Facebook changes send social reader apps into a nosedive
A couple of months ago, Tanya Cordrey, the director of digital development for the Guardian, made a statement that raised some eyebrows. "It’s only a matter of time until social overtakes search for the Guardian," she told attendees at the Guardian Changing Media Submit.
The impetus for that comment was the Guardian's Facebook app, which enables Facebook users to share the articles they read on guardian.co.uk with their Facebook friends.
Guardian predicts social to become more important than search for traffic
For many companies, nothing has historically been more important for traffic than search, making search a virtual holy grail. But for some publishers, social is fast becoming the new search.
Take the Guardian, for instance. According to Tanya Cordrey, who is the director of digital development for the news organization, "It’s only a matter of time until social overtakes search for the Guardian."
The 68 tracking technologies used by large news sites
You're probably aware that almost every website you visit tracks your behaviour in one way or another.
This post looks at which third-party tracking technologies the UK's largest news sites use.
New York Times cuts free articles to 10 per month
Can paid content save newspapers? For many newspapers, there is good reason to be skeptical.
But trying to get readers to pay for content is a necessary move and naturally, major dailies like The New York Times are having an easier go of it.
Are newspapers in the US doomed?
The past decade has been tough for newspapers, but many newspaper execs are arguably more upbeat about the future than one might expect.
There may be a need for that optimism, but it might also be completely unfounded if new figures about newspaper revenue in 2011 are any indication.
Ad overkill: are news sites putting ad revenues before usability?
Many newspapers are struggling to survive, and you can understand that they would want to maximise online ad revenues, but I think some run the risk of losing users through ad overkill.
Some news websites, and this in common on regional sites especially, are using some very annoying and intrusive ad formats which could be doing more harm than good.
I'm not saying they shouldn't use advertising, but newspapers have to find a balance between reader engagement and maximising ad revenues.
Will relationship building cost newspapers too much?
The New York Times is giving pay wall skeptics reason to reconsider their skepticism. Despite questions about the company's paywall strategy, the daily has managed to lure some 325,000 paying subscribers.
That's good news for a newspaper that some believed might not survive.
B&N discounting, giving away NOOKs to sell content
In the battle for the future of the tablet market, Amazon - with the Kindle Fire, may be a top contender for the lead row. But another retailer, Barnes & Noble (B&N), isn't ceding anything to its etail rival.
Yesterday, it announced that customers who pony up $120 for a one-year subscription to the digital version of PEOPLE Magazine will receive a $50 discount on the NOOK Tablet, bringing its price down to that of the Kindle Fire ($199). Customers who purchase a $240 annual subscription to the New York Times (NYT) can have a NOOK Simple Touch for free, or a NOOK Color tablet for $99.
The marriage of web writing and user experience
Web writing, while basically an extension of its offline counterpart, will always be driven by visits, which will always be driven by SEO.
And as SEO becomes more about a user’s overall experience on a website than the number of keywords in the content, it’s clear that a well-ranked website can’t survive without a happy mix of the two.
Mobile now surpasses print in time spent: report
The constant announcements about the death of print media may be premature, but there is little doubt that traditional print media companies have been some of the hardest hit in the past decade as digital media has taken much of the spotlight.
And the hits keep coming: eMarketer says adults in the United States are now spending more time using their mobile devices than they are consuming print media.
