A New Model For Digital Publishing: The Affinity Engagement Index

fastcolabs reporting:
The audience in digital media such as the web is measurable and can be analyzed far beyond the means of traditional media. It is this aspect that should be emphasized when constructing revenue models for content businesses. Instead of the old commodity model in which one audience member is as valuable as the next, the Affinity Engagement Index (AEI) model proposes to specifically show how valuable an audience segment is to an advertiser, in a way that can form the basis for a negotiation (much in the way that CPMs work now).
The model is based on two critical factors:

Affinity

Affinity, for the purposes of this model, is a measurement of how much the audience likes the publisher’s content. While affinity can be measured on the basis of an individual for a specific content item, for AEI purposes, we look at audience segment affinity for “clusters” of content, which are organized together by common metadata (such as author, category, topics, etc.).

Engagement

Engagement is the level of an audience member’s interaction with, and attention to, a publisher. A high-engagement audience member is more valuable than a low engagement audience member, because they are paying more attention.
The model would create scores for each factor through various methods:

Potential

Potential represents the value of an audience segment. Pricing for advertising should be compared against the Potential number (it is the equivalent of CPMs):

Segmentation

While you could describe a complete aggregate audience for a publisher in terms of their AEI score, it’s likely that a publisher will want to segment their audience, both by gross divisions in affinity clusters (this portion of the audience is into web development, this portion is into typography etc.), but also by engagement levels....
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3025607/a-new-model-for-digital-publishing-the-affinity-engagement-index?utm_source=API%27s+Need+to+Know+newsletter&utm_campaign=22a808c1ea-Need_to_Know_January_29_20141_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e3bf78af04-22a808c1ea-31701933

Mario García: What's cooking with mobile and tablets

WAN IFRA reporting:

....Mario García, the renowned publications designer who recently completed his first digital book, "iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet" (available from the iBookstore for iPad, as well as on Amazon Kindle and Google Books). As part of his faculty affiliate work at the Poynter Institute in the USA, he was part of the key research team for EyeTrack: Tablet, which in 2012 studied how tablet users read and interact with news.
...Can you generalise the challenges facing publishers in satisfying reader demand with their tablet products?
The first challenge is developing a philosophy. While many publishers are declaring the “digital first” banner as their own, it is a long way from declaring it to actually doing it. So the challenge is to see storytelling as the protagonist, then see how stories adapt to the various platforms. That requires a radical change in thinking in the newsroom, and, in most cases, an approach that says: In this organization we write for digital platforms first, then the rest happens organically.
Are you seeing more of a holistic mobile/multimedia strategy, i.e. tablet, mobile, online, print?
Indeed I am. That’s good news. There is near the end of 2013 a greater acceptance that a multi-platform world, the media quartet, as I call it, is the way to go. Let the story develop for each platform, exploring the full potential of each. Let’s not come to the office to plan a “newspaper” – emphasis on “paper.” It is beginning to happen, for which I am very happy.  It is no longer should we do it, it is HOW can we do it, and HOW SOON. Exciting times, indeed, for us storytellers.
What questions would you advise news publishers here to ask mobile/tablet/system providers who are promoting their solutions?

• Ask about the nexus where technology and storytelling meet. Those two are indispensable disciplines that must come together.
• Find out what the best technical solution is for you to manage your content flow in the most expeditious manner. Soak it all up in terms of how other organizations are doing, but, remember, your newspaper is different, and you cannot simply take a model you like and apply it to your situation. You must explore what is possible, then concentrate on how that would work with your specific publication.
• Be ready for change: embrace it, accept it and be ready to implement functions that are based on a rethinking of what you do and how you do it
•  http://blog.wan-ifra.org/2013/09/25/mario-garcia-whats-cooking-with-mobile-and-tablets-0

Most American adults read a print book in the past year, even as e-reading continues to grow

PEW reporting:
The proportion of Americans who read e-books is growing, but few have completely replaced print books for electronic versions.
The percentage of adults who read an e-book in the past year has risen to 28%, up from 23% at the end of 2012. At the same time, about seven in ten Americans reported reading a book in print, up four percentage points after a slight dip in 2012, and 14% of adults listened to an audiobook.
Though e-books are rising in popularity, print remains the foundation of Americans’ reading habits. Most people who read e-books also read print books, and just 4% of readers are “e-book only.” Audiobook listeners have the most diverse reading habits overall, while fewer print readers consume books in other formats.

Overall, 76% of adults read a book in some format over the previous 12 months. The typical American adult read or listened to 5 books in the past year, and the average for all adults was 12 books.¹ Neither the mean nor median number of books read has changed significantly over the past few years.
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2014/E-Reading-Update/Overview.aspx

E-Readers and Tablets Detrimental to Children’s Reading Says Study

A new study was just released earlier today that shows e-readers and tablets are detrimental to children’s reading habits. Out of all the children that have e-readers and tablets, fewer than half actually use the devices to read. What’s even more shocking is that the children who did use the electronic gadgets to read only engaged in reading for five minutes per day-far below the minimum recommendations for optimal brain development.
The research supports earlier studies that show electronic gadgets are inferior for reading as it pertains to comprehension and learning. Children also read slower when staring at screens than they do when reading a paper book, and they retain much less information from screens than they do from paper.
When children read with printed books on paper, they read an average of a half an hour at a time. Compared with five minutes on an E-reader, 30 minutes is far superior, and that amount of time creates an environment for enhanced learning. Children remember the information better shortly after reading, and they are also able to retain the information they learned longer.
The new study released today suggests that e-readers and tablets are highly detrimental to children’s reading habits, but parents are not likely to pay much attention. Studies have shown that parents let their children use screens for up to seven hours a day. This is far over the maximum two hours per day total screen time recommended for children ages 2 and over. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends zero hours of screen time for children under age 2.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/e-readers-and-tablets-detrimental-to-childrens-reading-says-study/

Skimping on Fees and Avoiding Journalists: Are Publishers Doing Native on the Cheap?

ADWEEK reporting:

From publishers to creative agencies to writer networks, many seem to be making money from native advertising. But one group that doesn’t always share equally in the booty is journalists.

While some are paying standard freelance rates or more to those who create native ads, some bad apples are skimping on fees or avoiding hiring journalists altogether.

One brand marketer told of an established news organization promising native content produced by its top journalists but that ultimately used marketing freelancers. “They represented themselves as giving access to their editorial staff,” the exec said. “Then they delivered articles written by copywriters instead of journalists.”

Writer networks point to a wide range in what brands and publishers are looking to pay. “We’ve seen it a few times where an advertiser is coming to a publisher and saying, ‘We’ll pay $1,000 a piece,’ and the publisher will turn around and pay the freelancer $100,” said Shane Snow, co-founder of Contently. “The publisher has some built-in costs, but we see some very large spreads in some cases.”

“It’s all over the place because it is still a fairly nascent category,” said Shafqat Islam, co-founder and CEO of NewsCred. “There are journalists who are paid less than $1 a word, sometimes $20 for a blog post, and the quality will suffer.”

...

One reason for the low prices offered could be that native has a precedent in traditional advertorials (skeptics maintain they’re the same thing), so it suffers from advertorials’ second-class status. For many journalists, too, there remains a stigma associated with writing for marketers on the side.

In publishers’ defense, native is expensive to create and difficult to scale (though many third-party companies are trying to solve that), and keeping expenses low is critical. One former online publishing executive recalled the challenge of meeting brands’ demand for native ads that match the host site’s editorial voice. “When we’d try to negotiate a rate with an outside blogger, we’d have to negotiate a fixed rate, and all of a sudden the margins look like shit,” the exec said.

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/skimping-fees-and-avoiding-journalists-are-publishers-doing-native-cheap-154918?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=AWK_NewDaily&utm_campaign=Adweek%20Newsletter%20Template 

The Best Brand Content of 2013

digiday reporting:

The “brands are publishers now” line has become so ubiquitous in digital media that it risks becoming a cliche. While it is often true that companies are increasingly creating their own content, not all that’s published is created equal.

Brands aren’t natural publishers. It’s hard to nail the voice, even harder to gin up compelling content in that voice. It can be labor-intensive and costly for companies to take a breathtaking photo, film a compelling video, write an informative article or curate a combination therein.
So here’s to the brands that took the time and money to create something of quality in 2013.
Red Bull
Red Bull didn’t stage a headline grabbing event in 2013 like it did with its space jump last year, but Red Bull’s YouTube page consistently produces top-notch fare for extreme sports fans — the channel ran 14 original Web series in 2013 that work well within the energy drink’s image.
But Red Bull also creates far-out videos for people with a passing interest in surf, skate and snow culture — like this clip of skateboarders taking over a Chicago office space or this video about glow in the dark surfing. Whoa, man.
Rapha...
http://digiday.com/brands/best-brand-content-2013/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Digiday%20Brands%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=DD%20Brands_final 

Mobile offers local media a digital do-over

Ken Doctor reporting:
The good news is that you only have to worry about one tech trend in 2014.  But it’s a doozy. 

The trend is the dramatic shift to mobile computing, a communications revolution rivaling the arrival of the Internet itself. The fast-moving swing to mobile from desktop computing is changing everything from interpersonal communications to news consumption to commerce.  

For newspapers and local broadcasters seeking to recapture some of the audience, revenues and relevance that they lost in the rather inelegant way they stumbled into Internet publishing in the 1990s, the shift to mobile computing represents a rare do-over. 

Because the mobile universe is largely a work in progress, there is time for legacy media companies to create transformational products to delight consumers and attract a host of advertising, subscription and transactional revenues. Local media companies have two advantages as they mobilize for mobile:

1.  They are unrivaled in the local power of their brands, their content-creation capabilities, their ad sales staffs and their ability to market new products through their existing media.
  
2.  Owing to their largely inept responses to the initial emergence of the Internet, publishers and broadcasters know the pain of blundering into a new business paradigm without a deep understanding of the dynamics of the marketplace or a thoughtful strategic plan for capitalizing on opportunities and defending against threats.  

In the interests of preventing history from repeating itself, here’s what everyone needs to know about this disruptive, compulsive new technology platform:
http://newsosaur.blogspot.fi/2014/01/mobile-offers-local-media-digital-do.html 

Web Browsing, Email Top UK Tablet Activities

eMarketer reporting:

UK tablet users’ frequent activities on the devices are a picture of everyday internet use, according to research.
The November 2013 survey from Newsworks, carried out by YouGov, paints an unsurprising portrait. Nearly two-thirds of tablet users in the country said they used email on the devices, and general internet browsing was even more popular.
Playing games was the second-most-popular specific activity on tablets, followed by several other leisure pursuits. Just 6% of respondents said they did “other” things on a weekly basis or more often, suggesting that using tablets as work devices is generally unpopular.

An earlier survey, fielded by Kinetic Woldwide in February 2013, found that UK tablet users most commonly reported using their devices to search for information (89%) and email (80%), followed by playing games (69%) and reading the news (68%)—a similar selection of top activities, though more common overall. This is likely because Kinetic did not ask only about weekly behaviors.
eMarketer estimates that 20.0 million UK residents used a tablet at least monthly in 2013—including people who owned their own as well as those who regularly used a tablet belonging to someone else. By the end of this year, we expect 24.6 million UK tablet users.

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Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Web-Browsing-Email-Top-UK-Tablet-Activities/1010501#oIRGRFh2wgqtaLqI.99

 

UK tablet users’ frequent activities on the devices are a picture of everyday internet use, according to research.
The November 2013 survey from Newsworks, carried out by YouGov, paints an unsurprising portrait. Nearly two-thirds of tablet users in the country said they used email on the devices, and general internet browsing was even more popular.
Playing games was the second-most-popular specific activity on tablets, followed by several other leisure pursuits. Just 6% of respondents said they did “other” things on a weekly basis or more often, suggesting that using tablets as work devices is generally unpopular. 
Playing games 54 %
Keeping up with news/events 49%
Social media 49%
Watching video 37%
Reading books 37%
Figures apply to use at least once a week
Photos 28%
Music 26%
Other internet browsing 68%
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Web-Browsing-Email-Top-UK-Tablet-Activities/1010501/2 

 

UK tablet users’ frequent activities on the devices are a picture of everyday internet use, according to research.
The November 2013 survey from Newsworks, carried out by YouGov, paints an unsurprising portrait. Nearly two-thirds of tablet users in the country said they used email on the devices, and general internet browsing was even more popular.
Playing games was the second-most-popular specific activity on tablets, followed by several other leisure pursuits. Just 6% of respondents said they did “other” things on a weekly basis or more often, suggesting that using tablets as work devices is generally unpopular.


Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Web-Browsing-Email-Top-UK-Tablet-Activities/1010501#oIRGRFh2wgqtaLqI.99

The newsonomics of how the news industry will be tested in 2014

Ken Doctor reporting:
Our 2014 stage is set, and oh what a marvelous assortment of characters will be walking across it. Many of these characters — the Bezoses, Henrys, Kushners, Omidyars, and Buffetts — are new non-newsies thrusting themselves into the news world, unexpectedly and in short order. The competition they face is unprecedented, as many media — news and entertainment — converge on the same models of digital advertising and revenue from readers, viewers, and listeners. There’s only so much money to go around, and the losers here are likely to outnumber the winners.
...

Braveheart meets newsies

The future is staring down the news industry, and the business doesn’t have an eternity of blinks left. Best practice strategies and their execution — the core of what I cover — are the only way forward, but this year has surfaced the intangible of what I’ve called “outrageous confidence.” Jeff Bezos’ buying of the Post (and the Grahams’ selling) startled people in the press worldwide and crystallized the sense that a new generation of owners may seem a real future in the news business. In 2013, all the new owners — Buffett and his growing BH Media, John Henry and his Globe, Bezos and his Post — have been consumed with getting-to-know-events and rearranging the furniture.
The test for 2014: Will these owners beat their chests, open their wallets, and most importantly fund and support new products, new kinds of customer engagement and new thinking not invented here in Newspaperland? Will they not settle for incremental small experiments but, while staying within journalistic values, make some big new bets?

The Last Man Standing theory of local media

Here’s our most Darwinian theme. The theory: As first newspaper print and then local broadcast advertising continue to winnow down, there just won’t be enough left to support the number of local media news outlets we have today. Digital advertising and even TV paywalls could help with funding. If you want to be running a local newsroom of significant size in 2020, be prepared to be one of only two or three that may then exist. It’s a only-the-paranoid way of looking at the Blade Runner news future, but it’s also, unfortunately, a logical extrapolation of the last half-decade.
....The test for 2014: As we witness newspapers trying to do video, TV stations trying to write stories, and public radio aspiring to be text/audio/video producers, who will get it right first? Don’t expect the definitive “right” within a year, but 2014 is a pivotal year to get legs up on the competition.

The back pages

Face it, print advertising is becoming a niche, even if it’s a big one. Through the end of last year, newspapers’ print ad revenues were down 60 percent since the height of 2005, to $18.9 billion from $47.4 billion in the U.S. That’s almost a $30 billion difference in seven years. This year’s decline should roughly match last year’s of 9 percent, and many publishers project about the same loss for 2014. If those numbers hold, that means by the end of 2015, print ad revenues will total $15.6 billion — only around $4 billion more than where reader revenues may then come in.

Mobility, mobility, mobility

There’s simply no way to over-emphasize the centrality of getting smartphone and tablet experiences right for news customers. This year, we’ve seen newspaper access move from around 25 to 35 percent mobile access, with TV stations in a similar range. Startup news sites, significantly, report 50 percent or more of their views coming from mobile. As importantly, mobile advertising in the U.S. will double to $9.6 billion from $4.4 billion. Google will take about half of that, Facebook 15 percent, with only a couple of dozen publishers are taking in serious money.
The test for 2014: If news publishers don’t make 2014 the year of mobile-first content and sales development, they have slim hopes of growing digital ad revenue over the next several years.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/the-newsonomics-of-how-the-news-industry-will-be-tested-in-2014/

Magazines See iPad Sales Grow, but Is It Too Little Too Late?

mashable reporting:
Don't call it a comeback, at least not yet.
The number of ads purchased in 2013 for iPad editions of magazines rose 16%, according to a study by the Association of Magazine Media and Kantar Media. That's good news for an industry hit by falling ad revenue, but another number stands out in the report: Print ad units were almost unchanged from the year before, down a fraction of a percent.

See also: 10 Creative Social Media Resumes To Learn From

With print revenue comprising more than half of magazine revenues, news that print ad units were steady is a welcome relief. Ad pages are a closely followed indicator of the magazine industry, as the magazines' rates change from publication to publication and often client to client.
Digital growth is an encouraging sign for the industry, but is still unable to offset overall declines in revenue due to falling print sales and contracting circulations. Digital ads make up about 6.6% of overall magazine revenue, according to the Pew Research Center.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8672091774752856243#editor/target=post;postID=418692052590350314

Long-Form Video Content Rivals Short, Even on Smartphones

eMarketer reporting:

The assumption that a small screen—like that of a smartphone—might be more typically used for viewing short, snackable video clips rather than long- form content seems simple. But research suggests full-length movies and TV shows come close to news clips and previews in popularity among smartphones video viewers.
According to research from Digitalsmiths, just over 42% of internet users in North America watched news video content on their smartphones, and more than 36% watched previews for TV shows or movies.
That compared with 30.9% of respondents who said they watched full-length movies on their phones, and 27% who watched TV show reruns.
Most respondents did not have any special subscription service to watch digital video content, but among those that did, Netflix was most popular, followed by Amazon Prime. 
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Long-Form-Video-Content-Rivals-Short-Even-on-Smartphones/1010492 

The assumption that a small screen—like that of a smartphone—might be more typically used for viewing short, snackable video clips rather than long-form content seems simple. But research suggests full-length movies and TV shows come close to news clips and previews in popularity among smartphones video viewers.
According to research from Digitalsmiths, just over 42% of internet users in North America watched news video content on their smartphones, and more than 36% watched previews for TV shows or movies.
That compared with 30.9% of respondents who said they watched full-length movies on their phones, and 27% who watched TV show reruns.

Most respondents did not have any special subscription service to watch digital video content, but among those that did, Netflix was most popular, followed by Amazon Prime

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Long-Form-Video-Content-Rivals-Short-Even-on-Smartphones/1010492#Z3pk83IfkjOgRR1d.99

The assumption that a small screen—like that of a smartphone—might be more typically used for viewing short, snackable video clips rather than long-form content seems simple. But research suggests full-length movies and TV shows come close to news clips and previews in popularity among smartphones video viewers.
According to research from Digitalsmiths, just over 42% of internet users in North America watched news video content on their smartphones, and more than 36% watched previews for TV shows or movies.
That compared with 30.9% of respondents who said they watched full-length movies on their phones, and 27% who watched TV show reruns.

Most respondents did not have any special subscription service to watch digital video content, but among those that did, Netflix was most popular, followed by Amazon Prime

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Long-Form-Video-Content-Rivals-Short-Even-on-Smartphones/1010492#Z3pk83IfkjOgRR1d.99

The assumption that a small screen—like that of a smartphone—might be more typically used for viewing short, snackable video clips rather than long-form content seems simple. But research suggests full-length movies and TV shows come close to news clips and previews in popularity among smartphones video viewers.
According to research from Digitalsmiths, just over 42% of internet users in North America watched news video content on their smartphones, and more than 36% watched previews for TV shows or movies.
That compared with 30.9% of respondents who said they watched full-length movies on their phones, and 27% who watched TV show reruns.

Most respondents did not have any special subscription service to watch digital video content, but among those that did, Netflix was most popular, followed by Amazon Prime

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Long-Form-Video-Content-Rivals-Short-Even-on-Smartphones/1010492#Z3pk83IfkjOgRR1d.99

7 Huge Tech Trends to Expect in 2014

Mashable reporting:
...

3. Ads in Everything

We're already used to copious product placement on the sets of our favorite TV shows. Reality TV, sports broadcasts and even most major news segments are sponsored by brands. Scripted content still follows stricter regulations, but as the economics of content change, everything from websites to music companies will look for new ways to connect advertisers with audiences.
The trend took off in 2013 with brand-supported content (Mashable has a program, too). Simply, it's a way for media companies to produce worthwhile content with advertiser backing. Advertisers get to support topics with some connection to their brand ideals and consumer bases.
That success will embolden other product and media categories that have typically steered clear of blatant brand integration. Scripted TV shows will build entire scripts around brands and products. In 2014, you'll laugh about a Coca-Cola joke in Modern Family and guffaw when Molly serves Mike a Big Mac. In the post-CD, all-digital world, music is struggling to find a viable economic model. In 2014, expect pop artists to sing the praises of Nike sneakers and Rice Krispies.
It'll seem kitschy, but in the end reflects strategic commerce in lyrical and scripted disguise.
http://mashable.com/2013/12/31/tech-predictions-2014/?utm_cid=mash-prod-email-velocity-alert&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=velocity&utm_emailalert=viral

Eric Schmidt makes 2014 predictions, says mobile has won

The Verge reporting:

While he’s not busy writing instructions on how to lead a tech company or guides for switching from iPhone to Android, Google chairman Eric Schmidt has taken some time out to provide Bloomberg TV with his predictions for 2014. Schmidt has a history of bold public statements, but his predictions for the year ahead are rather tame in comparison. "Everyone is going to have a smartphone," predicts Schmidt. "The trend has been mobile was winning; it's now won," he proclaims, before noting the trend towards more tablets and phones being sold than PCs.

The mobile trend has been clear throughout the past couple of years, but Schmidt also notes the "arrival of big data and machine intelligence everywhere" as significant bases for new services, the ability to locate and rank people, and the way the data can change "every business globally." One of the biggest disruptions that Schmidt admits "we don’t really know what’s going to happen" is the genetics area....
One surprise prediction from Schmidt is that Google won’t miss social again. "The biggest mistake that I made was not anticipating the rise of the social networking phenomenon," admits Schmidt. "Not a mistake we’re going to make again. I guess in our defense we were busy working on many other things, but we should have been in that area and I take responsibility for that." While Schmidt’s predictions are fairly obvious for the year ahead, he’s clearly not betting on any single Google product to dominate 2014. In late 2011 Schmidt famously predicted that, "by the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded." That didn’t come to pass, but Google is betting on wearable computing and robots for its future.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/30/5256248/eric-schmidt-says-mobile-has-won-2014-predictions