The Mobile Bandwagon Or Pumpkin Truck

Michael Hedges November 16, 2015 Follow on Twitter

The trek toward the digital dividend has been one of discovery. There’s trial and there’s error, new worlds for some. Consumers are now widely - some wildly - engaged in mobile media making obsolete platforms once considered unassailable. The corner kiosk has been replaced by Google as news channels are falling to Facebook and Twitter. Full speed ahead.

Hoping to further bind smartphone users to the tiny screen Facebook launched its Notify app in the US last week. Notify is a free push-aggregator providing iOS device users with info-bits, external links provided, to share in all popular ways. Facebook has organized about 70 sources, so far, including all the usual big name US TV channels, newspaper and magazine portals plus a healthy quotient of speciality sites like Wired, Groupon and BuzzFeed. Facebook calls them “stations.” Notify is clearly not limited to breaking news of the traditional kind as previously suspected.

A month ago Facebook’s Instant Articles hit the mean streets of mobile land. Publishers were offered exposure for native content much like free-lance writers of tender foot. Keep the money you sell on your own, was the Facebook pitch, or pay us a 30% commission when we do it for you. As an added enticement, Facebook shares some of that big data allowing publishers deeper insight into readers behavior. First of about 20 to sign-up were the New York Times, Atlantic magazine, National Geographic, the Guardian, BBC News, NBC, Axel Springer’s Bild and Der Spiegel and BuzzFeed with the Washington Post, Vox, Mic, Mashable and Time Inc. publications to follow.

There would be certain restrictions on ads allowed in the Instant Articles mobile feed; not too big, not too many and none jumping or moving around. Chief concern in Facebookistan - and other mobile kingdoms - is download time and general irritation with mobile ads. Big publishers accustomed to selling digital ads to fit media buyer’s dreams have complained, according to the Wall Street Journal (November 11), of limited benefit. Facebook has begun tinkering with “new approaches.” The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), owned by News Corporation through its Dow Jones subsidiary, is not participating in the Instant Articles experiment.

Mobile traffic is the next big quandary for publishers seeking that digital dividend. Facebook - around the world - has huge mobile traffic. “The assumption is if you’re giving someone a slicker, faster, more convenient way of engaging with content then you’ll have strong consumer demand and increased socialization, and that will lead to a bigger audience,” explained Washington Post chief revenue officer Jed Hartman to the WSJ. A year ago Mr. Hartman jumped to the Washington Post, principally owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, from Time Inc. after Kevin Gentzel fled to Yahoo. When times are tough sales people change jobs.

Facebook’s Instant Articles competes with Apple’s News app and its Notify app competes with, most recently, Twitter’s Moments app. There are others, many others, as the media-tech world seeks to grab and hold mobile users. Most publishers, broadcasters and other content producers are willing, if not happily, to further relinquish platform control in favor of a new revenue stream or, at least, new eyeballs.

The Apple News app launched in September pre-installed in the new iOS operating system release that also enabled ad blocking apps. Apple, one must be mindful, is in the business of selling mobile devices. Reviews have been “underwhelming,” writes digiday.com (November 13). “News aggregation is tough, and while they don’t necessarily need the revenue, it’s not a good business,” said a “publishing executive” off the record “for fear of jeopardizing their relationship with Apple.” Apple News includes all the customary big name sources.

Being in a potentially life-threatening fight for social media breath Twitter came with its Moments feature in September, followed by tools aimed for publishers. Native advertising - ads that look just like all other content - figures prominently on Twitter Moments, which are curated by real-live editors. Twitter hashtag #PorteOuverte and Facebook’s Safety Check app added, quite effectively, to a personal relationship between the social media platforms and users in the immediate aftermath of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

“It is not something one can opt-out from,” said Norwegian publisher Aller Media digital editor Jan Thoresen, quoted by journalisten.no (November 13). “Our core business is not owning servers and sending content to users but creating the content they want. This is not the place for online newspapers.”

Big Scandinavian publisher Schibsted - hardly a digital coward - is considering an Instant Articles presence for Swedish tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen, speculates Dagens Media (November 11). “In general, it’s important to be early with new channels,” said Expressen digital media managing editor Klas Granström, without further “speculation.”

“One must be very careful,” said Aftonbladet managing editor Jan Helin, “not to give away the relationship you have with your readers to an algorithm you can neither understand nor control, which is Swedish for “we didn’t just fall off the pumpkin truck.”

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