Mark Zuckerberg likely didn’t have a plan to dominate the distribution of news but nonetheless, he’s doing a good job of it. As we head into 2016 you could be forgiven for thinking Facebook was the sole cause of media woes but you would also be very wrong. While Facebook continues to eat every other traffic source’s lunch, providing a sizeable and growing share of Internet traffic to news, new and familiar names have become wise to the traffic news can bring and a new array of tools, options and elements are now popping up. With more than 40% of younger audiences citing their primary source of news as being social media platforms (Pew) it’s easy to see why these changes are occurring.With friends like these, who needs enemies? How can news sites compete or are they just destined to grease the wheels now?
The contenders are ready
Facebook has ‘Instant Articles’ or souped up versions of web pages that load faster and look like how every web page should look – clean and focused on the content. Adoption of sources using the service has been relatively good and results did cause a tweak in monetization terms from Facebook (they’re the good guys after all!) so the future is anything but clear for publishers who become suckered to this ad-laden teat. However, Facebook Notify is the product with the biggest potential to upset the apple cart, should the product become the attention-snagging mobile Google News ‘good enough’ product I foresee it becoming. Twitter launched ‘Moments’ in October and recently rolled them out to additional territories including the UK. While a different product to Facebook’s offering with a dedicated editorial team and a partner program, Moments acts as a one stop shop to curate information around an event of significance. Google News continues (mostly) unabated and despite multiple app challengers, remains the Waterstones magazine rack of the internet – predominantly a browse but not buy zone. Although Google does face a potentially expensive ‘snippet tax’ for showing quotes from copyrighted content, such as news articles if Brussels has their way so 2016 may not all be plain sailing for Google.The playing field is set, ever changing (and shouldn’t be set up as it is)
Take a mobile-heavy, attention-poor, uncaring audience and mix with an industry who seems uninterested in understanding the contextual environment its product is consumed in and you have the state of play in a nutshell. Beyond these elements a darker collection of forces is beginning to form and maneuver in order to disrupt, obtain more control, attention and more ad dollars.Ad-blockers, changing platforms like Apple TV which is making new strides into the news arena with dedicated apps and the Flipboard-esque Apple News, pose new problems for overburdened newsrooms, deal-makers and pundits alike. Add in the challenges that virtual reality, augmented storytelling, podcasts and video strategies will bring and you have the makings for a challenging 2016 to say the least. But then change is nothing new for news.
So it’s time to get out of news, right?
Wrong. News is simply a matter of picking two sides from the iron triangle; good, cheap or easy – you can only have two. New technologies make it easier to do cheap and easy but good is often elusive (and in the eye of the viewer).
Opportunity 1 – Make better mobile value experiences that ads can be a part of
News on the desktop seems doomed. Between January 2015 and October 2015 traffic from Facebook to news organisations via desktop plummeted by about a third and there are currently more than 181 million people using Ad-blocking software that sites (including this one) are raging against. Personally, I see adblocking AS more of a necessary evolution than dark times. As the new news products that are rolling out demonstrate we are seeing multiple new ways content is packaged up and consumed – it is only natural to need the revenue models to observe the same need to change. Adblocking done ‘right’ is of benefit to the media. Poor ads have been left to run riot (and yes supported the journalism they clutter) but at the same time – in this author’s opinion – have destroyed the brands they prop up. Surely, surely, programmatic buying, machine learning and personalised experiences (thanks to social logins and other mechanics) mean we’re closer than ever to serving the right ad or at worst the least offensive eyesore than ever before? A focus on creating products of value – not just page views – along with a PR and marketing blitz could easily see some nice numbers and new properties to grow and remarket to – just look at the success of the Economist’s ‘Espresso’ app.Opportunity 2 – Take another bite of Apple
Right now the big opportunity is newsroom frenemy Facebook, but the control newsrooms lose by going all in may never be regained. The same cannot be said of joining the other camp, namely Apple – you can pull the plug any time you like should giving away 0.30 cents on every dollar begin to grate plus there’s no algorithm to have change on you. ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ seems to apply here. While some will say these are equally unfavourable terms (and Apple does have a sketchy past with news in general), few can deny the Apple ecosystem makes money and makes money in the right demographics for news (especially as it breaks down the friction between purchasing via mobile). The potential for recurring subscriptions, app downloads and in-app purchases mixed with no-click purchase should make Apple high up on any Publisher’s to-do list. Where do you want to get them hooked? Whether the home or in their pocket, Apple understands making things easy and that goes a long way with news (albeit early days) – not to say Google can’t or doesn’t but data shows their apps get downloaded more but people spend less (per App Annie).Opportunity 3 – Empower your audience to pay you (and possibly get paid)
Sites like Tsu (who pay authors per click) offer a new model, paradigm and opportunity for news. While paying people for eyeballs may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it will certainly work for a significant number out there. The opposite of this is charging to click – options in this field range from the likes of Blendle (coming soon) to the much-maligned tip jar style and micropayments. Both tip jars and micropayments have still not been explored fully and both offer things if the right behavioural economics can be applied. With social commerce about to see a bumper year, micropayments and a smart social ad strategy may just be the way to big bucks. Granted none with solve all problems for all outlets but everything helps and is a part of the way news is paid will be paid for in the future.
It would be a fool who said any of these were not risky strategies but smart publishers understand there is a long game to be played that involves brand folks, distribution folks, nerds and hopefully the odd ad executive who have the right goals as incentives. Facebook is the largest media entity ever amassed in the history of the world and has some interesting irons in the fire thanks to initiatives with Messenger, its forthcoming machine learning add-on ‘M’ and, of course, the mighty Whatsapp. What interests me the most is how long until these become push vehicles ala Snapchat? Not soon would be my guess – another opportunity for savvy Publishers.
While I see no immediate harpoons ahead for the big blue whale – my time at Myspace taught me no-one is ever too big to fail or lose focus on user value – making sure you own your audience never felt more important. The focus of news distribution has shifted towards commercial companies who have priorities that often compete with those of journalism. Media companies must clearly understand the role of third-party technology and create their own platforms and products in the future because building communities in uncontrollable territories is not smart business. While it is fair to say not only the strong may survive it is equally fair that reinvention has never been more possible either. Grab some popcorn it’s about to get interesting.
Source: forbes
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