold suggested that there are three possible strategies for fighting ad blockers, and Bild has adopted the strategy of blocking access. But the panel noted that publishers seem unaware of their readers’ concerns about being tracked online, and Betzold says there’s only so much publishers can do if most of the tracking is coming from the advertising industry.
+ Analyzing traffic data from sites that prevent users with ad blockers from accessing content, The Stack’s Martin Anderson argues that denying users access doesn’t seem to be the answer (The Stack)
How a Swiss media organization is taking a data-driven approach to curating news (Journalism.co.uk)
Switzerland’s Tamedia launched an app called Zwölf (which means 12), which curates and repackages stories from Tamedia’s titles and presents only the 12 best stories of the day. A small team of editors chooses the 12 stories for the app, and the stories are sent to users through a push notification at noon each day. Tamedia is measuring Zwölf’s success through a simple metric called the “rating metric”: Each story has a yes/no button at the end, prompting the reader to say whether they’ve found the article useful or important, which is considered alongside reach.
Insights from how companies outside of journalism are using analytics (McKinsey)
Talking to executives from six companies outside of the media industry, McKinsey rounds up how some companies are adopting data and analytics as part of their strategies. Caesars Entertainment’s chief analytics officer Ruben Sigala emphasizes the importance of using analytics in line with your company’s values, and letting your company’s existing structure and goals inform the way you use analytics.
A growing threat to publishers from big platforms is low ‘switching costs’ (New York Times)
In an interview with John Herrmann, Harvard Business School professor Andrei Hagiu explains: “What a platform does, to some degree, is introduce a lowest common denominator. In particular, they make the substitution, or the switching cost, between the different players a lot lower. I think that’s undeniable. It’s much easier to switch between, say, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as a user, and as an advertiser by the way, if those are on top of Facebook.”
MTV News is creating five podcasts as part of a comeback plan (Digiday)
Acknowledging that its audience is spending more time looking at mobile phones instead of TVs, MTV News announced Thursday that it’s launching five podcasts around topics such as politics and pop culture. While some podcasts will be hosted by existing MTV News journalists, some new hires are being made: Former Grantland writers Molly Lambert and Alex Pappademas will analyze pop culture news for North Mollywood.
FOR THE WEEKEND
+ As the Philadelphia newspapers become a nonprofit, Current takes a look at the public media landscape today: “Nonprofit ownership structures could become a new trend for legacy print media as traditional revenues like advertising and circulation continue to decline,” but it’s not a simple solution for financial health (Current)
+ A month after Digital First Media purchased the Orange County Register, it’s now in selling mode, with three smaller New England daily newspapers being sold in addition to the Salt Lake Tribune; Ken Doctor notes: “Whatever the motivations for these two sales, they mark a modest reinforcement of a trend to local, monied ownership of dailies” (Politico Media)
+ Jim VandeHei says the era of the media “crap trap” is coming to an end: “Some companies feel self-conscious about the trash they are producing. Many others realize it’s simply not a good business model. But the savviest ones see a very cool reason to change: A content revolution is picking up speed, promising a profitable future for companies that can lock down loyal audiences, especially those built around higher-quality content” (The Information)
+ Lessons from Pulitzer-prize winning collaborations: Know what you can and can’t do well, take advantage of people’s strengths while leaving them room to grow, and prioritize communication between all editors involved (Poynter)
+ ICYMI: API’s new research from this week on “What makes people trust and rely on news” and “The ethical terrain of nonprofit journalism”
The post Need to Know: April 22, 2016 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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