Friday, September 11, 2015

digital news the challenge of delivery


The digital revolution moves so quickly that it is sometime difficult to assess the new trends.

Still one thing is getting obvious: the news websites depend more and more on the social media. This unexpected change forces powerful newspapers like the New York Times to reorganize completely their delivery policy.

What happens is that the way people in the US and in Europe consume news is chnaging dramatically. Now, close to 50% of the users rely on mobiles and mostly smartphones, much more popular than the tablets.

Also about half of the readership comes from the social media and usually, Facebook. The homepage of newspapers websites is not popular anymore. So, it was not a big surprise to see the NYT strike a deal with Facebook for an Instant article delivery. Many American and British publications are following.

In France, the same process is coming with Les Echos as a pioneer but many others willing to go for it to save their readership.

A big question is whether Facebook and some others will gain a kind of control of the medias. Will they practice some censorship on pieces of news they won't like? We 'll go back soon to this very crucial matter.