The £2.2billion price tag given on Google's use of news in the UK
Plus: Re-imagining Watergate in the digital journalism era + a report of recent media/audience studies
Good afternoon,
Hope you're having a good week. It certainly feels like this week is one of those 'blink and you miss it' ones as Wednesday is fast disappearing over the horizon for me.
Here's some interesting bits which have crossed my feed in recent days and I thought you might find interesting as the What I've Been Reading digest returns to its rightful Wednesday spot.
As always, all feedback welcome and if you spot anything you think I should be reading then ed@almaonline.co.uk to reach me.
The value of news to Google in the UK - Public Interest News Foundation - an eye-catching figure, as new research looks at what they think Google is owing the news industry (from independent titles to major mainstream publishers). They asked participants (non-journalists!) to use Google and track how they engaged with search results.
It's worth noting the study appears to be primarily focused on Google search, when you consider that Google News and Google Discover are directly built on the output of Publishers (big, small and specialist) and the increasing prominence and usage of Discover the £2.2billion bill may well creep higher. And for local outlets, data and information often informs other Google products too e.g. Maps/traffic.
On the other hand, the volume of traffic being sent from Discover (although it is often fairly low engagement but high frequency traffic) is of substantial value to all publishers of all sizes.
I’ve written more about Google Discover previously.
Journalism and audiences: Five must-read recent news reports for your newsroom - Jacob Granger, Journalism.co.uk - the start of the year often seems to be 'reports' season, as studies and other reports drop from research bodies and academics etc. Everyone wanting to set the agenda for the year ahead.
Jacob's done a good round-up, and quick briefing note, on everything from fact-checking, to news perspectives and some other reports which may not have crossed your radar in the media landscape.
Why Watergate was a masterclass in digital journalism (before Google even existed) - Karl Holbrook, North Squared Media - and finally, an interesting post from Karl where he takes the Watergate story and re-imagines it in a digital audience landscape. In a LinkedIn post he gave some context as often audience and digital is used interchangeably with clickbait, and he's spot on, ignoring digital metrics for how your content performs is daft. Being aligned with how stories and content are engaged with is crucial in succeeding, whether you're a for-profit media, non-profit, or any other type of organisation.
That's the round-up for this week, next week I'll hopefully have some interesting bits on some projects we're involved in at Blog Preston around media literacy, social video, podcasting and more as we hurtle towards the half-term break.
All the best for the rest of the week ahead.
Keep going.
Ed