Publishers launch sponsored content factories, but ethics are unclear

A number of news organizations, including The Huffington Post and Wired, have recently launched in-house creative agencies to amp up lucrative sponsored content offerings. But the ethics in this new territory are unclear, with some journalists even relaying between editorial departments and these sponsored content generators. WAN-IFRA takes a look at several of these initiatives and explores their ethical backbones.

analytics big data story metrics tabloidization editorial quality editorial standards

The ambitions of several U.S newspaper publishers to branch out into television has already been well documented by the Editor’s Weblog, but one Russian newspaper is going a step further than its American counterparts. Instead of simply buying a television channel, the Russian daily Izvestia is becoming one.

Research: Story metrics creating a ‘culture of the click’

Journalists have celebrated editorial analytics as an opportunity to learn more about their audiences, but could this knowledge denigrate journalism to focus on clicks rather than impact? Two academic studies suggest story metrics are, indeed, controlling editorial content, and the effects are not universally positive.

Italian press signs agreement with government to revitalise ailing industry

The Italian government and representatives from throughout Italy’s news media industry signed an agreement on Tuesday 6 August as part of an initiative to revitalise the country’s crisis-hit news publications. Posted online by Giovanni Legnini, under secretary to the Prime Minister’s office, the accord makes provisions for greater financial support for the news industry, not only with regards to funding innovation and new startups, but also in terms of distribution costs and pensions.

NowThisNews attempts to use Instagram Video as social news platform

Mobile video news service NowThisNews is attempting to make information sharing even more social with a first of its kind 24/7 news channel on Instagram. Harnessing the Facebook-owned social media site’s new 15-second video offering, rolled out in June to compete with Twitter’s Vine, NTN aims to tap into Instagram’s 130 million-strong user base by delivering “breaking videos and news content ranging from the latest fashion show to the political statement dominating the news cycle”. Yet while the experiment is certainly interesting, questions nonetheless remain as to the value that seconds-long video footage can add to news reporting.

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.