Rethinking the Comment Section
Posted on Friday, May 31, 2019 at 1:09 PM
In the news: Publishers are reevaluating their comment sections,
which present them with huge audience-building opportunities ... and
huge headaches.
Some publishers are examining their comment
sections and making changes in the name of audience development.
Recently, reports Lucinda Southern of Digiday.com, the Wall Street
Journal closed commenting to non-subscribers and cut back on the overall
number of articles with comments enabled.
Why the renewed focus
on comment sections, which are nothing new in the online media
landscape? "Comments are growing in importance as reader revenue
strategies become more crucial avenues for sustainable media
businesses," writes Southern. "Publishers have also beefed up their data
science teams to comb through audience behavior data." Read more about
what's happening in comment sections industry wide here
and here.
Also
Notable
Sports Illustrated Sold for $110 Million
This
week, marketing company Authentic Brands Group purchased Sports
Illustrated from Meredith Corporation for a reported $110 million.
According to Reuters, "The companies also formed a strategic partnership
to build a global media platform and develop broad-based licensing
programs under the Sports Illustrated brand that will include product,
original content and live events." The sale comes as part of Meredith's
wider efforts to focus its resources on women's titles. Read more here.
Washington
Post Shares Its Programmatic Platform
Shoshana Wodinsky
of AdWeek.com reports that the Washington Post will be releasing its
programmatic platform, Zeus, to all online publishers. "Partners can opt
for a standard package and leverage the basics of Zeus, or they can
choose a more premium package, which includes access to in-house ad tech
from the company's research, experimentation and development team, or
RED," she writes. Read more about the wide release of Zeus here.
The
Current State of Print
This month has seen several major
magazine brands shutter their print editions. Included in the mix: Motorcyclist,
Bride, ESPN The Magazine, and Beer Advocate.
Despite those closures, print is still thriving for a lot of publishers.
Sarah Jerde of AdWeek.com reports that 134 magazines have launched in
the last two years, since January 2017. Read more here.
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