NEWS IN 2017 Key Industry Trends & Tactics - Connexity
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NEWS IN 2017 Key Industry Trends & Tactics to Grow Your Audience
Online news consumption has grown incredibly in the past year and continues to climb in 2017. This is largely due to major political events which have dominated the headlines. Americans are not only consuming more news across several sources, they are also thinking about the role that news providers play in their lives and society. In this report, we look at key online trends that all publishers should know in 2017. We go back to basics, such as deciding what to write about, when to publish and who to target, and provide essential tactics for publishers to increase and retain their online market share.
Introduction
Sizing Up the Market
To put the size of the industry into context, 1 in every 12 visits online were made to News &
Media sites in 2016. This has grown by 17%, from 1 in every 15 visits, compared to 2015.
CNN remains the industry leader in online visits, while Huffington Post, New York Times and
Fox News compete for second place. Americans spent an average 5:56 minutes per session on
News & Media sites in 2016, although times varied by publication. Out of the top 20 publishers,
visit time ranged from 13:09 minutes per session for Drudge Report to 3:23 for Forbes.
Top 20 News & Media Sites (2016)
(mm:ss)
Average Visit Time News Site Relative Visit Share
04:24 CNN.com 13.7%
04:36 The Huffington Post 9.0%
05:05 The New York Times 8.9%
11:11 Fox News 8.6%
04:44 The Washington Post 7.4%
13:09 Drudge Report 7.0%
05:50 Daily Mail 5.5%
05:49 Buzzfeed 4.5%
04:45 BBC Homepage 4.0%
06:50 USA TODAY 4.0%
04:19 ABCnews.com 3.3%
05:48 Breitbart.com 3.2%
08:19 NBC News 3.2%
04:10 theGuardian.com 2.7%
03:31 CNET.com 2.6%
03:23 Forbes.com 2.6%
03:59 CBSNews.com 2.5%
03:49 NYPost.com 2.5%
05:32 National Public Radio 2.4%
06:09 Politico 2.4%
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Shows average visit time and visit share for the top 20 publishers within the News & Media industry in 2016, minus weather and news aggregator sites.
Table of
Contents
1
What Do People Read
And When?
How news consumption changes
by the hour
2
What Should You Write
About?
Drawing inspiration from fast moving
search terms
3
Who Reads Your
News Now?
Measuring the impact of key news
events on audience composition
1 What Do People Read And When? In this section, we look at how news topics change, depending on the day of the week and hour of the day. We use the inauguration as an example of how breaking news disrupts typical hourly patterns, and why this matters to publishers.
When determining the best time to publish articles, the day of the week, hour of the day and subject
matter should all be considered. To illustrate this, we analyzed the peak hours and top content topics
consumed on Fox News, which has seen a meteoric rise in readership since the election.
During the weekday, the top 2 most-read topics on Fox News are politics and entertainment, which
peak from 9am to 1pm. Meanwhile on the weekend, these topics are consumed fairly consistently from
9am onwards. Based on this information, Fox might decide to promote and surface more political and
entertainment content during work hours.
Fox News - Topics Consumed by the Hour
(top 3 topics based on total web page views)
Weekday - Top Topics
Fox’s top 2 most read
topics, politics and
entertainment news,
peaks at 9am - 1 pm
during the weekday.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the Day
Politics Arts & Entertainment National
But on the weekends,
Weekend - Top Topics
news consumption is
fairly consistent from
9am onwards.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the Day
Politics Arts & Entertainment National
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Graphs show total page views per topic nationally aggregated to Eastern Standard Time and covers the period 1/20/2017 - 2/28/2017.
Hourly news consumption can also shift with breaking stories. For instance, news patterns changed
dramatically on the day of Trump’s inauguration (January 20th, 2017). On inauguration day, visit share
shifted significantly every hour, with CNN gaining the highest share thanks to their “inauguration live
coverage” article, which pushed CNN ahead of other publishers through most of the day.
Day Before Inaguration Inaguration Day
January 19th, 2017 January 20th, 2017
Inaguration
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence. Hourly breakdown of the percentage share of page views for the top News & Media websites over 24 hours on 1/19/2017 and 1/20/2017.
As you can see below, CNN’s successful coverage won a whopping 17% visit share of inauguration
articles between noon and 1pm on inauguration day. The Guardian also attracted visits for their live
video feed and inauguration updates, although they didn’t come close to CNN. Buzzfeed’s playful
commentary on Michelle Obama’s face after receiving a gift from Melania Trump gained some traffic, as
did Fox News’ coverage of rioting protesters, which they were the first to cover.
Top Inaguration Articles
Visit Share, 12-1pm January 20th, 2017
17.04%
Inauguration live coverage
3.45%
Donald Trump inauguration: parade and protesters take to streets of DC
2.54% People Can’t Stop Laughing At Michelle Obama’s Face When She Got
A Gift From Melania Trump
2.01% Donald Trump is sworn in as president, vows to end ‘American carnage’
1.93% Donald Trump Full Inauguration Speech Transcript Annotated
1.65%
Hundreds of protesters arrested in Inauguration Day clashes
1.52%
Donald Trump Inauguration Highlights
1.47% Donald Trump Inauguration: A Day of Ceremony, Protests and Celebration
1.17% Donald Trump Is Sworn In as President, Capping His Swift Ascent
Top Track hourly patterns across your key competitors, and drill down to top viewed
articles to inform your own content strategy. Be agile and responsive to breaking
Takeaway news in order to capture market share by the hour.
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence. Percentage of page views for top inauguration articles between 12:00 and 1pm on 1/20/2017.
2 What Should You Write About? Search terms provide a rich source of inspiration for publishers, representing people’s “top of mind” thoughts and queries. News providers need to keep a close pulse on fast-moving terms to get the first mover advantage. We look at the searches around the Nintendo NES Classic, a revival of the popular gaming console from the 1980’s, to demonstrate this.
The Nintendo Classic burst into the scene just weeks before Black Friday 2016, with an official US
release scheduled for November 11th. But online buzz around the classic console first surfaced the week
of July 16th, thanks to Nintendo’s official announcement. Coveted as one of the must-have products
of 2016 (to the point where it created stock issues immediately after its release), the Nintendo Classic
drove quite a lot of searches during the second half of the year.
Search Clicks for Nintendo Classic Edition
(to all industries)
Week ending Nov 12:
Nintendo Classic
officially released
0.12%
Week ending July 16:
First announcement on
0.08%
Nintendo’s website
0.04%
0.00%
06/04 06/18 07/02 07/16 07/30 08/13 08/27 09/10 09/24 10/08 10/22 11/05 11/19 12/03 12/17 12/31
Variations of “nintendo classic” Variations of “nes”
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Percentage of Nintendo Classic Edition and NES search variations resulting in clicks to websites from 6/04/2016 - 12/31/2016.Let’s look at the publishers who were able to capitalize on these Nintendo searches. When we break
down traffic to News & Media sites coming from Nintendo-related search variations, it’s clear that The
Verge won the lion’s share of clicks. With early articles hailing the “glorious revival” of Nintendo (“We
just saw Nintendo’s NES Classic in person and it is glorious”), The Verge was able to capture this early
buzz and excitement.
The Verge was also able to maintain top spot during the week of the product’s actual release (Nov
12th), although it was met with higher competition across tech specialist and news providers who
caught on to the craze.
Downstream Websites From Nintendo Classic Searches
(News & Media Sites, over peak search weeks)
Tech Specialists
General News
07/16/2016 11/12/2016
The Verge 15.2% The Verge 3.2%
Forbes 0.7% CNET 1.5%
USA Today 0.7% Forbes 1.0%
The Verge
CNET 0.6% TechCrunch 1.0% maintained top
spot over peak
Ars Technica 0.6% Wired 0.7%
weeks on their
coverage of the
Digital Trends 0.6% Q13 Fox 0.7%
Nintendo Classic
The New York Times 0.4% Mirror 0.6%
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Downstream traffic from Nintendo Classic search variations during the weeks ending 7/16/2016 and 11/12/2016.The Verge is not a top technology publication — they sit several hundred rankings below sites like
CNET according to the Alexa website ranking. So what was the secret behind The Verge’s success?
During the week of Nintendo’s release, The Verge expertly matched their content keywords with high
organic search terms. Compared to generic searches that had higher paid rates (such as “nes classic”
or “mini nes”), terms that specified “sold out” and “amazon” had higher organic rates. Articles such as
“already sold out” and “how to buy (on Amazon)” directly answered consumer needs while boosting
their organic traffic.
Search Variations of “NES” and Articles From The Verge
(Week of Nov 12)
Top Fast Moving Search Terms – All Industries
(ranked by week-on-week volume difference)
Search Terms Paid Rate Search Clicks
1 nes classic edition 31.51% 21.78%
2 nes classic 19.91% 4.15%
3 nintendo nes 40.88% 3.03%
4 nes classic sold out 0% 2.93%
5 nintendo nes classic 29.50% 2.82%
6 nes classic edition amazon 0.91% 2.14%
7 mini nes 33.09% 2.00%
8 nes classic edition pre order 30.69% 1.65%
9 new mini 23.21% 1.64%
10 nes classic edition walmart 30.19% 1.62%
11 nintendo nes classic edition 17.85% 1.52%
12 classic nes 22.49% 1.21%
13 nes 12.17% 1.06%
14 amazon nes classic 1.14% 0.99%
15 nintendo entertainment system...nes classic edition 24.26% 0.69%
Top Use fast-moving organic terms as a source of inspiration to get the first mover
advantage. Replicate key organic terms to optimize click share against your
Takeaway competitors.
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Search clicks and paid rate for Nintendo Classic search variations, ending the week of November 12th.3 Who Reads Your News Now? Key events, such as Trump’s election, have blurred the lines between audiences of right and left-leaning publications, as more Americans (particularly young, liberal readers) seek out news from multiple sources. In this section we measure the impact of key political events on the audience composition of major publications, and explore how this may affect their strategy moving forward.
Online news readers tend to be more variable than offline audiences. For example, people who
associate with liberal politics are not likely to purchase The Weekly Standard or watch Fox News, but
might still read online news from a range of right and left sources. This audience cross-over appears to
have intensified since the inauguration.
Key political events, particularly the election and public discourse surrounding Donald Trump, have
lifted news consumption across the political spectrum. Comparing the two months before and two
months after Trump’s inauguration, we see an increase in audience size across the top 10 news
publications (except for The BBC and The Drudge Report, which dipped slightly).
Audience Size Change for Top Publications
(Relative Difference of 8 weeks pre vs. 8 weeks post Trump’s inauguration)
Breitbart
+22%
Washington Post
Huffington Post +14% Fox News
New York Times +12%
+12%
+10% Buzzfeed CNN
+8% Daily Mail UK
+7%
+6%
Audience is Audience
more BBC News UK Drudge Report is more
consistently -1% -2% consistently
Liberal Conservative
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Relative difference in audience size 2 months before and 2 months after January 20th, 2017.Since the inauguration, the three largest news publications (which traditionally pull both left and right
audiences) have received the greatest traffic increase from young, liberal readers. Interestingly, Fox
News experienced the most growth in young and liberal visitors when compared to NY Times and CNN.
Top 3 Publications: Change in Online Audiences
(Relative Difference of 8 weeks pre vs. 8 weeks post Trump’s inauguration)
Age Group
18%
14% 14% 12%
13% 11% 10%
11% 8% 3%
9% 8% 5% 8% 8% 6% 10% 2%
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Political Leaning
18%
15% 11% 14% 13%
9% 9% 7% 9% 10%
13% 7% 6% 2% 6% 8%
5% 7%
Very Liberal Somewhat Middle of Somewhat Very Don’t Know/
Liberal the Road Conservative Conservative No Answer
NY Times CNN Fox
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Graphs calculate the relative difference in audience profile of each publication 8 weeks before vs. 8 weeks after January 20th, 2017.Besides Fox news, the growth in liberal readership amongst right-leaning publications seems to
intensify for more conservative publications. For example, alt-right publication Breitbart saw roughly
twice as much growth in young and progressive segments compared to major news outlets.
Breitbart has also seen a 25% jump in shared readership with Buzzfeed and 17% increase in readers
from the Huffington Post, both of which are known for their young, liberal readership. Whether this
shift is driven by a genuine desire to see multiple perspectives or sheer curiosity of what the other side
is saying, it shows that progressive Millennials are deeply invested in exposing themselves to content
across the political spectrum.
Breitbart Audience Shifts
Fastest Growing Segments Greatest Audience Cross-Over
Post Inauguration Post Inauguration
+27%
Millennials
Buzzfeed 25%
(aged 18-34)
BBC News UK 23%
+28% Somewhat
Liberal CNN 17%
Huffington Post 17%
+30% Very
Liberal New York Times 13%
Top The profile of a publication’s online audience is constantly shifting, especially with
the current political climate. Keep track of your audience crossover with other
Takeaway media sources. Analyze content consumption by audience to attract new segments.
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence. Graphs calculate the relative difference in audience profile of Breitbart visitors 8 weeks before vs. 8 weeks after January 20th, 2017.Key Takeaways
For Publishers
›› Track hourly patterns across your key
competitors, and drill down to most-viewed
articles to inform your own content strategy.
Be agile and responsive to breaking news in
order to capture market share by the hour.
›› Use fast-moving organic terms as a source of
inspiration to get the first mover advantage.
Incorporate rising organic terms to optimize
clicks against your competitors.
›› Keep track of your audience composition and
crossover with other publications, especially
as the political climate intensifies. Analyze
content consumption by audience to attract
new segments.Want to learn more about
YOUR audience?
LET’S TALK
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