Why Are News Aggregators Still a Thing?

Nearly five months after News Corp announced it was launching a product billed as a “generous aggregation” of news and the antidote to Google News' monopolistic position, the company debuted Knewz.com on January 29. Its launch didn’t generate much consumer-side buzz, despite it having an ad-free model that includes 400 national and local publications. It did, however, get the attention of people like myself whose job it is to pay attention to stuff like this. And rather than savage the branding and the site design, which is frankly too easy, instead I think it’s important to talk about the very nature of these news aggregators and what they actually offer the publishing community. Digital media has commoditized news to a point where local outlets are in grave danger to stay alive as advertising and subscriptions dwindle, and mass-media companies require insane volumes of daily inventory and pageviews to generate modest returns. Compounding this for publishers seeking lots of pageviews is the tech duopoly. I know most of us are all sick of talking about “them,” but the reality for most is that Facebook and Google are still driving the bulk of the traffic to news sites. So those digital dimes many have been complaining about for years have actually become pennies after everyone gets their cut. So this brings me back to aggregators—these great democratizing saviors that will save hyperlocal news and put the consumers first by forging symbiotic partnerships with a large... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-02-13 17:20:50 UTC ]
News tagged with: #exclusive content #publisher partnerships #distribution channel #select number #news corp

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News Corp. Spinoff Pegs Value of Publishing at $9.1 Billion (2)

News Corp. (NWSA)’s publishing spinoff began trading today at a market value of about $9.1 billion, one-seventh the size of the entertainment side of the media empire, underscoring the business’s growth challenges. The &ldqu ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Carr’s NSFWCorp Raises Seed Round to Publish News, Books–On Paper

As print magazine and book publishers struggle to stay afloat, Not Safe For Work, a print magazine and news startup in Las Vegas, has raised $250,000 in seed funding from Base Ventures, VentureWire has learned. The company offers a monthly print ma ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New News Corp Boss Optimistic on Print

The incoming boss of News Corporation's publishing business believes there are reasons to be optimistic about the print industry as its newspapers are reshaped for the digital age. Robert Thomson, who will head the 'new News Corp' once ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp directors approve split

News Corporation's board of directors has approved the plans to separate its cable and broadcasting networks from its troubled publishing businesses, paving the way for it to take place on 28 June. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2013-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp to split in two on 28 June

News Corp announces it will officially split its publishing and entertainment businesses on 28 June, two years after the UK phone-hacking scandal involving the News of the World. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomberg Revs Up Video News Operations, Publishing 200 Clips Daily

With a global television network operation in place, Bloomberg News is using video clips from its  shows as well as Web-only videos to produce some 200 clips per day,  signaling a new "digital first" approach, says Chris Berend ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A celebration of all things books at USC

L.A. Times Festival of Books: Joyce Carol Oates, Carol Burnett, Lemony Snicket and Jamaica Kincaid are among the 500 authors appearing at this weekend's festival for readers of all ages.Since background-check legislation was voted down in the Senate on Thursday, Adam Winkler, author of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UK court rules for news-clipping service

The British Supreme Court has decided partially in favour of news-clipping service Meltwater in its long-running dispute with UK newspaper publishers, who accused Meltwater of distributing excerpts of stories online without paying any licensing fees. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An End To The Aggregation Debate? Repost Makes It Easy To Embed Articles

A new startup called Repost aims to make it easy for online publishers to distribute their articles via embedding — the same way I can share a video from YouTube or a document from Scribd directly in a blog post.   Right now, if I saw ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There’s No Such Thing as “Normal,” say UK Publishing CEOs

Several UK CEOs set the agenda going into next week's London Book Fair. Top of the list: communicating with consumers and coping with the relentless pace of change in publishing. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Medium's New Collaborative Publishing Feature Encourages Authors To Create Better Things, Together

Medium's hypothesis has always been that people create better things when they work together. The publishing platform's newest tool helps its authors do just that. Biz Stone and Ev Williams' founding mantra for Medium, the publishing platform they launched last August, was, "People create... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How Bad News Brings the Publishing Family Together

The response of people to the sad news concerning Iain Banks, who announced he has terminal cancer, makes us realize how the book trade is like a huge, extended family. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New News Corp gets $2.5b cash injection

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will start its largely print-based publishing company with no debt and $2.5 billion in cash when it completes the spinoff. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald

[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2013-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp gets $2.6bn from spin off

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will start its new life as a mainly-publishing company with no debt and $2.6bn (£1.7bn) in cash when it is spun off. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp. publishing firm to start with $2.6 billion in cash

News Corp.'s soon-to-be publishing company will begin life with no debt and about $2.6 billion in cash -- illustrating the parent company's attempt to provide the new entity with solid financials and money for acquisitions. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp. spinoff to start with $2.6B in cash

News Corp.'s publishing spinoff will be armed with $2.6 billion in cash and no debt, demonstrating Chairman Rupert Murdoch's passion for print even as the new company confronts an industry in decline.The cash pile could come in handy for acquisitions or just to shore up the publishing business,... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Filing, News Corp. Says It Will Provide $2.6 Billion to Its New Publishing Company

News Corporation’s new publishing company will get an infusion of $2.6 billion in cash and will have no debt when it separates from the company’s higher-growth cable channels and Hollywood studio this summer. In a filing with the ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WAN-IFRA Launches World News Publishing Focus

A new bi-monthly magazine, World News Publishing Focus, has just been launched by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) to provide members and other readers with a professional international publication focused on the ind ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Incoming News Corp. CEO Says The Daily Was 'A Great Success, Revenue Aside'

It burned through at least $40 million and never came close to turning a profit, but that doesn’t mean The Daily was a failure, according to Robert Thomson, the soon-to-be CEO of News Corp.’s publishing spin-off. “It wa ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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j2’s Ziff Davis Buys News Corp’s IGN

j2 Global continues to build out its digital media portfolio with the acquisition of popular gamer lifestyle brand IGN Entertainment, a News Corp property. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2013-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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