News outlets, Facebook in talks about exclusive content
by Stephanie Medeiros (Guest Contributor/Digital Journalist)
Several news sources are in talks with the social network giant to provide exclusive news and content through Facebook.
Major news sources such as The Washington Post, CNN and The Daily are currently negotiating a deal with Facebook that would give the behemoth social network the ability to offer “exclusive” content and contend with similar services of competitors.
Facebook would provide the platform for the content and the news outlets will give Facebook access to content made available only through the social network, similar to a Web app.
All Facebook reports that Forbes Mixed Media analyst Jeff Bercovici said that this service could be provided as early as September. He also added that Facebook will more than likely be receiving compensation through ad-revenue from sales as well as a percentage of sales from subscriptions.
Facebook currently has several partnerships with major movie and television studios, which offer specialized offers through the social network. Bercovici pointed out that users have the ability to rent episodes of Doctor Who from BBC through Facebook.
Facebook’s aim is mostly on Google, who also have a similar partnership in the works with news outlets in offering exclusive content, Bercovici says. Also, Facebook must now compete with Google’s own fledgling social network, Google+, which already have several news networks such as ABC, Al Jazeera English and MSNBC using the service and a rapidly growing membership base.Other tech giants have already created similar content services, like Yahoo Pulse and LinkedIn Today.
However, with roughly over 700 million people using Facebook, the social network might prove to be the leader among the pack soon enough.
This article was originally published on Digital Journal [Link]
Google redesigns core sites, hopes to create more consistent look
Most of Google’s sites are getting a facelift in a redesign the Internet company intends to unify the look of its popular applications, according to a Google spokesperson.
In an interview with Wendy Rozeluk, from Google Canada’s Public Affairs and Communications department, it was revealed Google Maps, Google Search, Google News, Gmail and Google Calendar are among the sites under the redesign project. Already, users can see some of the tweaks in the rollout slated to run over the summer.
Google intends for these sites to look more consistent with each other, Rozeluk says. Look at Google Maps for instance; the new layout removes the top blue bar and instead a grey-toned header includes the search field and magnifying glass icon. Email icons have been enlarged and the redesign aims to improve the reading experience, Rozeluk adds.
“When you look at Maps on mobile, our goal is to have a product moving as seamlessly as possible from one device to another, so you’ll see the same kind of redesign adapted for smaller screens,” she says. The Google Search page shrinks the Google icon and also squares off some of the buttons, while also adding the voice-search capability to the search bar (the microphone icon).
Gmail already previewed a glimpse of its redesign, under the Labs section, using the theme Preview. The COMPOSE button is flushed out in red, a tweak done in response to reader feedback about easily finding the appropriate button to send emails, Rozeluk notes. Red will be the colour of primary actions, not just on Gmail but on other Google sites as well.
“We think of users first,” Rozeluk says. The redesign hopes to create a consistency users will appreciate, she adds. Google News will also be redesigned to highlight the same grey bar fronting the top of Google Maps.
There have also been reports of Google Apps soon to undergo a similar facelift. But Rozeluk notes sites such as YouTube won’t be undergoing a redesign as part of this initiative.
Google News introduces badges
By Chris Hogg
I typically associate badges with anything that is gamified, Foursquare being the best and most famous example of using badges to reward someone unlocks an achievement.
But as of yesterday in the U.S., Google has added badges to its Google News service. The badges are designed to help you keep track of what type of content you engage with most, and what you most often click-through to read.
Take politics for example: If you continue to visit Google News and consume politics content, you’ll earn a badge related to that. The more content you read related to that topic, the higher level badge you’ll receive. Badges start at a bronze level and then move up to silver, gold, platinum and ultimate. Google says it has more than 500 badges available for almost any interest. Here is a sample:
As you earn more badges, they begin to show up on your Google News page and you can then use those badges to create sections related to specific content.
Badges are private by default, but you can share them with friends and use the +1 features. To get started with badges, Google says you need to visit Google News from a signed-in account with web history enabled and then visit this page on the Help Center for instructions. Google says this is just the first step of what is possible with badges.
I applaud the effort to be different, and think it could definitely help people create sections that curate content based on their interest. Readers may unconsciously know they have an addiction to Harry Potter stories, but once the badge pops up it may be a more direct confirmation. The ability to create sections on the fly based on interest, is also great.
That said, I don’t think this is a huge step forward, either. People will always drill-down into a site to find content they want or they will use a search function to get it. While the badges are good reminders and direct links to find content we want and like, I don’t think they’re much different than simply bookmarking a section you’re interested in.
Also, in its current form I’m not sure badges are the most appropriate tool to promote this activity; badges typically are rewarded to people for reaching achievements, and I don’t see this as achieving anything. It may promote increased activity among some users, but for those who truly compete to earn badges, I think this initiative fails to address the real reason people compete to unlock badges. I will be watching closely to see how this changes over time. It’s a good start, for sure.
What do you think about the new Google News badges?
How Personyze wants to customize the Web
The next time you visit a website, it might be customized to fit your interests. Let’s say you check out a news site and you log in via Facebook Connect, and you notice ads and articles tailored to your interests. Somehow, the site knows you’re a parent and you’re between 35 and 45. Articles are tailored to your parental interests, and ads promote products ideal for middle-aged Canadians.
That website might have been a client of Personyze, an Israeli software firm specializing in personalizing websites for visitors. Its software can determine if a visitor is male or female, their past searches, their demographics, and other details. Then a website can customize what content each unique visitor sees, all automated on Personyze’s back end. The company relies on Facebook integration, and its other features include offline tracking to measure the success of campaigns, email personalization, custom event tracking and AdWords integration. But it can also find out what you like if you are a returning visitor to that specific site.
Their 50 paying clients including banks, travel companies, gambling sites and magazines, and Personyze expects to pull in $1 million in revenue by the end of 2011.
Personyze CEO Yakov Shabat expects to see more clients in the news space, and he mentioned they are in talks with Fox News right now. “The news sector appeals to many different segments and can let us develop specific sections to sell specific personalized ads,” Shabat says in an interview.
Shabat says he’s seen an uptick in business due to the “need for website owners to personalize their content to get away from the standard A-B testing many programmers still try out. Using personalization software gives visitors more content customized for their own interests, Shabat adds.
But even though Personyze is opt-in, should people be worried how their personal info is being used? Shabat waves away the concern, saying Personyze doesn’t keep any content, it’s all hovering up “in the cloud.” A website owner already has analytics to determine who visited what page, and so Shabat sees his proprietary technology as more of an extension of that data.
“I think at the end of the day people will welcome that a site is more relevant to them compared to a more generic version of the site,” Shabat adds.
Personyze isn’t relaxing this summer. It recently announced a partnership with Rapleaf, a company that collects and trades data from the Web. Rapleaf clients will see the benefit of Personyze technology in the coming months, Rapleaf promised.
As a young Israeli start-up, Personyze has been fielding acquisition requests from afar. An American company offered to buy the company but the 18-person Personyze staff turned down the deal to remain in Israel, Shabat says. “Let’s just say the American city we would go to wasn’t the nicest city,” he says. “And Israel has great start-up culture, and there are many talented engineers here.” He adds the company is looking to expand into the U.S. due to high demand from American clients.
CTV News Quebec City Bureau Chief quits job in 3,000-word essay
By Andrew Moran (Guest Contributor/Digital Journalist)
CTV News Quebec City Bureau Chief and former CBC News reporter, Kai Nagata, quit his job in a 3,000-word essay where he explains that he was “disillusioned” and cited a “loss of faith” in television news.
There is a lot of pressure on the average journalist to bring both interest and viewership to a news story, but the report may not bring satisfaction to the reporter. Sometimes a reporter can feel that “junk news” has become the primary goal for news outlets and real shoe leather journalism has been blown in the wind.
That one journalist is Kai Nagata.
A 24-year-old CTV News reporter, also a former correspondent for CBC News, has quit his job as a Quebec City Bureau Chief in a 3,000-word farewell letter. In the essay, Nagata cites several reasons for his abrupt resignation, including an industry that “casually sexualizes its workforce” and television news not being the “best use of my short life.”
To put to rest any claims, Nagata explained that he didn’t quit over a “falling out” with CTV management, he didn’t quit “because it was too hard” and he didn’t quit his job because his career was peaking.
Nagata does believe CTV puts together a high standard of fact checking and its editorial managers are “critical thinkers.” “But there is an underlying tension between ‘what the people want to see’ and ‘the important stories we should be bringing to people.’”He quit for several reasons.
Journalistic Priorities
“The Kate and Will Show,” which Nagata referred to as his network featured extensive coverage of the royals visiting parts of Canada for their Royal Tour.
“On a weekend where there was real news happening in Bangkok, Misrata, Athens, Washington, and around the world, what we saw instead was a breathless gaggle of normally credible journalists gushing in live hit after live hit about how the prince is young and his wife is pretty.”
Hiring Practices
Nagata believes the media/journalism industry “casually sexualizes its workforce” instead of hiring “confident, intelligent journalists.” They hire attractive talents, which seems to make up for their paucity of other qualifications.
“The idea has taken root that if the people reporting the news look like your family and neighbours, instead of Barbie and Ken, the station will lose viewers.”
Politics
Everything that Nagata wanted say to his colleagues, industry professionals and casual conversations with public officials and even his tweets “were carefully strained out.” But now since he has quit his job, he is “coming out of the closet” to say that he has problems with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
Specifically, Nagata has “serious problems” with the Canadian policy on fiscal issues, social issues, climate change, “the war against science” and its foreign policy.
“The people who are supposed to be holding decision makers to account are instead broadcasting useless tripe, or worse, stories that actively distract from the massive projects we need to be tackling instead of watching TV.
”The letter has caught the attention of several publications, including famous Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who tweeted the letter on his Twitter account. The farewell address was republished in the Huffington Post, Rabble and J-Source.
This post was originally published on Digital Journal [link].