Roundup of standout analytics-tracking platforms

Story metrics are becoming an increasingly essential way for news organizations to stay relevant online and establish themselves as conversation leaders. News outlets such as Al Jazeera and BuzzFeed have built their own analytics engines to monitor this data, but not every news organization has the resources to tailor their own platforms. With so many options available, how does a news organization choose?

Washington Post sale: round-up of reactions

Legacy newspaper sales: you wait around for one and then two come along at once. In the same week that The New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe to billionaire sports entrepreneur John Henry, the news that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had bought The Washington Post shocked a media industry unaware that the newspaper of Watergate fame was up for sale. Though the Globe sale generated its fair share of column inches, the revelation that Don Graham would be saying goodbye to the paper run by his family for 80 years prompted a flurry of comment and analysis. To help keep track of reactions to one of the year’s biggest industry shocks we’ve put together an overview of the WaPo sale, covering the deal’s key players, opinion pieces from media journos and the sale viewed from a business perspective. And the Borowitz Report.

How can news orgs make the most of story analytics?

Data is changing the way news organizations understand and relate to their audiences, shifting priority from focus groups to concrete figures such as unique visitors and social shares. And as more news organizations launch platforms to collect and utilize these figures, it’s become clear that news organizations must embrace this trend to thrive.

MailOnline sets record with 134 million unique visitors in July

MailOnline has announced it set a new monthly traffic record of 134,244,177 unique visitors in July. Also in July, MailOnline says it saw its biggest traffic day ever with 10.57 million unique visitors and broke an hourly traffic record with 1 million unique visitors, according to a statement released by the company on Monday.

Ideathon provides foundation for Hackathon in Berlin

The Berlin Ideathon, hosted by WAN-IFRA last week as part of the city’s Tech Open Air festival, was an invigorating experience. To be in a room of tech minded journalists discussing the future of newspapers, was to be in a space of solutions and infinite possibility.

Al Jazeera launches first-of-its-kind predictive analytics platform

Al Jazeera English recently launched an analytics platform that tracks stories’ traffic and social media reception to predict audience interest. The first-of-its-kind initiative, Forecast and Analytics of Social Media and Traffic (FAST), is the result of a partnership with Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Zawya reported.

As NYT prepares for global growth, WSJ censored in China

The New York Times’s decision to rebrand its international sister publication, the International Herald Tribune, is the latest step in the paper’s plans to present the NYT brand as a truly international entity. By relaunching the Paris-based title as the International New York Times, the New York Times Co. hopes to bolster the title’s world-wide audience figures by stressing its ability to produce internationally pertinent content. But as the Wall Street Journal saw its Chinese-language site censored by China’s government over the weekend, questions abound as to how successful attempts at true global reach will prove to be for Western news organisations confronted with radically different media markets.

Why Google Now add-on could be an ideal hyperlocal news solution

Google is beta testing a hyperlocal news card for its Now app, according to an exclusive report by Quartz. This add-on could build on the ruins of hyperlocal news sites, including EveryBlock, Guardian Local, Village Soup, TBD, Bayosphere, and, by the end of 2013, possibly Patch, to revive hyperlocal news. Other outlets’ failures only demonstrate how Google is perfect for this niche.

Guardian Notifications allows readers to follow authors, series by email

The Guardian quietly launched Guardian Notifications, which allows readers to subscribe to favourite authors and series by email, on 15 July. While still in beta testing, this innovation underscores the importance of journalists’ personal brands, increasingly rivaling those of their own publications.

Sun paywall launches today, but editor assures ‘we are not becoming digital-first’

Sun+ launches today, making The Sun the first national British tabloid and the last of News UK’s titles to erect a paywall. Despite revamped apps and other offerings to entice new subscribers, Digital Editor Derek Brown promised, “We are not becoming digital-first.”