Reuters’ Comments Section, New Hearst Advertising Plan, Tumblr’s Revenue-Building Strategy, Definition of Clickbait, Media Metrics, InDesign CC Tip: Color Groups, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, DPS Tip: Adobe DPS v32 Update Release v32.3
Welcome to TFP’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about reaction to Reuters’ decision to kill its comments section, a new Hearst ad offering that targets Facebook traffic, Tumblr’s plan to grab ad money from TV and magazines, the definition of clickbait, and more.
- Reuters announced that it’s killing its article comments section, prompting some mixed reactions. In a report from SocialTimes, those in favor of such a move said it opens up discussion to more readers and discourages trolls, flame wars, and the like. But a Gigaom article argued that it puts the task of moderation on writers, since abuse still exists on social networks, and hands over the value of reader engagement to the social media companies.
- Digiday reported that Hearst is looking to capitalize on its recent surge in referral traffic from Facebook with a new offering called Trending Stories. Set to launch next month, the plan will let advertisers target readers who come to Hearst magazine sites from the social media network.
- Rather than trying to go up against the likes of Facebook and Twitter, Yahoo-owned blogging platform Tumblr is planning to grab ad money from TV, newspapers, and magazines in its bid to top $100 million in revenue next year, according to Business Insider. Instead of relying on data to target specific consumers, the plan is to create customers using the kind of campaigns typically designed for TV or premium glossy magazines.
- Following a recent article in which BuzzFeed‘s Ben Smith said his site “doesn’t do clickbait” to get readers to click on stories, debate about what’s considered “clickbait” ensued. So Digiday asked other top publishers to define the term, and not surprisingly, everyone had a slightly different take on what clickbait actually is. One thing the report concluded: Readers know it when they see it.
- On the TFP blog, this month’s Media Metric roundup looks at consumer magazines, digital vs. TV ad spend, updated social network demographics, holiday spending projections, and more.
- To help you organize swatches inside the Swatches panel, the InDesign CC 2014 update adds a feature called color groups. This week’s InDesign Tip details how it works.
- Also see our Infographic Pick of the Week to find out what’s new in iOS 8 and the iTunes App Store.
- Finally, our DPS Tip lists updates and bug fixes in Adobe Digital Publishing Suite v32.3.
Image: SocialTimes
This Week in Publishing appears every Friday on the TFP blog. Every week we compile interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world and put together a wrap-up to help our readers stay up-to-date. Think we missed something great? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Posted by: Monica Sambataro
