TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019 - townnews.com
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
TECHNOLOGY
GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
HELPING PUBLISHERS CONNECT WITH TODAY’S INNOVATORS
TECH, DATA & AI IN THE PRINT GETS
DIGITAL SUBS NEWSROOM PERSONAL
The evolving challenges Artificial intelligence German publisher offers
facing publishers seeking helps editors expand advertisers a personalised
more reader revenues content horizons print newspaper
4 10 18
EDITORIAL STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL PREMIUM CONTENT
VERDENS GANG (VG), OSLO
5-6 NOVEMBER 2019
WWW.WAN-IFRA.ORG/NRS19
HOSTED BY
OUR VIEWPOINT / IMPRINT
[www.wan-ifra.org] 3
Editorial
The Guide & Directory –
a business accelerator
By Vincent Peyrégne, CEO of WAN-IFRA
T
here are plenty of reasons to feel upbeat about the and workflows. Just at look how data and analytics have re-
news industry and journalism – particularly thanks to shaped roles and organisation in newsrooms, how modern
amazing tech talents who reinvent the way news is pro- CMSs are bringing real workflow and distribution efficiencies,
duced, delivered and consumed. I hope you will feel this en- or how artificial intelligence is starting to help newsrooms in
ergy while reading our Technology Guide & Directory 2019. myriad ways. Even the personalised newspaper is no longer a
dream... just check out our story on page 18.
Innovation, stimulated by a rich ecosystem of agile and adept
tech suppliers, generates true value for consumers and im- Quickly advancing those solutions to the market is one of the
proves their engagement with publishers. Innovation provides core missions of WAN-IFRA.
better products and services at competitive prices. Innovation
generates growth, increases productivity, and helps the bot- This guide is a business accelerator. It will provide you with
tom line. Innovation contributes to the attractiveness of an easy access to a global network of technology partners that
industry that lives from its talent, the quality of its content, reinvent the future of news today, be it with paid content
and the efficiency of its distribution platforms. strategies, targeted content or advertising, managing audi-
ence engagement, or improving production workflows.
With the continual pressure to adapt our business model, in-
novation is a mainstay of our commercial strategy. It’s a prac- It should also prepare publishing executives and staff who are
tice that can make or break our enterprises. To succeed in de- planning to attend our Expo in October in Berlin, where most
veloping quality solutions and making them a reality, it is vital of the providers listed in this publication will be present.
for news entrepreneurs to rely on a robust ecosystem of tech
entrepreneurs. The Technology Guide & Directory facilitates connections be-
tween entrepreneurs and media clients. It is an ideal way to
Indeed, we need a constant influx of new technologies and grow and foster innovation in our industry… a true win-win
talent to continuously challenge and reinvent our business for all players.
Imprint: Technology Guide & Directory
WAN-IFRA Advertising All rights reserved. Republication, duplication or
Chief Executive Officer: Vincent Peyrègne E-mail: [dean.roper@wan-ifra.org] distribution of any article, image, graphic or
Director of Insights / Editor-in-Chief: Dean Roper media contained in the print or ePaper edition
Tel. +49.69.240063-261
or of any material posted on [www.wan-ifra.
Editorial team: Anton Jolkovski, Brian Veseling, Advertising rates and terms and conditions pub- org] is prohibited without permission.
Michael Spinner-Just, Simone Flückiger lished in Media Information 2019 are applicable.
No responsibility assumed for unsolicited manu-
Design and production: Gordon Steiger, free- Copyright and imprint scripts. Viewpoints and signed contributions do
lancer; Christian Pradel, freelancer not necessarily express the opinion of WAN-
The Technology Guide & Directory is published
Editorial once a year in English. IFRA.
E-mail: [editor@wan-ifra.org] Copyright 2019 WAN-IFRA CH, Rotfeder-Ring Printed in Germany by DieDruckerei.de
Tel. +49.69.240063-0 11, 60327 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
4 DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
Tech and data issues pose stiff
challenges to reader rev strategies
As publishers turn to subscription ity to serve samples of subscription con- er data t e ecret wea on
revenue to shore up their revenue tent on their own terns, Google’s recent User data has, for years, been the secret
strategies, all of them – from interna- decision to close a loophole that allowed weapon in publishers’ arsenals. The first-
tional business dailies to general-in- audiences to use Incognito mode to ef- party data volunteered by users who
terest local papers – are grappling fectively bypass metered paywalls forced choose to sign up and register for pub-
with the constantly evolving issues of publishers’ hands. lishers’ sites – even if they don’t choose
tech and data. While research demonstrates that to ultimately pay for that content – is a
harder paywalls typically serve larger pub- powerful resource.
As an example, publishers have been lications, and therefore those publishers It has been brought to the fore again
forced to make decisions about making might have taken that route anyway, the as a result of Apple going to war with
their paywalls stricter, not on their own fact remains that publishers had to have Google over privacy, the rise of the third-
initiative but in response to the actions of the flexibility in their subscription tools in party cookie, and the implementation of
a tech giant. While Google’s 2007 deci- order to react as swiftly as they did. GDPR. Alex Kirby, head of programmatic
sion to move to flexible sampling for sub- Google’s argument, as it has been so and audience data at Dennis Publishing,
scription-based publishers including The many times, is the move was in service of explains that, as painful as the process of
Times & Sunday Times boosted their abil- user privacy. implementing data protection policies has
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
[www.wan-ifra.org] 5
“A well-implemented data platform at the centre of a news
publishing organisation must be able to fuel strategic
synergies among editorial staff, the paid content business, and
the advertising business.”
Markus Engstrom
Head of Data Strategy, MittMedia, Sweden
been for publishers, ultimately it has “al- engagement between user and publisher Beyond that, while the rise of privacy leg-
lowed us to really look at... how we can and reducing the likelihood of churn. islation has made user data a rare com-
put privacy and those users at the fore- The importance of investing in tech to modity that can be utilised by publishers
front, and build products around that.” reduce churn has been starkly demon- who have an existing direct relationship
Similarly, Financial Times Chief Data strated both by The Times’ investment in with a user, it does mean that fly-by-night
Officer Tom Betts told a WAN-IFRA study tools designed to prevent just that, and in visitors to your website or those users
tour: “One of the things that I think often the Los Angeles Times’ recent disappoint- who choose not to share any information
people don’t recognise about the impor- ing subscription figures, which were at all are suddenly much harder to con-
tance of subscription and reader revenue chalked up almost entirely to the number vert in any capacity.
is the value of the data that comes from of users that fail to renew. Being totally GDPR-compliant, for in-
having a relationship with readers.” stance, effectively means waving good-
The acknowledgment that publishers The question of resources bye to any in-depth knowledge of individ-
have primacy when it comes to user data, The unfortunate reality is that not all ual users. In the immediate aftermath of
together with a widespread recognition newspapers have the resources to invest GDPR’s rollout there were messages from
that there are too many players in the in bespoke data and subscription tech. some US publishers, whose sites were not
data sphere, leading to revenue leakage While off-the-shelf tools, even those that compliant, that letting EU users onto their
along the chain, has led many successful can be better tailored, are certainly useful, sites simply was not worth the trouble –
digital subscription publishers to invest in many smaller publishers struggle to invest and some still do so!
building their own data and tech tools to in cutting-edge tech, many relying on
capitalise on their position. old-fashioned techniques of trial and Potential revenue opportunities
Sweden’s MittMedia, for instance, has error to try to improve their subscription There are plenty of opportunities for pub-
moved its data tools from those offered funnel. lishers with regard to subscription reve-
by third parties to entirely in-house. Head nue, and data and tech solutions lie be-
of Data Strategy Markus Engstrom ex- hind most of them. The stark reality,
plains: “A well-implemented data plat- however, is that just as not all publishers
form at the centre of a news publishing WAN-IFRA Report to can subsist from the finite amount of dig-
organisation must be able to fuel strate- examine tech stack, ital subscription money, as the Los Ange-
gic synergies among editorial staff, the les Times example demonstrates, not all
paid content business, and the advertis- digital subscriptions publishers are well-placed, or seem will-
ing business.” ing, to invest in the tools required for
WAN-IFRA is currently putting to- subscription success.
Investing in tech to reduce churn gether a report on this topic to be And with the landscape altering so
The Times & Sunday Times, too, have in- published later this year. Tentatively rapidly as a result of tech giants and legis-
vested heavily in tools that leverage the titled “Unravelling the Tech Stack lation, failure to adapt could be an exis-
user data to which they have access. Its AI Behind Digital Subscriptions,” it will tential crisis.
“butler,” James, for instance, is designed be available free to WAN-IFRA
to serve more relevant content to its Members and available for purchase Story by Chris Sutcliffe for WAN-IFRA
logged-in users. That has the comple- by non-members.
mentary benefits of both increasing the
6 CMS DEVELOPMENT
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
The trends impacting
CMS considerations
A content management system sits at What is the way forward with data some cases, improve the productivity of
the heart of a publishing operation, analytics being embedded in CMS? news companies, stimulate them to rede-
so it is advisable to take a long-term New technologies generate massive fine existing tasks, design new creative
approach when considering the pur- amounts of data. In our enthusiasm jobs, and offer new business contexts.
chase of a new system. Ideally, the about data, we must never forget data
CMS should be able to adapt to new on its own doesn’t tell a story. Media con- How will AI affect CMS and work
developments, to ensure your pub- sumers want the story behind the data. processes at media organisations?
lishing company remains at the fore- The next generation of CMS must be in a Thanks to AI we will know what, how,
front. We asked industry veteran Luc continuous learning modus, efficiently and when to communicate even before
Rademakers about technological absorbing the most relevant data and in- the event happens, and before anyone
trends that should be kept in mind telligently reacting to real-time situations. will have any idea of what will happen.
when planning for a new system. Publishers are still struggling to find News companies will have to introduce
the right balance of editorial and com- pre-reporting, since limiting newsrooms
mercial information that their consumers to post-reporting activities will rapidly be
WAN-IFRA: Do media companies need and potential consumers are open to, and outdated.
to invest more in personalisation? the information that could surprise them. Now that digital giants such as Face-
Luc Rademakers: Absolutely. Personal- Collecting the right data and deploy- book, Apple, Google, Alibaba, Baidu and
ised media treat consumers as individuals, ing the right analytics, with a clear strat- Tencent are facing difficulties in creating
rather than just an anonymous part of a egy that is well embedded in the com- new value models, media companies
mass behavioural pattern. What individ- pany, is often a challenge. Most need to focus on what they are histori-
ual doesn’t want to be recognised as a companies have a progression margin in cally good at: connecting people with rel-
valuable and unique person? That’s why the profitability analysis of their content, evant and unique content. And especially
personalisation in content and advertising ads, and advertorials. do that in a climate where sustaining an
offers makes sense. If you don’t focus on Collecting the data that fits in with agile culture is critical, same for product
relevance to the individual, that individual your strategy can lead to better insights. innovation, and in responding to regula-
will ignore your medium. But even the best tech solutions will never tory, security and moral issues.
create a fully comprehensive yield optimi- Investing in AI power when your tra-
sation solution across different revenue ditional business must survive in a shrink-
types. Effective tech implementation is ing market is not an obvious thing to do.
mostly a people business. The implemen- Media companies lack the resources that
tation of a new CMS can accelerate a big tech companies have. AI can be very
change process; changing a company’s helpful in being more efficient in what
mindset is a leader’s job. you’re good at: serving and surprising
your audience.
What impact will artificial intelligence
have on media, in your opinion? What about the impact of 5G on the
Luc Rademakers is Associate Director AI and IoT (internet of things) offer tre- media industry?
at PMP, an international strategy con- mendous new opportunities for the It will definitely bring the quality of in-
sulting company in media and telecoms, media business. Content distribution will stant distribution to the next level. The
among other sectors. Rademakers has become much more integrated in tech industry is developing next-genera-
broad experience leading media trans-
cross-selling propositions. The conveni- tion technologies to take advantage of al-
formation in executive roles. He is also
an associate of the Global Advisory ence level – access to information every- ways-on, super high-speed connections.
Team at WAN-IFRA. where at every given moment will de- Instant reporting, agility, and technical
termine which information providers will quality are no-brainers. 5G will be crucial
survive. AI will definitely, and already is in capturing and distributing live video
CMS DEVELOPMENT
[www.wan-ifra.org] 7
footage of breaking news events. We are ognition and access modes will websites supporting visual and voice
still in the early days of 5G, and it’s too dramatically change the way we log in search will score higher in customer ac-
early to experience the real benefits of it, and the way we will be served. In China, quisition, loyalty, market share, and reve-
but 5G will definitely transform the way several spectacular and strong UX appli- nue.
we communicate in the new world of cations of recognition have been recently
mass connectivity. tested and introduced. Generally speaking, what do you see
Once the ownership, security and ex- as the most important challenge for
What applications will we see first? change questions raised by recognition publishers?
Real-time telepresence will become com- are tackled sufficiently, the industries can Media organisations are used to covering
monplace. Socialising around content at start to integrate recognition technolo- the past and the present. Preparing for
different kind of events will be accessible gies. The gain of time and energy would the future in an entrepreneurial way is
at all times. Adding data, video chatting, be huge for news companies, no less key. To reinforce their front-runner posi-
VR, and AR experiences will be necessary than in other industries. tion, media managers and employees
for creating a direct interface between Consumer demand for voice devices is need to move faster than technolo-
your physical and digital environment and best illustrated in the automotive sector. gy-based innovation does. Speed of
your personal behaviour and needs. In the news industry, innovation in voice change will determine who runs in front
Even more promising are the extra devices is still poor. In the coming years, and who does not.
services, innovations and data that will
enrich instant sports reporting, thanks to
extra bandwidth, faster data sharing and
faster broadcast capabilities. News orgs
Expo guided tours:
need to be prepared for that revolution. CMS, Multi-Channel Publishing
What’s the potential of voice and Guided tours at DCX Digital Content Expo 2019 in Berlin will give visitors an op-
visual search-based queries for the portunity to see some leading system providers up-close. A CMS tour will be held
news industry? at 11:30 on Tuesday, 8 October. Multi-Channel Publishing tours will be held at
Convenience is crucial in every user expe- 14:00 on Tuesday, 8 October, and 15:15 on Wednesday, 9 October.
rience (UX). Most consumers favour con-
venience over privacy. Genetic-based rec-
NEXT-GENERATION CONTENT CREATION
CUE is the publishing platform that will take your news
business into the future. Designed for creative storytelling.
Built for an ever-changing media landscape.
CUE RELEASES A NEW CREATIVE POTENTIAL
IN YOUR NEWS STORIES
• Easily combine text, images, • Automatically customize
video, audio, SoMe feeds, and stories to match different
more into rich, engaging stories. audience needs.
• Create visual stories in an easy, • Innovate and enrich digital
efficient, and intuitive workflow. content without having
to replace journalists with
• Automatically adapt and
programmers.
distribute the same story to
different channels.
DEVELOPED WITH LEADING NEWS PUBLISHERS
CUE is developed by CCI and Escenic in close collaboration with leading
media companies from around the world, such as WeltN24, McClatchy,
Rossel, and JP/Politikens Hus.
CUE HIGHLIGHTS
Designed for creative An open & customizable
digital storytelling platform
Scales with your All tools consolidated into
business needs one user experience
Streamlines workflows, Full integration of all
increases efficiency channels, including print
SEE MORE AT CUEPUBLISHING.COM
Advertisement
Q&A....
‘We want to facilitate digital transformation’
Today we often hear about publishers moving toward “digital-first” or “mo-
bile-first,” when in fact “audience-first” should drive any newsroom’s
content strategy. To plan, publish and distribute multimedia content, that
implies a “story-first” mentality in the newsroom trenches. And that is some-
thing that must be at the forefront of a publishing solution provider’s devel-
opment strategy. Jacob Gjørtz, VP of Marketing at CCI Europe, shares his
views on the state of today’s modern publishing platforms.
What is the greatest demand today The challenge is that there isn’t one media
from newsrooms in terms of invest- consumer today, but a lot of different
ing in or optimising a CMS? consumers with different content and
channel needs. So media companies not
The media companies that we work with only have to publish content across an in-
typically seek more than just a CMS. They creasing number of channels. They also
seek a foundation for their digital trans- must be able to create content that is na-
formation and a partner to help them tive to each channel in order to offer a Another approach is to offer an open and
drive this process. quality experience and ultimately retain flexible platform which allows you to add
Today’s media companies are faced with their consumers. new tools and functions as your business
a number of business challenges which For many newsrooms, this presents one needs evolve. This is the concept that we
are all linked to technology in one way or of the biggest challenges. How do you offer with our CUE platform. Instead of
another. In order to successfully trans- create good mobile content when your being locked in a monolith, you get a set
form your media business, you need a system and workflows are set up for print- of core functionalities relating to content
technology platform that doesn’t keep first or web-first production? How can you creation, asset management, and content
you locked in old formats and workflows. avoid spending hours reformatting stories distribution. You are then able to inte-
You need a platform that, for example, al- to different channels? How do you make grate basically any best-of-breed tool that
lows you to experiment with new chan- sure that your newsroom is prepared to you prefer, e.g. online tools like Slack,
nels and content formats, quickly and deliver content to any new channels that Trello, Chartbeat etc. – within the same
cost-effectively. might emerge in the future? user interface.
Any technology partner’s mission should This is the challenge that CMS vendors
be to empower media companies to be need to help newsrooms solve. By offer- There are two schools of thought
agile and innovative via the use of tech- ing a technology platform which allows today regarding tech: develop in-
nology. And that starting point is not the them to work ‘story-first’ and automati- house or partner with a trusted pro-
specific CMS and its features. Instead, cally distribute their content in native for- vider. How have your clients ap-
start by focusing on the business chal- mats across channels. proached this?
lenge that the customer is trying to solve.
Many publishers are constantly ex- Actually, the one approach doesn’t rule
Newsrooms are increasingly pivoting perimenting with new tools and tech- out the other. We work with a number of
to audience-first content strategies. nologies, analytics or AI, for example. media companies that have decided to
What complexity does that bring to What impact will this have on the de- put CMS development into our hands in
their publishing workflows and distri- velopment of CMSs? order to free up in-house tech resources
bution? for other business-critical projects.
There are two approaches to developing In all projects, we aim to establish a close
Media companies are adapting their core CMSs, or publishing platforms as we pre- working relationship with our customers’
business models to be based more on fer to call them. One is to analyze and an- tech departments to ensure that the solu-
reader revenue and less on ad revenue. ticipate your media company’s current tion is effectively implemented through-
So ‘audience first’ basically means ‘con- and future publishing needs, and then de- out the organization and ownership is
sumer first’. You have to put the con- velop all the appropriate functionalities to passed on. Our mission is not just to be a
sumer front and center in your product meet these needs. system provider. We want to facilitate digi-
offering and product development. tal transformation.
10 TRENDS IN NEWSROOMS
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
The rise of AI in the newsroom
From creating news stories automati- Marconi, The Wall Street Journal’s R&D analyse huge amounts of data and ena-
cally to optimising content delivery, Chief and author of the upcoming book bling them to quickly find relationships
more and more newsrooms world- Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and among different entities. The Interna-
wide are using artificial intelligence the Future of Journalism. “AI is already tional Consortium of Investigative Jour-
to automate and augment their re- impacting and transforming all of these nalists (ICIJ) uses an AI-powered tool to
porting and other newsroom pro- different areas,” he says. automatically recognise and index text
cesses. The second chapter of documents. That software was used by
WAN-IFRA’s Trends in Newsrooms Sifting, analysing masses of text ICIJ reporters to process 13.4 million con-
2019 Report, excerpted here, exam- Naturally, news gathering is a major part fidential documents relating to offshore
ines this rapidly developing trend. of any reporter’s job. AI can cut down on investments, an effort that facilitated a
time spent on this task, help journalists blockbusting journalistic series, “Paradise
According to early insights from a survey gather insights more quickly and even Papers: Secrets of the Global Elite.”
about AI technologies conducted by Jour- offer a potential competative advantage.
nalism AI, a collaboration between LSE’s With that in mind, in 2017 Reuters Promises of efficiency and scale
(London School of Economics and Politi- launched a tool called News Tracer, de- At the production level, the use of algo-
cal Science) media think-tank Polis and signed to sift through millions of tweets rithms promises efficiency and scale, be it
the Google News Initiative, most respond- per day to flag potential breaking news by automatically generating news texts
ents reported “positive results on a wide events, often identifying them more based on structured data, switching be-
range of applications,” including ads tar- quickly than other news organisations tween media types, or repurposing con-
geting, propensity models for subscrip- could, the company said. Similarly, in late tent for different platforms.
tions, comment moderation, and facial 2018, Reach in the UK announced some Automated content generation is al-
recognition technologies applied to public of its regional newsrooms would deploy ready fairly prevalent, with a number of
figures in public interest reporting. an off-the-shelf AI-powered tool to moni- larger newsrooms using natural language
“If you think about the news process, tor some 60,000 online sources and alert generation to produce “commodity
you have essentially three main steps of journalists to “pre-trending” stories. news” to expand their coverage and free
value creation: news gathering, produc- AI systems also show potential for in- up journalists’ time so that they can focus
tion, and distribution,” says Francesco vestigative journalism by helping reporters on more in-depth reporting tasks.TRENDS IN NEWSROOMS
[www.wan-ifra.org] 11
The Associated Press (AP), where Marconi “A I is already impacting and transforming …
previously co-led content automation and the three main steps of value creation: news
artificial intelligence efforts, started auto-
mating its corporate earnings reports a gathering, production, and distribution.”
few years ago, enabling the news agency
Francesco Marconi,
to increase the number of companies it The Wall Street Journal’s R&D Chief
reported on from 300 to 4,000. Similarly,
MittMedia, one of Sweden’s largest local
media groups, launched a sports bot to
cover lower-level leagues and a wider
range of sports, generating 41,000 arti- created by humans, and it can make mis- pect of this kind of generation of
cles in 2017-2018 and even helping drive takes – errors that often result from the misinformation is deeply troublesome. For
paid subscriptions. biases in how AI is designed, as well as example, fake videos can make politicians
the data used to train it. The output is appear to say things they never said, or
From data to musical chords only as good as its input.” falsely implicate people in crimes.
Other examples of how AI can enhance Increasingly, it is being acknowledged The deepfake phenomenon also
production include automated creation of that AI software is prone to the same er- poses a threat to journalistic trust and in-
videos from text, and data sonification. rors and biases that humans exhibit and tegrity. It means that in addition to carry-
The latter technique, which The Wall can even exacerbate those inequities, ing out traditional fact-checking pro-
Street Journal is experimenting with, al- since they are often implemented on cesses, journalists must also be vigilant for
gorithmically transforms numerical data massive scales with little oversight. the possibility that videos or images might
into musical chords to make charts and have been falsified.
data visualisations accessible to visually Investigating algorithms Some newsrooms are taking proactive
impaired people. “It’s an emerging exam- A ProPublica investigation into ma- measures to deal with deepfakes. For ex-
ple, but it’s fascinating how AI allows us chine-generated risk scores used by gov- ample, The Wall Street Journal has
to create news experiences that we never ernment criminal justice officials found formed a media forensics committee to
thought we would,” Marconi says. the software to be biased against black train journalists. Also, The New York
As for distribution, the third step in defendants. That kind of investigative re- Times is exploring how to leverage block-
the news value chain, AI can help deter- porting will increasingly be needed to en- chain to map the provenance (origin and
mine the best time to publish a story or sure that in an algorithmically-driven modification history) of data. And Reuters
personalise the delivery of content to the world, software is held accountable. has cooperated with a specialist produc-
audience. Media organisations including Another emerging risk of AI-driven tion company to create a deepfake video,
Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, Hearst, and content generation has manifested itself to test whether its user-generated
CBS Interactive deploy the AI-powered in the form of so-called deepfakes. These content team can tell the file is not au-
content distribution platform TrueAnthem are images or audio files generated or al- thentic.
to determine what stories should be recir- tered with the help of AI to dupe an audi-
culated and when they should be posted ence into thinking they are real. The pros- Story by Simone Flueckiger, WAN-IFRA
to social media platforms. To make those
decisions, the system tracks signals that
predict performance, including the level
of audience engagement, publishing fre- With expert interviews and case studies from
quency, and time of day. around the world, the second chapter of
Regardless of how well algorithms are WAN-IFRA’s Trends in Newsrooms 2019 Re-
programmed, the conclusions drawn by port examines the ways artificial intelligence is
machines are not always correct. Journal- affecting and transforming all steps of the news
ists must always question outcomes, vali- process, from news gathering to production
date methodologies and ensure explaina- and distribution.
bility. That is no easy task; algorithms are
difficult to audit and, as such, to hold ac- The chapter is free to download for WAN-IFRA
countable. Members and can be purchased by non-mem-
“The insights generated through AI bers. [See www.wan-ifra.org/tin_ai_newsroom.]
should be used as a compass that guides
reporting, not as a clock that provides in-
fallible information,” says Marconi. “AI is12 PERSONALISED NEWS
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
Content Personalisation N etwork:
A new approach to personalising news
A group of broadcasters, researchers Meanwhile, The Times of London and the formation overload.
and technology providers is building Sunday Times are using an algorithm to This is where the CPN project comes
a state-of-the-art news personalisa- serve up content through personalised in. Funded by the European Union’s Hori-
tion platform. After a year and a half newsletters, which is helping them reduce zon 2020 research and innovation pro-
of research and development, the subscriber churn. gramme, CPN teams up professionals
Content Personalisation Network Why those and many other publishers from various industries. Through its
(CPN) project is looking for news pub- are taking advantage of personalisation is Global Alliance for Media Innovation
lishers to test its recommender. clear. It can offer deeper engagement (GAMI) network, WAN-IFRA is a CPN pro-
with the audience. When readers are ject partner.
News publishers are increasingly realising served the kind of content they are inter-
the power of personalisation. For in- ested in, they are more likely to consume Personalisation must be personalised
stance, in the latest version of its iPhone more of it and come back regularly. Also, Although more and more publishers are
app, The New York Times added a promi- many readers feel overwhelmed by the experimenting with personalisation, the
nent new section “For You,” which fea- avalanche of news today, and personal- industry hasn’t cracked the code yet. In
tures articles based on the user’s interests. ised content can act as an antidote to in- fact, it’s very likely that there is no single
CPN project part-
ners (at right)
include broadcasters,
researchers, and tech-
nology providers.PERSONALISED NEWS
[www.wan-ifra.org] 13
algorithm that fits all titles and all types of
audiences.
“Our tests with users have shown
that not everyone likes the same thing,”
says Tilman Wagner, innovation manager
at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s interna-
tional public broadcaster, a CPN project
partner. “Some people like to pick cate-
gories before they start, others expect the
system to do all that for them, while
some people think personalisation focus-
ing on one aspect alone (for example lo-
cation) is enough. And for some, you
need all of the above.
“It’s a bit ironic when you think of it:
Personalisation must be personalised,” he A screenshot of the prototype CPN recommender web application interface
said.
Bursting the filter bubble could trap their readers in a so-called filter How exactly does the CPN algorithm de-
Instead of trying to create a one-size-fits- bubble, meaning that the algorithm termine what content should be dis-
all product, the CPN project is building a would prevent them from seeing impor- played to which person? Instead of using
recommender that uses “micro-services,” tant content that doesn’t match their a single metric such as a reader’s past
a range of interconnected functionalities preferences. reading behaviour, the algorithm com-
and operations, such as content analysis CPN has aimed to address the fil- bines a variety of signals, ranging from
and user profiling, which working to- ter-bubble issue from the start of the pro- semantic content analysis to checking
gether make content personalisation pos- ject, by featuring a mixture of personal- what other users with similar profiles
sible. ised and selected content, for instance. have read.
Thanks to this “modular” approach, “The CPN recommender gives pub- In addition, the recommender tries to
the different services can be adjusted sep- lishers control over what content should inject the occasional “surprise”: an article
arately, which means that the CPN plat- be prioritised, thus allowing them to use that doesn’t match the reader’s interests.
form is highly flexible and can easily be their editorial judgement in deciding “Finding the right balance is tricky.
adapted to the needs of different types of what articles their readers shouldn’t People expect personalised content, but
publishers. miss,” says Ilke Lemmelijn, an innovation on the other hand, they also like to be
This also allows the platform to sup- project leader at VRT, a Belgian public-ser- surprised and find things they wouldn’t
port third-party integrations, which can vice broadcaster and CPN project partner. have expected,” says Wagner.
be “plugged in” to add new features. “Everyone is trying to create the per-
The CPN consortium is already working Rebuilding trust in personalisation fect algorithm, but no one has found it
with a group of startups that are develop- Readers, on the other hand, may be sus- yet,” he adds. “But since we’re a research
ing new services to enhance the recom- picious of the kinds of algorithms that project and have been able to experiment
mender. power content personalisation. heavily, we’ve been able to make signifi-
During the course of the project, the “Social networks, and particularly cant progress on this.”
recommender will be put in front of hun- Facebook’s News Feed, have given algo- The recommender has gone through
dreds of test users. One insight that has rithmic personalisation a bad name, since two rounds of piloting with test users,
already come out of user testing is how users don’t exactly know how they func- with one more round to follow in early
easily readers become afraid of missing tion,” says Wagner. 2020. The CPN project is looking for
out on important articles. CPN aims to address such concerns by media companies to join the initiative and
“It’s really a balance. People have to being as open as possible about the algo- benefit from the CPN software for free.
feel that they are seeing personalised rithm’s functionalities. For example, users Read more at www.projectcpn.eu.
content, while at the same time feel that can verify why the recommender is pre-
they also discover other important articles senting them with a specific article. Author: Teemu Henriksson, Project Coordi-
as well,” says Wagner. “It’s a very subjec- “We want to bring more transparency nator, Global Alliance for Media Innovation
(GAMI)
tive feeling.” into the equation. We believe that it will
Indeed, some news industry profes- help rebuild audiences’ trust in personali-
sionals worry that personalised content sation,” Wagner says.14 ADVERTISING ALLIANCES
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
Technical considerations for
publisher advertising alliances
Just bringing competing publish- tising to incorporate other media in which which comprises some of the largest Por-
ers on board would seem to be the publishers can sell ad space. tugese publishers, was designed to offer
the biggest hurdle to overcome in Quite apart from the cultural chal- advertisers access to audience segments
forming an ad alliance. And in- lenges of convincing a raft of different with 100 percent accuracy based on
deed, in most cases, that’s true. newspapers – many of whom do not pooled first-party data. That is based on
But the technology issues associ- share one another’s values and politics creating a single sign-in, the complexity
ated with making it work bring and have previously considered them- of which is an ongoing concern:
their own set of challenges. selves competitors there are tech limita- “It looks complicated because it is
tions and considerations that go into cre- complicated when you have 70 different
Advertising alliances are very much en ating effective alliances that deliver on websites, 20 different technologies, sites
vogue among publishers, who recognise their potential. From single sign-in to en- and apps that we built 10 years ago, and
that providing comparable audience sizes suring consistency of cross-device experi- some from this year, so the main issue
to the Duopoly, with greater guarantees ence, the challenge for publishers in alli- that took almost one and a half years was
of audience fidelity and data, makes ances is in marrying common goals to addressing the technical issues. A stable
them an attractive proposition for brands. functional tech. log-in with six different companies and
The adage that such alliances provide 70 different websites – to make a stable
“ease of use at scale” is becoming more Single sign-in – the good, the bad... log-in and it’s not yet stable – on Safari, it
true than ever, with some alliances offer- Mário Matos is a member of the Nonio doesn’t work. It simply doesn’t work.”
ing access that goes beyond digital adver- project Steering Committee. Nonio, The difficulty of creating a singleADVERTISING ALLIANCES
[www.wan-ifra.org] 15
sign-in for users arises both from the cul- “It look s complicated because it is complicated when
tural side – as seen with the reticence you have 7 0 different websites, 20 different
publishers initially had to using Subscribe
With Google, which meant handing a technologies, sites and apps that we built 1 0 years ago,
portion of the process to a competitor, and some from this year, so the main issue that took
despite the convenience – and in the
need to balance publisher and audiences’
almost one and a half years was addressing the
data concerns equally. technical issues. … ”
Bertrand Gié heads France’s Figaro Mário Matos,
Group’s News Division, which includes Steering Committee member of the Nonio project in Portugal
the daily Le Figaro, and is the president of
GESTE. He says: “Today, [targeting is]
based on the cookie, but cookies are im-
perfect, we are always trying to figure out OpenX. Despite all these efforts, The lenge: “Our aim for the second half of
who is behind the screen, because you Guardian Chief Revenue Officer Hamish the year is to have a joint product offering
don’t really know who is behind them, Nicklin has acknowledged that, as a result for advertisers where they get control and
and with GDPR, on their way out and of the complexity and interconnectivity of see if it works. We will automatically turn
e-privacy could be the last nail in the digital advertising, sometimes Guardian off advertising on negative content. They
cookies coffin.” data and inventory will be “flying can use all the data we have and connect
As a result, he argues that a single around” the many other thousands of it to their own data in a safe, GDPR-com-
sign-in system that does not share infor- players in the chain, many of whom The pliant fashion [with] quality and most im-
mation about a user beyond the bounds Guardian does not contract with. portantly, transparency.”
of their activity on an individual publish- So while publishers have recognised
er’s site but effectively allows publishers n r ng data r ac the need to put aside their differences in
to have a base of logged-in users from That issue brings another one to light – order to provide a credible alternative to
whom they can gather data whenever privacy legislation means ad alliances the Duopoly to maximise their advertising
they alight upon a publishers’ website is a need to ensure that the first-party data potential, they are still working through
workable compromise between publisher they sell as part of the exchange is com- the technological aspects of advertising
and audience desires. pliant with rules governing data privacy, alliances. It is to be hoped that the techni-
while also being useful to the buyers. cal hurdles can be overcome, since even
ol ng re e t ng tec e Wouter Hulst, project manager on behalf the most established alliances are really in
In the UK, Project Ozone, a joint collabo- of publishers for the NLProfiel initiative, the early stages of a long-term play. Stay
ration among some of the country’s big- which is focused on making demographic tuned.
gest newspapers, including The Guardian, segmentation data available to advertisers
Story by Chris Sutcliffe for WAN-IFRA
News UK titles, The Telegraph, and local on their own terms, explains the chal-
publisher Reach, was set up to address
one of the failings of the digital advertis-
ing model that had been specifically cre-
ated by tech – that of revenue leakage Report, webinar on
along the value chain. Danny Spears, for-
mer head of The Guardian’s program- Publisher Ad Alliances
matic advertising team and now lead on
the project, explains: WAN-IFRA published a Report, “Publisher Ad Al-
“Both of our offerings are under- liances – Why they make sense and how they
pinned by Ozone’s common ID, which work,” last year, which can be downloaded free
helps our publishers reduce their depend- of charge by WAN-IFRA Members and purchased
ency on third-party IDs and which pro- by non-members. More information about the
vides a foundation for match rates and report is available at
ultimately, monetisation. ...This is the www.wan-ifra.org/ad_alliances_report.
beating heart of the Ozone proposition.” Also, a webinar was held with Fiona McKin-
As part of that ongoing effort to en- non, General Manager of the Pangaea Alliance,
sure that tech – and the opacity of much who was also featured in the report. The webinar
of the digital advertising world – Ozone can be replayed at www.wan-ifra.org/alliance_webinar.
in turn partnered with ad exchange16 PRODUCTION TRENDS
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
When it comes to print innovation,
technology is not the only answer
We asked Manfred Werfel, WAN-
IFRA’s printing expert, to describe
the developments in printing he
sees as important for the newspa-
per industry in the coming years.
After more than 20 years with
WAN-IFRA, Werfel will retire fol-
lowing this autumn’s IFRA World
Publishing Expo in Berlin.
WAN-IFRA: If you look around central men. In certain regions and markets, the rier media house and the idea of the
Europe, for example, how would you equipment and retrofitting of newspaper #Karrieregeil [a magazine aimed at young
characterise publishers’ and printers’ presses with heatset dryers or UV curing professionals] was born just one brain-
investment strategy in their printing systems is a field for newspaper invest- storming session later. … We need some-
business? Where is the primary ments. thing different – a product for a young
focus? Publishers and newspaper printers are and powerful target group that Südkurier
Manfred Werfel: In Europe, investments investing not only in technology but also has not yet been able to serve with its
are still being made in newspaper tech- in the development of new business areas products.”
nology for prepress, printing and finish- such as product development, marketing
ing. Investments are primarily aimed at and sales. Technology alone is not The World Printers Forum within
simplifying and automating processes enough to meet challenges concerning WAN-IFRA just published the Report
where it makes sense and is economically the development of new products and “Extend the Life of Your Press.” What
useful. business areas. I quote from the col- is the main takeaway from that re-
Plate production is automated and in- leagues at Südkurier in Konstanz, Ger- port, in your opinion?
tegrated into the printing department. many, as published in the WAN-IFRA Print The report is about optimal methods of
The CTP systems are located at the con- Innovation Awards 2018 Report: press maintenance. What is the best time
trol console and are operated by the “What target group can’t we cur- to replace a defective part of a printing
pressmen. Where the job structure is rently offer our advertisers? Which solu- press? It is best to replace a faulty or
characterised by many job changes, the tions are missing for the acquisition of damaged machine part exactly one day
aim is to invest in systems for automatic new ad customers? Which products before it finally fails.
or semi-automatic plate changing. would we recommend 100% to our per- But how can this time be determined?
Printing presses are equipped with sonal environment? What kind of product Because this seems almost impossible,
closed-loop control systems for register with what content do we want? And can many users replace critical parts on a
control and colour control, but also for we do something completely different? fixed schedule. But that can be too early
controlling many other functions that pre- “These questions had long been the and cause unnecessary costs. Others re-
viously had to be controlled by the press- focus of the product managers at Südku- place faulty modules only after they havePRODUCTION TRENDS
[www.wan-ifra.org] 17
caused damage already. This is usually too “P ublishers and newspaper printers are investing not only in
late and increases the damage unneces-
sarily or even leads to a complete break-
technology but also in the development of new business areas
down of the machine. such as product development, mark eting and sales.”
There should therefore be a way to
establish a proactive maintenance system Manfred Werfel,
WAN-IFRA’s printing expert
that avoids the disadvantages of replace-
ment too early or too late. But many
parts of a complex production line are not
accessible or cannot be viewed without
dismantling the machine. So is it better to With the help of finishing, innovative the production of a relatively short news-
replace them regularly according to a products can be manufactured, such as paper print run is not economically viable
maintenance schedule? coldset products with heatset covers. In- in the classic coldset printing sector, to-
Fortunately, there are possibilities for serting, stitching and trimming open up a day’s digital printing processes offer the
using modern technical analysis methods wide range of product options. The spe- opportunity to produce and deliver indi-
and sensors to actually look into the ma- cific advantage of finishing in newspaper vidualised newspapers in small quantities.
chine (and listen inside of it) without dis- production should not be underesti- If the printing specifications are observed,
assembling it. We present the most im- mated: Printing and finishing can always the customer can easily publish the de-
portant methods in this report: vibration be carried out online without delay as sired number of newspapers he has cre-
analysis, ultrasonic analysis and thermo- one continuous production process. ated.
graphic image analysis. When it comes to personalising print
The availability of such analytic meth- products, distribution is of course a par- What coming big trend in the print-
ods and their costs today also enable their ticular challenge. In addition to classic ing world should we keep our eyes
use in small and medium-sized newspa- newspaper distribution, individual distri- on?
per printing plants. In addition, printers bution via postal service providers is often Print innovation is evolving in many differ-
do not necessarily have to purchase those used here. Some publishers and newspa- ent directions, as demonstrated by the re-
tools themselves, since they can be used per printers offer different versions of per- sults of last year’s Print Innovation Awards
by external experts as part of a consulting sonalised products. and the preview of the projects submitted
project. They operate e-commerce platforms for this year’s Awards.
Our Indian colleagues have gained a offering a portfolio of different personal- But one area that is currently under-
great deal of practical experience in deal- ised print products, from newspapers and going strong development is the combi-
ing with such analysis systems in recent advertisements to supplements, bro- nation of classic print and functional
years, and I am pleased they are sharing chures and magazines. The customer has printing, i.e. printed electronics and
their experience with all other newspaper the possibility to configure her/his own printed sensors.
printers in this report. newspaper product according to individ- A number of innovative print products
Condition monitoring of production ual demands. The price calculation of the and innovative advertisements have al-
equipment helps publishers and printers online system takes place in real time and ready been developed in this area, and
operate their systems more efficiently and guarantees the customer full cost trans- we can certainly expect more exciting re-
minimise costs and effort. Ultimately, it parency. sults to be presented in the future.
extends the life of presses and mailroom Thanks to the latest inkjet technology,
Interview by Dean Roper,
equipment. customers can have a self-designed news- WAN-IFRA Director of Insights
paper produced in any quantity. While
What are some of the ways publish-
ers and printers are innovating on the
postpress side, but also in distribu- Print Innovation Awards 2019
tion?
With the Print Innovation Awards, WAN-IFRA highlights the most innovative print products
The investments in mailroom and finish- of newspaper and magazine publishers worldwide.
ing focus on increasing productivity and The aim of the competition, first held in 2018, is to demonstrate the enormous innovation
production reliability, but also on expand- potential of printed newspapers and magazines as well as to convince advertisers of the
unique capabilities of print.
ing production diversity. Publishers and
The 2019 awards will be presented to the winners during the Berlin Publishing Night on
newspaper printers have long since real-
8 October in Berlin. [See www.wan-ifra.org/berlin_publishing_night].
ised that the so-called mailroom is in real- More information about the Print Innovation Awards is available at [www.wan-ifra.org/
ity an integral part of newspaper produc- print_innovation_awards].
tion.18 PERSONALISING PRINT
[www.wan-ifra.org]
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2019
German publisher offers advertisers
a personalised print newspaper
On 18 July, Germany’s of direct mailing in newspaper form. It
Funke media group lands in the domestic mailbox without
launched what it being enclosed in an envelope, plastic
claims to be the coun- wrapper or paper cover.
try’s first personalised On request, we print on recycled
newspaper: Smart- newsprint. This has advantages in relation
paper One2One. The to level of attention, production costs and
new product offers environmental balance. Whether the con-
advertisers the oppor- tents are used for advertising purposes or
tunity to present their a general communication medium within
desired topic on a a company, association, etc., depends on
minimum of eight the content.
newspaper pages as
well as the possibility Who was your first customer, and
to adapt content to how was the feedback?
suit each individual Our first customer was Deutsche Leib-
reader and region. renten Grundbesitz AG (a German life an-
The new Smartpaper nuity and property company). The cus-
One2One is the fur- tomer’s objective was to target potential
ther development of clients and address them personally.
Smartpaper One, As the Funke media group, we provided
which lets customers an all-round service. Our national sales
compile their own, and Funke Druck divisions were involved
individual newspaper in defining the target audience, providing
in the webshop and the addresses as well as with the editorial
have it produced by content, layout, printing and delivery
digital printing. In rec- logistics. From what I have heard, our cus-
ognition of this development, last year Funke was presented with a WAN-IFRA tomer is very satisfied with the provided
Print Innovation Award. We recently asked Klemens Berktold, Managing Direc- service. After the distribution of the
tor of Funke Druck, about their recent developments and future plans for Smartpaper product, interested readers
Smartpaper. contacted the company to request more
information about its offering. The suc-
cessful realisation of the order also re-
WAN-IFRA: How do you describe the ing of variable data. Each newspaper sulted in the customer placing an addi-
difference between Smartpaper One copy in a print run can be produced with tional order for a re-print as a corporate
and the new Smartpaper One2One? modified contents. This is especially useful publishing product for use by its agents
Klemens Berktold: The Smartpaper One for variable data, such as delivery address and for presentation at exhibitions.
product that is available in our webshops and personal address of the recipient. Im-
smartpaper24.com and zeitungs- ages and texts throughout the newspaper Were there also reactions on the part
druck-online.de permits the production of can also be adapted to suit the individual of the recipients of the “advertising
newspapers in any desired length of print addressee. newspaper,” i.e. the subscribers? Did
run, without any minimum number of some perhaps not wish to receive it,
copies. Single copies can also be pro- What features make Smartpaper as it is in fact advertising?
duced. In this case, the printed content is One2One especially attractive for ad- To begin with, I wish to make it clear that
identical in each copy. As opposed to this, vertisers? the Smartpaper One2One product must
Smartpaper One2One permits the print- Smartpaper One2One is a new variation not necessarily be published in coopera-We print
your world
We combine inks and substrates,
enabling creation of a boundless variety of
printed products. For over 200 years now.
Because printing is our world.
koenig-bauer.comYou can also read
