Once more, with pastiche.
Here’s the incredible weekly feature that is going to throw a lot of important information at you. Some of it we’ll try to elaborate on or hint about what it means. Other things will be placed next to key messages that should let the reader draw individual conclusions. But that will be within subgroups, of course. These are organized so that if the topic isn’t of a specific interest, you can skip around a bit. Today the groups are journalism and media in general.
All of this is important. All of it is contemporary. It is by no means exhaustive or authoritative, but simply things to read.
We’ll start today with the journalism stuff, because the latest read from Pew is always of interest.
Call it a mobile majority. At the start of 2015, 39 of the top 50 digital news websites have more traffic to their sites and associated applications coming from mobile devices than from desktop computers, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of comScore data.
That’s telling enough, but there is so much to unpack from the Pew report and you can do it all at that link. Or you could follow the following.
The thing about this data, and how it is being rolled out in various ways, is that it would be great if we could understand it in the whole, but failing that, remember that any one point is not the end-all-be-all. Take, for example, the above in the context of Newspapers: Fact Sheet:
After a year of slight gains, newspaper circulation fell again in 2014 (though tracking these data is becoming more complicated each year due to measurement changes). Revenue from circulation rose, but ad revenue continued to fall, with gains in digital ad revenue failing to make up for falls in print ad revenue. Despite widespread talk of a shift to digital, most newspaper readership continues to be in print. Online, more traffic to the top newspaper websites and associated apps comes from mobile than from desktop users, and the average visitor only stays on the site for three minutes per visit. And several larger media conglomerates spun off their newspaper divisions as separate companies in an attempt to prevent the newspaper industry’s woes from affecting the health of their broadcast divisions.
Here’s a slightly different read off the same report, The State of the News Media 2015: Newspapers ↓, smartphones ↑:
Newspaper print ad revenue dropped again in 2014 to $16.4 billion, a 4% drop from 2013, the report said. Though newspaper digital ad revenue increased last year slightly — to $3.5 billion from $3.4 billion — it hasn’t been anywhere near enough to make up for the loss in print revenue.
“For the past five years, newspaper ad revenue has maintained a consistent trajectory: Print ads have produced less revenue (down 5%), while digital ads have produced more revenue (up 3%) — but not enough to make up for the fall in print revenue,” the report said.
Print ads are going to digital, specifically mobile and, this part should be the scariest, elsewhere.
USA Today on the Pew report, Mobile news on the rise as print decline continues:
Unless you’re big, digital revenue remains an elusive target for many publishers, even though the amount of money paid by advertisers to get their brand on video and display ads across all media grew 18% in 2014 to $50.7 billion, Pew said, citing research firm eMarketer. Five companies — Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL — captured 61% of domestic digital ad revenue in 2014, it said. Digital ads make up about a quarter of all media advertising spending.
While newspaper circulation is falling, the appeal of print still holds sway for many readers. More than half of readers — 56% — still read newspaper content in print only, the study said. Newspaper publishers have a reason to hold onto their ink barrels as well, with $16.4 billion still spent on print ads. But that’s down from $17.3 billion a year ago. Their digital ad revenue totaled $3.5 billion, flat from a year ago.
As revenue declines, so does the industry’s employment. Overall newspaper newsroom employment fell 3% in 2013 — the most recent year for which figures are available — to 36,700, the report said, citing the American Society of News Editors’ Newsroom Employment Census.
And, to bring the consumer trend on home, here’s this from Dadaviz, For The Top-10 Newspapers, Mobile Overtakes Desktop Traffic.
A few links into the news on Facebook plan:
Emily Bell in CJR: Google and Facebook are our frenemy. Beware.
Facebook banned us for writing about pot
The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers
This is about data and the publishers are going to give it away. If Facebook builds out this network and they don’t share evenly with the content providers it is going to be a disaster for publishers. Facebook has pitched this all on the idea of “news, faster” and has applied that idea to the people already there. News outlets can’t seem to build faster and they can’t capitalize on the one place they should be the strongest — local networks — so they are giving this away. Maybe it will be a long term, brilliant win for news outlets. But one hopes they’ve realized they’ve given the keys, editorial and otherwise, away to an entity who has designs on being the biggest ad market, biggest search, biggest network and biggest video provider in the world.
Let’s think again about what news outlets should do: sell ads, help people find local things, tie communities together and tell compelling stories.
And just wait until someone decides they need to report on something happening over at ol’ Ma Facebook.
This is a nice collection:
The Baltimore photo on Time’s cover was by an amateur photographer
Seven Tips for Photographers Covering Protests
App from ACLU of California aims to preserve videos of police
Cops Shut Down CNN; Reporter: “Are We Under Martial Law?”
Let’s call this section news media trends:
Drop in Discover Traffic Poses Questions for Snapchat
NPR Clips Can Now Be Embedded on Other Websites
In Nepal, the BBC is using Viber to share information and safety tips
University of Florida explores geolocation news feeds
Adopting a digital-first mindset at the University Daily Kansan
It’s Time For Every Journalist To Learn Basic Data Skills
Reuters’ mobile strategy: ‘If it has a screen, it’s fair game’
Why The New York Times apps look different
About the first one in that list, I bet it comes down to novelty, the Discover channels still tinkering with best practices and the inability to share the cool stuff. Snapchat isn’t very good at this fundamental element of social media yet.
About that last one, I just had this conversation with our new web/mobile editor last week: what about microsites and apps? And then he and I brainstormed an app that, if he develops it, might let him retire young.
I’m angling for kickbacks.
And a few general media links of interest …
If done well, and given time to breathe, this may work in Space City: Houston’s KRIV Launches Web-Only Personal Take On News. I think, if done well and given time to breathe, it could work even better elsewhere. Like Birmingham, for example. Birmingham is a destination city in broadcast for most people. Small enough to be nice, big enough to let you be successful if you have the chops, and a little something for most everyone.
The state’s largest media market has an incredible stable set of anchors and plenty of long-term reporters. Sure, people pass through, but people really stick. They like it because they can do good work and because it can be impactful and because they are important here. The Yankee’s former boss at WBRC said this at the Emmy’s as he was presenting a 50-years-in-broadcasting award to one of his colleagues. He tried to explain the market by saying there aren’t huge stars or professional sports teams or a lot of other inane attractions. The city’s faces of news are the city’s celebrities. He was write. Put this plan, from Houston, in a personality-driven market like Birmingham, and you could do some really cool things with it.
Some TV entities are wisely trying to change up their distribution models. Here’s to their success: How 7News hopes to livestream video to reach new audiences.
Meanwhile, the people trying to eat the industry’s lunch:
Yahoo Aims for Millennials With 18 New Shows, Says CEO
Report: Comcast plans YouTube-like online video service
Bloomberg’s New Publishing Platform Is ‘Like Tinder for Video’
One guess why all of that is important, Mobile Shopping: Smartphone Visits Increase 269%; Revenue Up 123%.
