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Wednesday, July 27, 2016
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How the Swiss newspaper NZZ is building products to try and cultivate new paying audiences“Now we are in the process, with our new data platforms, of analyzing clusters of users and identifying which cluster has a higher likelihood to convert to a paying subscriber.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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Paywalls and politics: Independent Russian television station TV Rain turns to subscriptions as its futureShifting the focus to digital was hardly just a business decision, though: “Really, this was pretty much the only source that could help us go through.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
Digiday / Jessica Davies
How Mashable is finding its angle to build overseas →
“The message was clear: Scale alone isn't enough without securing a focused editorial identity, especially when expanding across social platforms. Overseas, it's reinforcing the same mandate.”
Fortune / Erin Griffith
How BuzzFeed breaks news in multiple languages →
“Translating 685 English videos into other languages, added 3 billion international video views.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Gannett’s expansion strategy runs into bad news on the advertising front →
“Its earnings release alluded to continued weak advertising but provided no numbers.”
The Information / Cory Weinberg
Some media companies are backing away a bit from Facebook Live →
“The numbers got to the point where we chose not to do it every day. We're scaling back — not so dramatically that Facebook would be concerned — but we're retrenching.”
Marketing Week / Thomas Hobbs
Only 44% of digital display ads are ever seen; only 4% get looked at for more than 2 seconds →
“[The study] found that a full-page ad in a paper the same size as the tabloid the New York Daily News will be viewed by 88% of readers, for an average time of 2.8 seconds. In comparison, a billboard format ad on a website will get 38% of people looking for just 1.5 seconds.”
The New York Times / Jodi Rudoren
How The New York Times learned the stories of 247 terror victims →
“We decided not to move on but to look back. To find out as much as we could about every single human being slain in a mass killing anywhere, to trace the ripple effects of the violence, to identify the things that connected people across places or distinguished one from the other. Simply put: to show terrorism's human toll.”
Current / Mike Janssen
NPR’s ‘Best of Car Talk’ will end in September 2017 →
“NPR announced Wednesday that Best of Car Talk, which airs on 654 stations, will end production as of Sept. 30, 2017. Some stations may continue to air a version of the show, however, and it could continue as a podcast as well.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Newsletter editors are the new important person in newsrooms →
“Unlike articles that people encounter in their social feeds, publishers say newsletters have permission to be written in a more conversational and personal style because the reader has already opted in to them.”
Newsweek / Zach Schonfeld
Are we living in a golden age of stunt journalism? →
“A decade ago, stunts like this might have been fodder for a reality show, like Fear Factor or maybe Jackass. Today, the Jackasses are just as likely to be professional journalists, dressing up as Marilyn Monroe or strapping on an adult diaper in the name of content. And as ad models shift toward video and live streams, journalists are now eating paper and freezing themselves in cryotherapy chambers on camera.”
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Here are three questions we hope Facebook answers about its livestreaming video push →
“Facebook reports its Q2 earnings on Wednesday, and some of the big questions around its business — at least the most immediately relevant questions — have to do with video. More specifically, live video, and how the company plans to turn its recent livestreaming push into a boon for its bottom line.”
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Twitter is having revenue problems because its ads are too expensive →
“Twitter missed Wall Street's Q2 revenue estimates Tuesday, and even more concerning was that the company dramatically lowered its revenue projections for Q3 as well.”
NPR / Mary Louise Kelly
Was that a Russian spy? What it’s like to report from Moscow →
“I took the warnings with a grain of salt until I got there and started collecting stories from reporters, dissidents and human rights activists. Stories of being harassed by Russian spies, particularly those in the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the domestic successor to the KGB. Some of the tales sound like they were ripped from the pages of a badly written spy novel. Some, frankly, were terrifying.”
The Huffington Post / Damon Beres
Facebook is quietly testing a move away from editorialized trending topics →
“In this version of the Trending module, topics are sorted in a simple list with a number indicating how many people are talking about them. Previously, each of those lines would have been accompanied by a short description written by a Facebook employee ― and no numbers indicating how popular each topic is.”
Journalism.co.uk / Abigail Edge
Advice on Facebook Messenger bots from The Wall Street Journal →
“On Facebook, we have this really robust, loyal community,” explained Carla Zanoni, global head of emerging media at the WSJ. “And I think they want a connection with us that's more real-time and more intimate.”
CNNMoney / Brian Stelter
Some of Yahoo’s media all-stars looking to leave after Verizon deal →
“Yahoo spent millions of dollars to hire media all-stars like Katie Couric, Joe Zee and David Pogue. So what’s going to happen with them now that Yahoo is being swallowed up by Verizon? The short answer is, they don’t know. And if Verizon knows, it’s not telling yet.”
The Guardian / Jasper Jackson
Guardian’s losses hit £69m but it gains more than 50,000 paying members →
“Membership is a core part of plans by the publisher's parent company, Guardian Media Group, to counteract falls in both print and digital revenue, which led to an £8m fall in total turnover to £209.5m.”
Digiday / Jemma Brackebush
Atlas Obscura turns to sponsored content for its first podcast, “Escape Plan” →
“The podcast, based on day-long road trips, fits perfectly within the company's editorial scope aimed at adventure seeking millennials. But rather than traditional host-read ad messages, the podcast wove Zipcar, an Avis subsidiary, into the content itself.”