Tags containing: "news"

DCN and Reuters Institute studies align: Trust is key for the success of digital media

December 6, 2017 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Digital Content Next (DCN) and the Reuters Institute both released significant studies on trust in digital information within a week of each other. Here’s a topline analysis of the many consistencies in the findings important to navigating the future of digital content and building trust in media.

First and foremost, it’s important to note each methodology and identify the differences. Here’s how they compare:Here are some of Reuters’ top findings (and how they compare with DCN’s):

Social media is trusted less than the news media in its ability to separate fact from fiction. Respondents think newsfeeds are filled with inaccurate information, extreme agendas, and strong opinions, perhaps encouraged by social media algorithms.

Supports DCN’s findings of 62% agree “There’s so much random content on social media, there’s no way to tell if an article is credible or not.”

A significant proportion of respondents feel journalists do a good job in checking sources, verifying facts, and providing evidence to back up claims.

Supports DCN’s findings regarding the building blocks of the Trust Model and the importance of key components: brand sites must focus on four key areas to build trust: attribution (confirming multiple sources), reputation or authority, navigation/user experience, and prediction — building a direct relationship with consumers that builds upon past experiences.

In talking about trust, people mention television brands more than any other type of media (e.g. print or online).

Supports DCN’s findings in the regarding top trust brands – Newspaper and TV/Cable legacy brands historically rooted in media.

Some media outlets are taking sides, encouraging polarized set of opinions.

Supports DCN’s recommendation that Brand sites and apps should focus on what’s vital to consumers to drive trust, position their content as regularly updated, respected, and authentic in addition to the core positioning of high quality and trustworthy.

A substantial minority who trust social media, do so for its broad range of views and authenticity.

Key Recommendations:

The news media needs to differentiate itself more from information that has not gone through the same professional checking processes

DCN’s recommendation that fake news and distracting settings are significant problems in the digital landscape. A good opportunity for premium publishers to market themselves as a destination to avoid these annoyances.

The media need to do a better job in separating facts from opinion.

Correlates to DCN’s discussion of vital drivers of trust. Premium content should be in-depth, respected, expert and authentic. These are the definitions of trust that move the needle.

Build a more representative media – in terms of age, politics, economic outlook, and gender – is likely to help answer the criticism that media is only looking after the interests of the establishment (we don’t speak to diversification of reporting).

Building trust takes a strong commitment from publishers and platforms, alike, to develop a successful consumer relationship. It requires understanding and strategically implementing components and drivers of trust. Importantly, the need for self-monitoring is essential to ensure accurate and credible reporting is commonly practiced.

Industry-Research

Three lessons the Pacific Northwest can teach local media everywhere

October 2, 2017 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The transformation of the media business shows no signs of slowing. While all areas have been disrupted, local news has been among the hardest hit. These neighborhood news providers have seen steady cuts and closures. This has left “news deserts” in which wide swaths of America have a troubling shortage of local news coverage. Undoubtedly, local news remains important to the communities it serves and its survival essential.

The report, Local Journalism in the Pacific Northwest, explores the experience of 10 local media outlets in the Pacific Northwest. Through expert interviews and analysis, the report offers insights into a microcosm of how digital disruption is impacting local journalism more widely across the United States.

Like all media, local journalism faces enormous economic pressures and continues to evolve to address these issues. The report finds that continued experimentation is essential to success. However, some of the older digital formats — newsletters and podcasts — are experiencing a resurgence both in popularity and revenue generation. The upheaval in local journalism has also produced new possibilities for journalists and storytellers.

Here are three key takeaways from Local Journalism in the Pacific Northwest:

1. The practice of local journalism is evolving.

The report finds that role of local journalists is changing. Even the notion of objectivity is being reexamined as journalists seek to authentically engage audiences and reestablish trust. This includes elements of engaged journalism, with an emphasis on listening to communities, as well as harnessing digital platforms to tell stories in new and interesting ways.

Video and social media are already well-established means to engage audiences and share the news. Local journalists are also increasingly enthusiastic about exploring different approaches to their work. This includes solutions journalism and a recognition that you can maintain journalistic independence and integrity while still being active— and visible—in the community. We can expect to see a greater emphasis on the role of analytics to shape content and inform the beats that newsrooms focus on, as well as an increased importance attached to journalists with data and visual—particularly video—skills.

2. Local media needs to be more diverse in staffing and content.

While the report unsurprisingly finds that local newsrooms will continue to shrink in terms of staffing, it emphasizes that newsrooms must become increasingly diverse. Efforts to this end are essential so that these publications better reflect and engage the communities they serve. As those interviewed point out, many communities have seen a significant change in the racial and economic profile of their readers since the bulk of staff were hired. Thus, they need to improve their understanding of their audiences, as well as the priorities and expectations of these audiences. And, in addition to staffing up newsrooms that look more like the communities they represent, the skill-set of these journalists needs to address emerging digital formats and analytic tools. Engaging local journalism must reflect its community and their information needs while leveraging multimedia storytelling.

3. Outlets are experimenting with multiple ways to increase revenue.

The report outlines the significant pressures on the local ad-based business model. These include the fact that many advertisers are focused on ad targeting at scale and only willing to pay “digital dimes” rather than “print dollars.” It also looks at offline pressures on local advertising such as like shift of Main Street businesses from local shops to national chains.

Thus, local media providers are exploring with a range of ways to expand their revenue base. These include paywalls, subscriptions (including special offers and sales through third parties, such as Groupon), events, income from foundations, sponsorship, and membership models. These efforts are part of a wider move to diversify revenue and reduce reliance on print advertising and subscriptions—which are declining overall. Finding the right revenue mix to support local journalism is a strategic priority and, typically, a combination of methods is required for success.

The report explores several more significant takeaways based upon the research. They cover issues that include metrics, on and offline engagement, the rise of visual content, and the need to create unique content. As the report states, “We can see the positive impact local journalism can make on communities and the wider news/information ecosystem on a daily basis. It supports community, democratic, and civic needs and remains valuable to audiences and communities alike.”

Local journalism bears a great responsibility and must evolve to reflect the diverse communities it serves. At the same time, it most continuously experiment with engagement and delivery tools, as well as monetization models in order to remain relevant and economically viable.

Innovation

A great local news story: the growth of Spirited Media

September 28, 2017 Ron Miller, Editorial Director – boldstart ventures

When Spirited Media launched Billy Penn in 2014, the online publication had a broader mission than simply covering local news in the City of Brotherly Love. Co-founders Jim and Joan Brady wanted to do no less than rejuvenate local journalism itself by building a new business model that made local news coverage relevant to a younger audience, who saw traditional print media as old and stodgy.

It was a tall order by any measure. Brady and his intrepid team had just five people to cover Philadelphia—a huge city. They knew they needed to pick their coverage battles and find ways to engage with their target demographic to make their stories resonate with them.

Brady, a 20-year veteran of the news business, had witnessed the decline of local media first hand and knew it was time for a new approach. It was clear the old ways weren’t working. Local papers were either shuttered or had severely cut back coverage, and citizen journalism had not filled the gaps as many had hoped a decade ago. Without local news, there was a news gap that left uninformed citizens in its wake. And, as Brady knew all too well, a local news vacuum also left room for corrupt politicians to operate unimpeded without the white-hot journalism spotlight shining on them.

Brady understood that Spirited Media couldn’t fix all that ailed local journalism, but they were going to try to deliver news in a new way that would attract audiences and revenue. Today it consists of three local publications with Pittsburgh and Denver joining Philadelphia (in May of 2016 and this March, respectively).

Building new models

When Brady and his team prepared to launch Billy Penn, they knew that the under-35 crowd wanted to get their news digitally – and they wanted news with a voice. “We decided the site wouldn’t have a dry unemotional voice. The site had to reflect energy,” Brady said.

What’s more, they’ve found that their audience wants to go beyond the news and get involved to help shape the direction of their communities. “We have a fair number of stories about things in the community you can get involved with and how to connect with issues you care about,” he said.

Instead of trying to be a publication that delivers all the news from sports to art to politics, they decided to focus on a smaller set of stories that Brady and team believe their readers care about. Then, to create that larger scope, they plug into a broader system of sites. “There is a whole little solar system of smaller sites biting off pieces of everything the big papers once did – art, sports, education, city hall. You have a lot of journalists covering a lot of interesting things in Philly,” he said.

Getting readers together

While the Spirited Media approach still uses an ad model, it concentrates on mobile ads, not display ads, which Brady says don’t really work for digital news. Even more importantly, Spirited wants to be more than another publication pumping out posts with ads to support the mission. It wants to get its readers involved.

That requires putting readers together with the people behind the stories, whether the reporters themselves or the subjects, and having an advertiser sponsor the event. Brady says they learned the hard way that a panel on a stage wasn’t what people wanted. Instead, they host smaller, more intimate gatherings. As Brady said, if you put a bunch of interesting people in a room with food and drink, interesting conversations tend to happen. A happy byproduct is that advertisers can buy a package that includes ads and event sponsorship, which means additional revenue.

Spirited Media is also planning its own take on the membership model, which is slated to kick off in October. Readers who become members will have special access to the publication’s events, which will include meeting interesting people from the community and accessing places they might not typically get into like a tour of the Steeler’s locker room in Pittsburgh or a VIP City Hall tour in Philadelphia.

The Spirited Media approach appears to be working as the company has grown its team to 26 and expanded to two additional cities. Brady notes that the company earns just 40% of its diversified revenue from ads. And as for that younger demographic target, all three publications have more than 40% audience in the under 35 age group – with Billy Penn hitting 45% in that demographic. For ages 44 and younger, it’s more than 65% with Billy Penn’s audience comprising 71% in the 44 and younger age group.

It’s still early days for Spirited Media. However, it has developed a fresh take on the local model that publications of all types can learn from. And that is certainly good news.

Industry-Research

Strategies used by digital-native news publishers to drive user engagement

August 23, 2017 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Getting ones’ news digitally is not just for millennials—it’s the norm these days. In fact, nine in 10 U.S adults get their news digitally either via desktop or mobile. We’ve also seen strong digital native brands, those originally founded on the web like Vox Media or Huffington Post, emerge as leaders in the news marketplace. The new Pew Research Center research looks at 36 digital native news outlets that averaged at least 10 million monthly unique visitors in Q4 2016. The analysis provides an excellent snapshot of the digital native news industry’s audience strategies to increase outreach and engagement.

Usage and engagement

Overall, digital native news outlets are performing well. Monthly unique visitors for the 36 sites for the digital native news outlets increased 12% in 4Q 2016. Users also spent a healthy 2.4 minutes per average visit.

The use of digital native news apps is an important part of audience strategies. Close to two-thirds (61%) of the highest traffic digital-native news outlets have apps available for either iOS or Android. Mobile compatibility is an important part of their overall strategy and user engagement. In fact, 42% of these new outlets have apps supporting both iOS and Android.

User outreach is key to building and sustaining engagement. Almost all digital native publishers (97%) offer newsletters. Three-quarters produce podcasts and 61% have comment sections on their articles to promote consumer feedback. Digital news outlets also rely on social media to engage their users: All of those covered have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Almost all have Instagram accounts (92%) and are on YouTube (97%). Less than 25% have a Snapchat channel or account.

Revenue growth

Digital advertising continues to grow as a proportion of total advertising revenue, a trend that Pew points out is driven in large part by growth in advertising on mobile devices. Interestingly, based on a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year, more than eight-in-ten (85%) U.S. adults now get news on a mobile device compared to 72% just a year ago.

The report cites eMarketer estimates that digital advertising grew to $72 billion in 2016. Mobile advertising revenues accounted for 65% or $47 billion of the digital ad sales revenue. Desktop advertising revenue on the other hand continue to decline, now at 35% of total ad revenue. And, as ever, the report emphasizes the dominance of Facebook and Google in both banner and mobile display ad revenue.

Building a strong native digital news brands includes a platform native approach aligning publisher, platform and consumer strategies. Digital native publishers should experiment to find their unique voice and consumer connection. Importantly, the strength of a native digital news brand is deeply rooted in an engaged reader relationship.

Industry-Research

Attitudes toward news media are fractured along party lines

May 17, 2017 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological, educational, and generational lines than ever before. So, it’s no surprise that they trust and rely on different news sources. However, they also disagree on the news media’s purpose. Do news stories and analyses of current affairs help keep politicians honest or distract them from doing their jobs?

A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that 89% of Democrats say that the news media reports keeps political leaders in line, while only about 42% of Republicans say the same. That 47% gap, is significantly different from a year ago when roughly about three-quarters of both Democrats (74%) and Republicans (77%) backed the news media’s watchdog role.

In whom do we trust?

Still, trust in news and information is questionable these days. Only one-fifth of adults say they trust “a lot,” of the information they receive from national news organizations, 25% trust local news organizations and fewer than 15% trust information from family and friends. Social ranks last as a trusted news and information source with just 5% of U.S. adults. Yet we all know that social, i.e. Facebook, is often quoted as a major news source.

Among these four sources, one-third of Democrats (34%) report “a lot” of trust in news and information from national news organizations compared to 11% of Republicans. For local news, approximately 36% of Democrats trust the local news media “a lot,” compared to 24% of Republicans.

Americans are also paying closer attention to national news compared to 2016. Four-in-ten U.S. Adults report following national news very closely, up from one-third last year. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) report that news organizations tend to support one side in presenting news on political and social issues. In contrast, only a little over one-quarter of digital news users think the news media deals fairly with all sides. Specifically, more than half of those identifying as Democrats (53%) report that the news media tends to favor one side compared to 87% of Republicans.

Pew’s trending data shows it’s not unusual for Americans who support the President’s political party to be less likely to support the watchdog role of media. Still, the current gap is far wider than at any prior point over the past three decades.

News travels

As overall mobile usage increased this year, so did news consumption on mobile, with almost half of U.S. adults (45%) getting their news often on a mobile device, a 9% increase from a year ago. Among those who get news on both mobile and desktop, nearly two-thirds (65%) prefer mobile access to digital news over desktop access.

Overall, 73% of digital media users report that the national news media does well keeping them informed (21% “very well” and 54% “fairly well”). However, when looking at political orientation, 33% of Democrats report that the national media does “very well” at informing them, compared to 18% of Republicans.”

Importantly, when judging if a news story is trustworthy, about half of U.S. adults say the source of the story (51%) and the story’s publisher (48%) have “a large impact” on the assessment, followed by a gut instinct (30%) and the person who shared (26%) the story.

The insights from this study are especially important to publishers whose digital content is progressively reaching readers outside their own websites and apps. A publisher’s commitment to quality content produces value for its readers. While this may not cross partisan lines, it provides an accurate and level-playing field to strengthen the trusted relationship publishers and reader.

Industry-Research

Nearly half of political news content tweeted is fake

April 4, 2017 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

The rapid spread of misinformation—better known these days as fake news—was named one of the top 10 dangers to society by the World Economic Forum in 2014. Powered by automation and algorithms, fake news is amplified more than ever on social media. In fact, orchestrators of fake news rely heavily on social media to create web traffic, drive engagement, and influence political views.

To understand the threat and impact of fake news, researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) studied 22 million tweets that contained hashtags related to politics leading up to the 2016 US Presidential Election. The research, “Junk News and Bots during the U.S. Election: What Were Michigan Voters Sharing Over Twitter?,” identified 138,686 users from Michigan, a battleground state evenly split between both presidential candidates, Clinton and Trump. The state of Michigan was specifically selected because the two presidential candidates were equally supported, limiting political biasness in the research.

The Twitter data revealed that Trump-related traffic (57%) significantly outpaced Clinton-related traffic (20%) and neutral content (13%). Importantly, the research uncovered that professional news and fake news are close to a one-to-one ratio when it comes to political news tweets. Further, nearly a quarter of political tweets (23%) contain fake news links. and a full 47% of the political news content can be classified as political propaganda. Needless to say, social media’s proliferation of fake news is reason for concern.

Social platforms provide a fertile environment for the fast spread of fake without the necessary vetting and questioning of the information. Significantly, the Oxford Internet Institute defines “professional news” as that produced by major news brands. The information displays “the qualities of professional journalism, with fact-checking and credible standards of production. They provide clear information about real authors, editors, publishers and owners, and the content is clearly produced by an organization with a reputation for professional journalism.” And, while social platforms claim to be addressing the problem, premium publishers consider ensuring the accuracy of the information they report fundamental to their business so that they can deliver value to the reader and maintain consumer trust.

Industry-Research

Young consumers may stumble onto news, but they know what they trust when they see it

March 14, 2017 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

New patters of content consumption are emerging from the way teens and young adults access news. It’s not surprising that both smartphones and social media usage play a large role here. According to the James L. Knight Foundation’s new qualitative research, How Youth Navigates the News Landscape, young consumers don’t follow the news as much as it follows them. In fact, young adults often happen upon news content by accident and then share it on social media and messaging apps.

Findings from the Knight analysis include:

Most teens and young adults express little trust in the news media. They often seek out multiple resources to confirm information that is read.
Young people see today’s news as something that is often created outside of traditional journalism channels. In fact, what is defined as news among young consumers includes social media, aggregators, messaging apps, and user-generated content.
Young news consumers express much doubt about the accuracy of the news and assume that some level of bias is unavoidable in much of the information they encounter.
Social media plays a significant role in how news is disseminated in today’s marketplace. Young consumers are exposes to varying degrees of news quality as well as biasness.
Facebook leads as the primary social media news source.
Young consumers think of user-generated content, especially live video accounting of events, to be more truthful than traditional news outlets.
Young adults see most of the news as depressing and sad.

While the research speaks to young consumers’ lack of confidence in news content in general, it also speaks their high levels of trust in specific news brands. Importantly, news outlets should provide clear branding and identification as it aids in informing the younger audience of the information’s accuracy.

Innovation | Video

The Washington Post is focused on video. Here’s why

February 8, 2017 Jan Ozer—Independent Technology Journalist

In an era when many publications are contracting, The Washington Post is expanding, particularly in the group charged with producing and hosting web videos. To understand why, we spoke with the Post’s Micah Gelman Senior Editor, Director of Editorial Video.

Tell us about the recent expansion in the video department.

We recently posted close to 30 new jobs in the video department to expand our efforts in two basic ways. First, we want to present videos with our news stories when it’s complementary to the story. Second, we’re developing content for over the top delivery, and delivery in UGC and social media sites, to position The Washington Post as a video destination.

Let’s look at the first focus. Where does video fit in for a newspaper?

The Washington Post produced six hours of coverage of the Women’s March with over 8.3 million views. (Editorial note: per Facebook statistics, the Post had over 4.1 million views for the election and inauguration, and over 8.3 million views of the Women’s March).

Video has become a core part of our mission to present readers with a full 360 view of the news; it’s complementary to the written story, not either/or. Some news is inherently visual, so we present video as part of the story. Sometimes video enables a deeper dive into the content, so we present that.

Sometimes, the story is live and we produce that as well. For example, we broadcast the recent presidential election on Facebook Live for eight and a half hours, the inauguration for about nine hours, and the Women’s March for about six hours. Each event drew millions of viewers.

Overall, we want to become a one stop shop that presents our readers with the story produced in all the formats that it should be in.

What percentage of stories do you cover directly as opposed to using footage from other sources? How will this change over the next 12 months or so?

Today, about 40% is original, and 60% is from other sources. However, even when we use third-party video, we put our own editorial package around it, adding reporting, annotations, and other elements that makes it original. Over the next 12 months, we’ll double the size of our video staff and that’s probably going to flip to 65% original content.

Though our base is in DC, we’ve sent video journalists to North Korea, China, to cover multiple terror attacks overseas, as well as covering stories all over the United States. Our readers are global and so is our video coverage. And this will expand greatly over the next few months.

Can you elaborate on your over the top strategy?

A Washington Post YouTube video discussing how quotes from 1984 are relevant in 2017, dramatically boosting sales of the book.

The next phase of growth is to position The Washington Post as a destination for video. We want to change the perception of The Washington Post as a legacy newspaper with video, to a video-first enterprise, essentially re-imagining The Washington Post as a video destination, not only on Facebook Live, YouTube and other social media sites, but also over the top via Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV.

Editorially, what works well in an article page typically isn’t as effective as a standalone video consumed on a living room TV. So, we’re producing longer, more scripted pieces with studio quality production value. We’re adding YouTube-style personalities, and producing video to distribute not only through our own OTT apps, but through other channels as well. Again, it’s video as the destination.

How do you market OTT content?

That’s the key question. We have to use all available megaphones to call attention to what’s new and what’s different and promote our discoverability, to let our readers and viewers know what’s available.

Talk about what you’re doing on social media.

We’re producing 150 to 175 events a month on Facebook Live, YouTube Live and our own website. While it’s easier to monetize video on our own site, Facebook Live and YouTube Live provide scale because we’re attracting an audience that wouldn’t come to our site. So, it’s very valuable to us to be on both sites, and other social media properties.

How does Facebook Live compare to YouTube Live?

Facebook has been very aggressive in their own repositioning to a video destination, which obviously YouTube already was. YouTube viewers are on that site to watch multiple videos, which is obviously good for us, while Facebook viewers are a bit more passive and on the site for a range of content. They’re both really valuable audiences to us in different ways.

Can you briefly describe the tools you use to capture/edit/encode/deliver your streaming videos?

We shoot either using DSLRs, or with Sony FS5 cameras, which are 4K and deliver more broadcast quality. We use LiveU on-camera transcoders/transmitters for sending live feeds from the field, and edit in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Tell us about your staff.

We have about 40 on our video staff, almost all capable of shooting and producing events, with about 32 regularly shooting and producing. Fortunately, we’re far enough along in the evolution of video journalists that many of our staff have experience in other places. Otherwise, we have staff who worked in TV, some who came through photography, and some that were trained as multimedia journalists.

Industry-Research

Fake news fools most of the people most of the time

December 13, 2016 DCN

American adults are fooled by fake news headlines approximately 75% of the time. Those likely to turn to Facebook for news are more likely to think fake news headlines are correct than those using other platforms according to a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for BuzzFeed News. Consumers find it difficult to filter out fake news headlines without the necessary background filled-in, particularly in social media channels. Interestingly, consumers are even likely to believe fake news headlines that don’t necessarily fit with their ideological beliefs.

Almost one-third of respondents recalled at least one of a selection of fake news headlines from the election. In comparison, 57% of respondents recalled at least one of the real news headlines tested in the survey. Interestingly, consumers who identified themselves as Republican are more likely to think fake election news stories are very or somewhat accurate. Eight in 10 Republicans rated fake news headlines as accurate (among those they recognized), compared seven in 10 Democrats.

The fake news headline recalled by the largest number of respondents, 22%, is the story from the website the Denver Guardian, “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide.” The highest awareness for a true news headline was at 34% of respondents for recalling Trump “absolutely” requiring Muslims to register.

One of the highest recalled true news headlines was the CBS News post-election story about Donald Trump stating he will not accept a presidential salary, “Donald Trump on Refusing Presidential Salary: ‘I’m Not Taking It.’” More than half of respondents (57%) recalled seeing this headline. Another news headline with a 90% accuracy rating, among the 157 respondents who recognized it, was the New York Times op-ed “I Ran the CIA. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton.”

Respondents rated the fake news story “FBI Director Comey Just Put a Trump Sign on His Front Lawn,” with the highest overall accuracy rating. Among the 186 people who recalled seeing it, 81% said it was very or somewhat accurate.

News headlines tested:

FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide (Fake, 22% recall)
Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement (Fake, 19% recall)
Donald Trump Protester Speaks Out: “I Was Paid $3,500 to Protest Trump’s Rally” (Fake, 19% recall)
Donald Trump Sent His Own Plane to Transport 200 Stranded Marines (Fake, 14% recall)
FBI Director Comey Just Put a Trump Sign on His Front Lawn (Fake, 10% recall)
Donald Trump on Refusing Presidential Salary: “I’m Not Taking It” (True, 57% recall)
Donald Trump Says He’d “Absolutely” Require Muslims to Register (True, 34% recall)
Trump: “I Will Protect Our LGBTQ Citizens” (True, 27% recall)
Barbara Bush: “I Don’t Know How Women Can Vote” for Trump (True, 25% recall)
Melania Trump’s Girl-on-Girl Photos from Racy Shoot Revealed (True, 23% recall)
I Ran the CIA. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton (True, 11% recall)

Consumers frequently see fake news in their social media feeds according to another survey on fake news conducted by Morning Consult, a media and technology. They found that amost one-third of respondents (31%) reported seeing a fake news story online more than once a day. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said they started to read a story online only to realize it was fake.
In terms of social platform usage, participants of the Ipsos survey cited Facebook as the most popular with just less than half (47%) visiting Facebook multiple times per day and another 15% report visiting once a day. YouTube was the second most popular social platform. Twenty percent stated they visit YouTube multiple times per day and 11% visit once a day. The fact that fake news headlines are often remembered and said to be accurate by a strong number of consumers points to the fact that consumers have a difficult time discerning between fact and fictional news on social media.

Industry-Research

People consume mobile news from more places than ever. So now what?

May 27, 2016 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The advance of mobile and connected devices has caused a sea change in the way news is consumed and delivered. But knowing that people are spending a significant amount of time on mobile news sites and apps is not the input organizations need to architect an effective digital strategy. They also require more visibility into news consumption patterns across devices and demographic data that will help them to better understand and engage with an audience eager to access news and determined to explore new pathways.

This is where a new two-part series of insights based on custom research conducted with Nielsen and commissioned by Knight Foundation entitled Mobile-first news: How people use smartphones to access information sheds important light on how this audience of “news-seekers” is seeking, finding and interacting with news content across a variety of platforms and — more importantly — social media networks.

The good news is the audience of news-seekers across mobile sites and apps is “immense” and shows no signs of slowing. In fact, the research tells us that the vast majority (89%) of the U.S. mobile population (or 144 million users) now access news and information via their mobile devices. The not-so-good news is that the audience of news-seekers accessing and reading news on more traditional mobile sites and apps is decline compared with the numbers flocking to social networking platforms. (The Nielsen study reveals that the audience for news aggregator app Flipborad is the only one showing a steady increase — while audiences for all other top news apps are moving sideways.)

The social shift
The shift to social is seismic. Overall, 27% of mobile time (more than 12 hours per month) is spent on social networking sites. Facebook leads the pack with over 70% of its members using Facebook for their news fix every day. But it’s not the network for everyone. Consumption patterns differ depending on the social networking platform — with LinkedIn standing out as a favorite for news-seekers looking for tech and financial and business news and Instagram dominating as the destination for life-style news and trends.

However, news-seekers aren’t just spending time accessing content via social networks; they are also taking “offline actions related to the content.” Whether they simply “like” the content on Facebook or Twitter, or start a discussion in a forum or in the real-world, it’s clear that audience group wants to actively engage with content, not passively consume it.

The pathways to news content are also evolving. Facebook and social networks may be where much of the action (and activity) is, but search and email are also “launching pads for news-seeking activity in both apps and mobile sites.” The challenge for publishers, the research says, is “to be nimble in not just one channel but several.”

It’s also important to know which destinations are driving traffic and encouraging audiences to explore news content. The research places Wikipedia top of the list of websites visited by news-seekers prior to “exploring sites as varied as BuzzFeed, Daily MailOnline, nytimes.com, usatoday.com, washingtonpost.com and those of the Tribune newspapers.” Wikipedia has become a top reference site because current news and events are often embedded within Wikipedia entries, providing news-seekers the opportunity to learn more about a topic after reading a news article.

Demographic impact
But again, the top reference sites differ depending on demographics. News-seekers coming to news content from social sites and chat apps tend to be younger and more ethnically diverse, while referrals from mobile apps such as ESPN and Yahoo.com tend to bring in the 35+ crowd. Overall, news-seekers ages 18-24 are “3 and 4x more likely than typical online adults to go to news content from Instagram, Pinterst and Snapchat.”

Different ethnic groups also have different preferences. African-Americans are “2.5x more likely than typical online adults to go to news content from Twitter” while Hispanics lead mobile news-seeking in all categories and arrive at much of their news content through sources including BuzzFeed and Facebook.

Whether news-seekers come to the content they want via apps or aggregators, audiences share what the research calls a “a desire for news that is personalized to their interests.”

Read between the lines, and news consumption has grown rapidly — but so has the number of pathways to news content. While television remains the top source for all audiences, social media networks are also gaining traction as a trusted and even preferred source for news content and activity. Publishers are well advised to stop debating whether they should adopt a mobile or app strategy and focus on strategies that will allow them to distribute content in a way that reaches news-seekers on the devices they prefer and — more importantly — via the social networks they love.

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.

Innovation

Chat apps: The unlikeliest of news delivery channels

March 31, 2016 DCN

Since its earliest days, the news has always been about stringing together sentences and paragraphs to tell stories for readers. Even in the Internet age when people lament over increasingly short attention spans and stories are being told ever more succinctly, the general approach has held — that is until, the idea of delivering news as text messages came along.

How is it possible, those of you who grew up pre-Internet might wonder, to deliver the news in a sentence or two? How concise can one get before rendering the exercise meaningless? The fact is that with some creativity, it is possible and even fun to receive the news in this fashion. The key is linking back to longer articles to give you depth if you want it. Otherwise you can just dip in and have a look whenever you have a moment (or within the flow of other conversations inside the chat application).

The fact is that venerable news organizations that are steeped in that pre-Internet past like the New York Times, Washington Post and The Economist are all experimenting with delivering news to a new generation of readers using chat apps, opening up new audiences in fresh markets who might have otherwise chosen to ignore their news brand altogether.

How chat became a channel
The idea of delivering news in a chat app is a matter of following the audience. This is particularly true in Asia where people are using chat apps for far more than chatting, says Eytan Oren, CEO of Block Party, a messaging app consultancy and co-author of a comprehensive Guide to Chat Apps report published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School.

“There are now more people using messaging apps than traditional social networks, so to a large extent it’s a matter of going where the audiences go. Chat app users are also a natural place for users to share and discuss news with friends and family, so publishers have the opportunity to facilitate and enhance those conversations,” Oren explained.

That’s precisely why The Economist went after this market, in spite of being well known for writing smart stories about world events, says community editor, Denise Law. “We concluded that chat apps are yet another effective distribution network through which to build our reach, particularly among new communities who may have never heard of The Economist,” she explained.

It’s also a way to diversify your audience and not become too dependent on a single social channel, particularly Facebook or Google.

“If you’re getting more than half of your traffic from one social networking site, you’re vulnerable to unexpected changes in that platform’s algorithm that can greatly impact your business. Chat apps are also a great place to connect with teens and millennials that may not spend as much time on traditional social networks,” Oren explained.

QuartzChatNews — Quartz delivers the news via short, in-app messages.

Build or buy
Once publications decide to deliver news in a chat app, the next issue is whether you plug into an existing one and the audience that comes with it, or you build your own and control the message, branding and audience. The Economist decided to use the chat app LINE, rather than build its own because it’s expensive to build and maintain an app like this. It also offered the ability to build a branded page.

“LINE allows publishers to host content on a homepage, something that you can’t do on WhatsApp or Messenger. Users can visit your homepage, subscribe to your news alerts and receive both content posted to a timeline or via a push alert. We liked that you can publish content using two different distribution channels,” Law said.

Quartz, an Atlantic Monthly Media publication, born online decided to build its own and experiment within their own product, according to Zack Seward, VP of product and executive editor at Quartz. “We started by pursuing the idea that we could create notifications and built an app to do that. Then the question was, what goes inside the app? We tried a bunch of different ideas but eventually came back around to the simple idea that it’s all just messages,” Seward explained.

A work in progress
While chat apps provide a way for publications to diversify across multiple channels, it still lacks some basic analytics and audience measurement tools you get with Google, Facebook and Twitter. There are also many chat apps and it’s hard to know where to put your resources and attention. Even though The Economist is using LINE now, it’s exploring other options and plans to support additional apps in the near future.

For now, chat may seem like an unlikely news channel, but it offers a great way to reach people you might have otherwise missed. Just keep in mind it’s still in the experimental stage and plan accordingly.

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

Innovation

NewsON: delivering local news anywhere, anytime

February 19, 2016 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

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.”

The 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.