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What is ahead in the media landscape for 2017?

5 January 2017
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It’s the new year. Time to follow through with your resolutions. Elizabeth Grace Saunders, time management coach, tells us to stop setting goals you don’t care about. It’s important to tone down and follow wu wei – strategic non-action.

We know predictions are hard. So we selected for you expert opinions on 7 trends and topics to watch in 2017. Streaming, whether it’s live, audio or video, is not overlooked by anybody anymore. We will see if all the new video strategies are transforming into cash or if we will see the video bubble bust. Trust in media has to be re-established to address fake news and misinformation effectively. We are looking ahead on what we expect to happen in 2017 in the industry and which developments to watch closely.

Print is dead! Long live print?

While print is still the cash cow, ad revenues have dwindled down from almost 36 billion in 2003 to under 17 billion in 2014. And Facebook and Google capture the biggest chunk of digital ad money. However, ditching digital at newspapers to refocus on a declining print audience isn’t going to solve the business problems faced. It will be interesting how media companies will address this in the coming months and if ad revenues will see a resurgence.

Read further here what Kevin Anderson wrote about Print vs Digital

Reading comfort

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One of the core factors of engaging readers is to make the content easily available. Facebook has shown how effortless auto-play video leads to incredible viewing figures. News consumption needs to be as effortless as watching a video on Facebook. Everywhere, ease of use is key. 2016 already saw fascinating developments. .Mic made it easy with their app which works mostly via notifications to display full screen teasers to articles. A completely new form of news consumption on smartphones. Chatbots helped us get updates on the Brexit vote and the US presidential elections. Similarly voice services like Amazon’s Alexa help make tasks easier. But not yet news.

Nathalie Malinarich, mobile editor for BBC news, wants us to learn a new grammar for digital devices. Read more here.

Analytics

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Understanding audience needs has become an imperative and data is supplying the answers. It is true that implementing data into the everyday workflow can be challenging, those insights are a definite competitive advantage.

“Data has the potential to be a key competitive advantage for modern media organisations, but only if they can act on audience insights”

Read more in the full report The State of Media 2017

Audience involvement

If you strip comment sections of abuse, you are left with a great combination of trusted, high-quality news content combined with a real, active social network. Editors of the Boston Globe discusses articles with subscribers in a Facebook group. The Wall Street Journal has a book club and the New York Times connects with people in a group called Paying till it hurts to discuss healthcare and the costs involved. In a time where Fake News and intentional misinformation are a real concern authentic voices are important to re-establish trust in media.

Aja Bogdanoff, cofounder and CEO at Civil, helps us to understand why genuine relations with the audience are important. Read more here.

Live Streaming

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With Facebook Live Video being one of the main topics in newsrooms last year and Facebook launching Live Audio and Live 360 a few weeks ago, streaming will continue its success this year. Facebook’s combination with streaming and engaging the user to react and comment helped achieve something Periscope, Meerkat or even YouTube have been struggling with – actually engaging the audience and incorporating their live review.

Dan Colarusso, executive editor and Reuters, wants to make live video we can love. Read more here.

Podcasts

With Facebook Live Audio, Podcasting has matured in 2017. After being around for already a decade, Podcasts were able to increase its reach just recently. Television has moved on-demand. Music has moved on-demand. It was only about time that audio entertainment fully emerged on-demand. With an average attention time of 33 minutes (!) Podcasts offer a fascinating outlet to engage customers and opportunities for advertisers. Publishers everywhere have adapted accordingly. The New York Times but also regional publishers like German Rheinische Post have announced Podcasting strategies. Rheinische Post podcasts daily with a daily morning sum up of the news and a weekly exchange with the editor in chief.

Asma Khalid, reporter for NPR, explains us that 2017 will be the year of the newsy podcast and how podcasts can be a reliable source with a trustworthy perspective. Read more here.

Other Blog Posts

Industry news Reasons why your ePaper should be part of your 2017 strategy
15 December 2016
2016 is almost over – some might say finally – so we are looking over the horizon into next year and what publishers should include in their strategic planning of 2017.…
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