What I've Been Reading: Publishers grapple with Javascript challenges and Bustle's Facebook bounce

Plus BirminghamLive's rise and rise and why scale still matters

Good evening,

Hope your week is going well and welcome to Wednesday and this week’s What I’ve Been Reading digest. A few varied things to browse through although they essentially come down to ensuring people can read your content and getting that in front of an audience.

First off, we’re getting technical…

The Most Common JavaScript Issues on News Sites - Barry Adams - this is a fairly technical read, but an important one, as we're thinking at the moment about how we give Blog Preston a bit of a refresh (the site in current format is more than eight years old!). Barry's guide brings into sharp focus a lot of the elements you regularly see on the page when it comes to laying out digital stories. Plenty to consider if you’re working out how to ensure your site loads quick, and indeed, quicker than the competition.

Facebook’s referral traffic for publishers down 50% in 12 months - Aisha Majid - some good analysis from Press Gazette taking a number of data points and showing the rapid decline in Facebook referrals to publishers. In amongst some very stark numbers, I thought it was interesting the chink of light shown by really doubling-down on a niche has shown, in Bustle. They've seen strong performance by comparison and do they point to how a plethora of more specialist sites, with a clear target audience and focus (i.e. a digital magazine) can benefit in a more disrupted digital distribution age?

How Birmingham Live became the biggest online local newsbrand in Britain - Bron Maher - a really insightful interview with Graeme Brown (who I've had the pleasure to work with over the years) on what's driven the site's upturn and relative stability over the years. His final quote is perhaps the most important, he talks about how multi-skilled his reporting team now is - working across more platforms than ever before and rightly, waves two fingers, at those who continue to throw rocks from the sidelines. I'd urge anyone wanting to understand how modern newsrooms work to have a read of Graeme's thoughts.

Hope you’ve found those useful and I’ll be back next week with the next round-up of what’s passed across my tabs in the last seven days.

Keep going.

Ed