Audience Engagement Digital Publishing
3 mins read

Quality journalism remains the key for winning the war on attention

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When fake news is a major news item in itself, it’s not surprising that consumers are deciding to spend more time with established and trusted media brands. That’s what the latest figures revealed by the World Media Group (WMG), a strategic alliance of ten of the world’s leading international media brands, demonstrate.

SaaS analytics and measurement firm, Moat, analysed digital inventory across all WMG brands in Q3 2017 and mapped them against its industry benchmarks – standards against which brands and publishers can measure the success of ad campaigns. The findings show that the WMG brands outperformed Moat’s benchmarks by between 16% and 73%.

In addition, when looking at the quality of engagement delivered by WMG brands, the analysis shows that there has been a significant increase in attention measures since the previous year.  In particular, active page dwell time for WMG Display Desktop (average length of time the user was on the page with the window in-focus) has increased by 67% year-on-year and is now 72% higher than the Moat benchmark. Also, Display Desktop in-view time (the length of time an ad has been active and in-view) is up by 34% compared to last year and stands 51% higher than the Moat benchmark.

The World Media Group comprises Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, The New York Times, TIME, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post along with Reuters which has just been announced as the Group’s newest member.

It is accurate to say that these are media brands that, with over 1,000 major journalism awards including at least 190 Pulitzer prizes, are investing in quality writing and content – and indeed have come together with the expressed aim of promoting quality journalism. In addition, they are providing innovative technology to optimise digital ad delivery and viewability, such as device-agnostic solutions that ensure ads are always viewed at the appropriate size.

The Moat findings therefore show that the importance of well written, properly researched journalism that is effectively delivered, is growing.

Rupert Turnbull, VP, Meredith International (owner of WMG members TIME & Fortune), believes that, far from turning consumers away from them, what he calls the ‘Trump-factor’ has had a positive impact across the World Media Group in the past twelve months.

He explains, “The Moat analysis adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests consumers are not only actively searching for quality journalism on trusted sites, but also moving away from bite-sized, click-bait headlines and enjoying the long form content created by quality media brands. This is great news for advertisers who are benefiting from the halo effect of our readers’ greater attention levels when viewing our content.”

This is a sentiment echoed by Munira Ibrahim, SVP, Sales & Content Solutions, Reuters, who adds, “At Reuters our passion is for providing well-researched, trusted news, written by world class journalists – and the latest Moat analysis confirms that these are values that are held strongly across the whole of the World Media Group. We are looking forward to working together with the rest of the members to promote quality journalism, delivered around the world through high-spec technology.”

The in-depth results from the Moat analysis are as follows:

Measure/Benchmark World Media Group Lift Compared to Moat Benchmarks (Q3 2017)
Display Desktop active page dwell time (secs) 84.5s +72%
Display Desktop in-view rate 63.2% +17%
Display Desktop in-view time (secs) 41.2s +51%
Mobile Web active page dwell time (secs) 50.6s +26%

 

Mobile Web in-view rate 65.1% +39%
Mobile Web universal touch rate 20.8% +73%
Video Desktop in-view rate 71.9% +16%
Video Desktop audible and visible on complete rate 36.6% +18%
Source: Moat Q3 2017*