Video sees rapid growth, with some publishers doubling audience size
The much maligned “pivot to video” may have ended in a fiasco, but growth in video has continued nevertheless. The latest edition of the Magazine…
Satya Nadella takes a crack at AI-powered news: Microsoft quietly launches Hummingbird
Last month, the “unthinkable” happened. Microsoft—the company that was declared dead a decade ago—overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable company. Microsoft chief Satya…
Neural networks can now easily crack CAPTCHAs, potentially causing a “huge security vulnerability” for publishers
CAPTCHAs have been protecting websites against bots for about a couple of decades now, but it appears that the world’s most popular website security system…
“Stories to rule the world”: The great social media pivot
Once upon a time, the News Feed took over the world, with Facebook at the helm. Industries were upended, new fortunes were created, and there…
Publishers beware: Google Chrome is now removing all ads from “abusive” sites
Last month, we reported that soon Google Chrome will shut down ads on any site with “abusive experiences”. This week, the Chrome team announced the…
Mobile direct traffic to publishers grows 30%, surpasses Facebook: Chartbeat
Since the beginning of last year, Facebook mobile traffic to publishers has declined nearly 40%, according to John Saroff, CEO of Chartbeat, a content intelligence…
A return to news: Facebook launches Today In, its local news digest, in over 400 cities
Facebook is taking another crack at local news, with its news aggregator ‘Today In’. Available within its flagship app, Today In connects people to local…
Condé Nast merges US and international businesses under one umbrella
“We are in a state of transformation,” said Wolfgang Blau, the president of Condé Nast International, earlier this year. Yesterday, when the publisher announced that…
Research: Half of readers prefer editions over newsflow, and 30% will pay for their format of choice
Last year Twipe—the Belgian company specializing in Digital Publishing and ePaper Analytics—ran a research project which examined successful new digital formats for publishers. They released…
“Reward engagement and loyalty”: With $10 million raised, Scroll bets on upending the currency of publishing
Journalism shouldn’t be driven by clicks. When you visit Scroll for the first time, the message above is softly hammered in. Before you can reach…
“Read in every country on earth”: NY Times charts its course to 10 million subscribers with a dynamic paywall plan
The New York Times Co. is on a tear. The Manhattan-based news publisher announced earlier this month that its digital-subscription sales grew strongly in the…
Starting December, Google Chrome will shut down ads on any site with “abusive experiences”
Google has decided to turn up the heat in its battle against rogue ads, and this time they have decided to block any website that…
Pivot to Stories? Zuckerberg says “this is the future”
In April 2016, Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement that sent tremors through the publishing world. Within five years, he predicted, Facebook would primarily consist of…
End of clickbait? Facebook cracks down on misleading content, across the board
A couple of years ago, thanks primarily to a few renegade publishers on Facebook, the term “clickbait” surged into the popular lexicon, forcing even the…
“The internet comes alive”: Publishers’ traffic spikes when platforms go down
Platforms like Facebook and YouTube are a major source of publisher traffic and audience engagement; yet recently, when these platforms experienced some outages, publishers witnessed…
Young people understand news better, and are more willing to pay for it
At a time when “fake news” has become so prevalent that Time had to cover its addition to the lexicon, and the British government had…
Facebook quietly tweaks its algorithm again, penalizing those who “copy and republish”
Facebook has updated its News Feed algorithm again, this time to reduce visibility of low-quality sites that tend to duplicate content from other publishers, without adding any value.…
Unexpected surge: Did Facebook’s algo change actually fuel publisher growth?
Facebook’s algorithm update earlier this year—focused on friends and family—was supposed to severely cripple an already struggling publishing industry. Dubbed the “Facebook Apocalypse,” it was…
Embrace tech, boycott Facebook: Financial Times charts its course to a million paying subscribers
The Financial Times marked 130 years in 2018, with a paying readership of more than 930,000, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It was also…
Digital media consumption grows 15%. Google rises, Facebook slides.
Digital media content consumption continues a steady mid-double-digit percentage growth, reports MediaPost. Pivotal Research Group’s analysis of Nielsen’s August 2018 data shows a substantial rise…