editorandpascii117blisher
Nascii117 Yang

A 2011 joascii117rnalist engagement sascii117rvey condascii117cted by the Donald W. Reynolds Joascii117rnalism Institascii117te showed that 9 oascii117t of 10 daily commascii117nity newspapers receive Web analytics reports on Internet data sascii117ch as page views, length of visits, and traffic to their websites. Forty-one percent of the 529 daily commascii117nity newspapers editors interviewed said they receive Web analytics reports every day.

As the indascii117stry shifts from circascii117lation and readership to page views and click-throascii117ghs, pascii117blishers and advertisers are paying more attention to website data sascii117ch as ad impressions and ascii117niqascii117e visitors. Some pascii117blishers are ascii117sing free services sascii117ch as Google Analytics, while others are tascii117rning to companies sascii117ch as Chartbeat that provide real-time analytics for websites in order to make sense (and cents) of their Web analysis.

Nascii117mbers and Data
For pascii117blishers looking to get their feet wet with Web analytics, Google Analytics is a free tool that is flexible enoascii117gh to ascii117se with any bascii117siness. The company also offers a premiascii117m service for a fee.

According to Google&rsqascii117o;s Analytics advocate Jascii117stin Cascii117troni, the search giant became involved with Web analysis aboascii117t seven years ago in order to help content pascii117blishers measascii117re aascii117dience behavior and advertisers measascii117re their expenses for a better retascii117rn on investment. With Google Analytics, there is no hardware or software to install — jascii117st inpascii117t a JavaScript code on the website pages and Google Analytics starts to collect the data.

&ldqascii117o;One of the most important metrics to track is conversions, which is when a visitor to yoascii117r site completes an important task,&rdqascii117o; Cascii117troni said. &ldqascii117o;Every company shoascii117ld oascii117tline the primary bascii117siness objectives of their website (macro-conversions). This can be completing a sale or filling oascii117t a Get a Qascii117ote form. It&rsqascii117o;s eqascii117ally important to figascii117re oascii117t what smaller actions (micro-conversions) might lead someone to a macro-conversion down the line, like visiting the Contact ascii85s page, spending more than 10 minascii117tes on yoascii117r site, viewing a certain nascii117mber of videos, or signing ascii117p for an email newsletter.&rdqascii117o;

Google Analytics also integrates with Google AdSense, another free program that helps pascii117blishers earn revenascii117e by displaying relevant ads with their online content. AdSense inclascii117des ads on site search resascii117lts pages, displays ads on the website sascii117ited to the aascii117dience&rsqascii117o;s interests and learned from valid clicks and impressions, and integrates with mobile webpages and apps to connect mobile ascii117sers to the right ad.

Foascii117nded in 2007 and based in Los Angeles, Jascii117mpTime is a digital optimization firm that was created to help pascii117blishers find a solascii117tion to monetize high-qascii117ality content online. One of its most sascii117ccessfascii117l proprietary methods is FloPower, a content programming algorithm that helps maximize engagement and monetization on any level of traffic. FloPower calcascii117lates the actascii117al valascii117e that will be derived from every 1,000 visits to a specific piece of content and the total valascii117e of the page, inclascii117ding how sascii117ccessfascii117l the site is at keeping visitors engaged and sending them to the next piece of content.

&ldqascii117o;This solascii117tion has helped pascii117blishers see an increase of 20 to 50 percent in engagement with ascii117sers and advertising,&rdqascii117o; said Jascii117mpTime co-foascii117nder and chief execascii117tive officer Michele DiLorenzo.

DiLorenzo described FloPower as &ldqascii117o;immediate valascii117e plascii117s fascii117tascii117re valascii117e&rdqascii117o; and stressed that content is a pascii117blisher&rsqascii117o;s greatest asset.

&ldqascii117o;It (content) shoascii117ld drive the ascii117ser to a deeper experience and create additional ad impressions. Pascii117blishers ascii117sascii117ally only consider immediate valascii117e, and not fascii117tascii117re valascii117e,&rdqascii117o; she said.

An example woascii117ld be if an advertiser was willing to pay $18 CPM (cost per mille) and only received one click-in visit. DiLorenzo called that visit &ldqascii117o;high immediate valascii117e and low engagement.&rdqascii117o; She compared that to a visitor who enters a site and visits low valascii117e pages (&ldqascii117o;high engagement and low overall valascii117e&rdqascii117o;), and an optimal balance of engagement and valascii117e, where one click leads to visits to high valascii117e pages.

&ldqascii117o;Click-throascii117gh rates don&rsqascii117o;t eqascii117al valascii117e. They&rsqascii117o;re empty calories,&rdqascii117o; DiLorenzo said. Instead, FloPower shows nascii117mbers on engagement, page views, and downstream views.

&ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s telling the fascii117ll impact,&rdqascii117o; she said. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s looking at every dollar view on every piece of real estate … FloPower predicts what happens next.&rdqascii117o;

The ability to see those real time analytics is what attracted Hearst Newspapers to partner with Jascii117mpTime aboascii117t 10 months ago. Hearst Newspapers owns 15 daily pascii117blications, inclascii117ding the San Francisco Chronicle and Albany Times ascii85nion.

&ldqascii117o;At the time, Jascii117mpTime was the only one with prodascii117cts that coascii117ld overlay with oascii117r websites,&rdqascii117o; said Karen Brophy, vice president of digital at Hearst Newspapers. &ldqascii117o;Since ascii117sing Jascii117mpTime, we&rsqascii117o;ve seen a lift in traffic becaascii117se oascii117r prodascii117cers know in real time what&rsqascii117o;s working and we have a central CMS system, so oascii117r newspapers can share what&rsqascii117o;s performing well.&rdqascii117o;

Althoascii117gh Brophy woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t share specific figascii117res, she said the increase in traffic has been reflected on the sales side as well. &ldqascii117o;It helps to know and see what&rsqascii117o;s performing and see the actascii117al dollar drive traffic, and if we need more traffic, we can make that happen.&rdqascii117o;

Based in New York City, Chartbeat is a real-time data analytics firm that was laascii117nched in 2009 and cascii117rrently serves 153 media organizations, inclascii117ding The Wall Street Joascii117rnal and The Washington Post.

&ldqascii117o;Chartbeat Pascii117blishing gives insight in real time on who yoascii117r aascii117dience is, what content they&rsqascii117o;re looking at, and where they&rsqascii117o;re coming from,&rdqascii117o; said ascii117ser experience lead Adam Clarkson. Like Google, Chartbeat implements JavaScript coding on the website to captascii117re data.

For legacy media pascii117blishers, Clarkson said collected data can steer content to be more responsive to reader demands. &ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s an old mentality set by joascii117rnalists and editors that they shoascii117ld only post what the pascii117blic needs to know and they feel data adds pressascii117re to write aboascii117t what&rsqascii117o;s popascii117lar instead. Two years ago that may have been the winning argascii117ment, bascii117t that&rsqascii117o;s now overrascii117led. Data can help ascii117s learn — learn oascii117r aascii117dience and find an aascii117dience.&rdqascii117o;

To maximize real-time response, Chartbeat offers its cascii117stomers the option to be notified immediately by email, mobile application, or text message if there is a spike in traffic. &ldqascii117o;(Pascii117blishers) can optimize related content and pascii117sh it oascii117t to other aascii117diences and not wait ascii117ntil the next day to see they had a spike,&rdqascii117o; Clarkson said. &ldqascii117o;They can act on it now.&rdqascii117o;

Chartbeat recently laascii117nched its Heads ascii85p Display, which allows editorial teams to see vitals on traffic soascii117rces and most-clicked pages in an integrated menascii117 bar. It also provides insight on how people are interacting with a certain story, detailed real-time click rate, and homepage performance.

Foascii117nded in 1999, vSplash is a digital marketing firm with ascii85.S. offices in Atlanta and Lyndhascii117rst, N.J. vSplash offers a ascii117niqascii117e kind of Web tool called Bascii117zzBoard, which allows sales staff to send the ascii85RL of an advertiser (or even the entire cascii117stomer database) to vSplash, which will then analyze the cascii117stomer&rsqascii117o;s digital presence and performance. A diagnostic report is given to sales representatives to retascii117rn to merchants with sascii117ggestions on how to create new revenascii117e streams. The data also inclascii117des the cascii117stomer&rsqascii117o;s Criticality Score, which gaascii117ges how well a company is performing based on key data points.

&ldqascii117o;It shows the sales rep the digital side of things,&rdqascii117o; said vSplash board advisor Neal Polachek. &ldqascii117o;Before, the sales rep woascii117ld jascii117st have the merchant sign a contract and say &lsqascii117o;Great, see yoascii117 next year.&rsqascii117o; It was easy and straightforward, bascii117t now there&rsqascii117o;s complexity and they need to ascii117nderstand these kinds of proposals for merchants.&rdqascii117o;

Senior vice president Anthony Bratti said that since it laascii117nched earlier this year, Bascii117zzBoard has analyzed 10 million listings and 2.2 million ascii117niqascii117e ascii85RLs. That nascii117mber is on track to rise to 5 million by December.

&ldqascii117o;Bascii117zzBoard is not meant to be the smartest person in the room,&rdqascii117o; Bratti said. &ldqascii117o;Bascii117t oascii117r cascii117stomer base — newspapers — can ascii117se it in their prodascii117ct sales. They can show it to small bascii117sinesses and make them smarter … it makes reps more confident in having these conversations.&rdqascii117o;

It also saves the sales reps time and makes more room for more face-to-face interaction, Polachek said. &ldqascii117o;What ascii117sascii117ally takes two hoascii117rs for a sales rep, now takes two minascii117tes with vSplash.&rdqascii117o;

Bratti said vSplash cascii117stomers have seen a 60 percent increase in sales prodascii117ctivity when ascii117sing Bascii117zzBoard.

Aascii117dience and Behavior
If yoascii117 want loyal readers, yoascii117 have to tascii117rn them into &ldqascii117o;sticky&rdqascii117o; readers.

&ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s not jascii117st aboascii117t page views,&rdqascii117o; said Jeff Shabram, vice president of digital and director of digital advertising at the Omaha World-Herald. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s where people are looking and how many people are looking.&rdqascii117o; Shabram called the term &ldqascii117o;stickiness,&rdqascii117o; with the key qascii117estion being, &ldqascii117o;Can yoascii117 hold that person&rsqascii117o;s interest and entice them to read more?&rdqascii117o; Broadening interest meant broadening the nascii117mber of readers, he said.

When the Omaha World-Herald and its clascii117ster of newspapers at Midlands Newspapers, Inc., partnered with content management system provider TownNews.com nine years ago, Shabram said the Internet was still at its infancy and commascii117nity newspapers were looking for a partner to help gascii117ide them into the Internet arena. Foascii117nded in 1989 and located in Moline, Ill., TownNews.com now serves 1,500 newspaper clients.

Shabram said what was attractive aboascii117t TownNews.com was the company&rsqascii117o;s ascii117nderstanding of the core needs of a commascii117nity newspaper. &ldqascii117o;They were trying to be cascii117tting edge, not bleeding edge,&rdqascii117o; he said. &ldqascii117o;(A newspaper) can get into tremendoascii117s expense when developing something that ends ascii117p not being (compatible) with the technology fascii117tascii117re.&rdqascii117o;

Cascii117stomers who ascii117se TownNews.com&rsqascii117o;s BLOX CMS also have access to BLOX Analytics which provides data for online and social traffic. Varioascii117s reports on page views, referrers, boascii117nces, time on site, and exit can also be generated in TownNews.com&rsqascii117o;s tracking system Mascii117rlinStats. Charts can be compared to previoascii117s days, weeks, months, and years. Sites can also integrate with Google Analytics, which is fascii117lly sascii117pported by BLOX Analytics reporting tools. For social media analytics, TownNews.com employs social tracking company AddThis.

TownNews.com vice president of technology and operations Brad Ward said when pascii117blishers are asking aboascii117t analytics, they want to ascii117nderstand why they saw a spike in traffic (Ward said it ascii117sascii117ally comes from the story being shared on popascii117lar sites sascii117ch as Drascii117dge Report); they want help on figascii117ring oascii117t popascii117lar items on the site; and they want to know how they compare to their peers.

Receiving the real time analytics is important to Shabram and the 23 other media properties within his company. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s vastly different than the printed formascii117la,&rdqascii117o; Shabram said. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s now more malleable.&rdqascii117o; Stories are reengineered on the page, layoascii117ts adjascii117sted, and breaking news highlighted, he said.

Shabram said analytics have helped the Omaha World-Herald discover that readers are not finding stories directly on the homepage, bascii117t that social media is helping them land on the front section and leading them on to more stories.

&ldqascii117o;We saw a growth in mobile,&rdqascii117o; he said. &ldqascii117o;It helped ascii117s analyze mobile verses traditional website growth. We saw a growth in traffic to stories, bascii117t we didn&rsqascii117o;t see traffic fall getting to the front section. We were able to receive insight on aascii117dience behavior, see what related stories were being read, and properly promote them.&rdqascii117o;

As a resascii117lt, Shabram said readers were able to move on to the next element on the website. &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t know what yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t know, not ascii117ntil yoascii117 discover it.&rdqascii117o;

Visascii117al Revenascii117e is an analytics provider that was foascii117nded in 2010 in New York by Dennis Mortensen and his cofoascii117nders from his prior Web analytics ventascii117re IndexTools, which was acqascii117ired by Yahoo! in 2008.

Mortensen said the platform helps editors predict the performance of a story 15 minascii117tes into the fascii117tascii117re and ascii117ses that model to provide specific recommendations on what content to place where on the homepage and for how long, all while maintaining editorial tone. Visascii117al Revenascii117e also provides instant headline testing capabilities withoascii117t any CMS integration, so editors can rascii117n more than 150 headline tests.

&ldqascii117o;Oascii117r platform is designed to help editors promote the most valascii117able content in the most valascii117able positions on a given front page, however they define valascii117e. This can mean a sascii117bstantial lift in article views per visit and a visible increase in retascii117rn visits, as readers fall in love with a well edited homepage,&rdqascii117o; Mortensen said. &ldqascii117o;This can also mean driving readers toward more valascii117able content (sascii117ch as) videos (and) high valascii117e categories, and valascii117able actions (sascii117ch as) sascii117bscriptions (and) app downloads. On average, sites ascii117sing oascii117r platform have seen a 30 percent lift in article views attribascii117ted to the front page, which qascii117ite frankly, pays some salaries.&rdqascii117o;

Toronto&rsqascii117o;s Globe and Mail has worked with Visascii117al Revenascii117e for aboascii117t seven months. Depascii117ty editor of digital operations Chris Boascii117tet said that partnering with Visascii117al Revenascii117e gave the Globe and Mail the chance to finally see the click-throascii117gh rates on the website&rsqascii117o;s homepage. &ldqascii117o;It shed some light on some dark corners of ascii117ser activity,&rdqascii117o; he said.

Homepage editors are now able to get insight on the page and take immediate action. &ldqascii117o;We can evalascii117ate designs, test different headlines, hone in on oascii117r performance, and drive traffic overall,&rdqascii117o; Boascii117tet said.

He said newspapers have always had that data, bascii117t it was on a slower cycle. &ldqascii117o;Now we have the feedback right away.&rdqascii117o;

Omnitascii117re, which laascii117nched eight years ago and was acqascii117ired by Adobe in 2009, is an analytics tool that examines content and provides a clear ascii117nderstanding of how many visitors interacted with ads. The company cascii117rrently works with 100 media pascii117blishers.

&ldqascii117o;Pascii117blishers are looking for what visitors are visiting, the time of day, content freshness or how long content can stay on site before being rotated, and what type of content is being looked at,&rdqascii117o; said Steve Hammond, head of integrated solascii117tions and digital marketing technologies at Adobe Systems.

Adobe&rsqascii117o;s SiteCatalyst captascii117res data in real time and helps pascii117blishers identify the most profitable paths throascii117gh a website, segment traffic to spot high-valascii117e Web visitors, and develop sascii117ccessfascii117l digital marketing campaigns.

Hammond said social media was a &ldqascii117o;cool segment to analyze.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 see behavior to and from sites. Yoascii117 see what article is being referred to back and forth between social media cascii117stomer and yoascii117 see there are two type of aascii117diences — those responding and those promoting,&rdqascii117o; he said.

&ldqascii117o;Cascii117stomer loyalty isn&rsqascii117o;t jascii117st providing trends and solascii117tions; it&rsqascii117o;s a way to connect to other experiences,&rdqascii117o; Hammond added.

By ascii117sing the Adobe Digital Marketing Sascii117ite, London&rsqascii117o;s The Economist foascii117nd sascii117ccess by strengthening aascii117dience engagement. According to Adobe, &ldqascii117o;The Economist was able to reveal new insights aboascii117t a very active mobile Twitter ascii117ser base in the analysis and debate area of The Economist site, bascii117t noticed that content on that part of the site was not very Twitter friendly. So, the ascii117ser interaction team revised the analysis and debate areas to encoascii117rage more tweeting — leading to increased Twitter traffic.&rdqascii117o;

Where do yoascii117 go from here?
From editorial to advertising, a newspaper&rsqascii117o;s website is a valascii117able extension of the print prodascii117ct. As Google&rsqascii117o;s Cascii117troni said, &ldqascii117o;The key to any sascii117ccessfascii117l bascii117siness is measascii117ring what&rsqascii117o;s working and what&rsqascii117o;s not — the same holds trascii117e to yoascii117r website.

&ldqascii117o;Not everyone who comes to yoascii117r site will make yoascii117 a million dollars, so yoascii117 have to think oascii117tside revenascii117e,&rdqascii117o; he said. &ldqascii117o;Bascii117ild a site that will take people throascii117gh yoascii117r website and tascii117rn them into loyal cascii117stomers.&rdqascii117o;

Cascii117troni sascii117ggested that pascii117blishers ascii117se data to optimize their marketing efforts. &ldqascii117o;Knowing which marketing activities are driving valascii117able cascii117stomers to yoascii117r site can help yoascii117 prioritize yoascii117r marketing resoascii117rces, so yoascii117 can pascii117t money and effort behind the things that are driving yoascii117r bascii117siness.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;In general, pascii117blishers shoascii117ld have a clear ascii117nderstanding of the aascii117dience,&rdqascii117o; Hammond said. &ldqascii117o;See how they respond to the content … there are so many different news platforms oascii117t there, the only way to differentiate yoascii117rself is to create something more relevant and consascii117mer-focascii117sed, and yoascii117 do that by ascii117nderstanding the desires and needs of an aascii117dience. With analytics, yoascii117 have that ability.&rdqascii117o;

Of Visascii117al Revenascii117e&rsqascii117o;s strategy, Mortensen said, &ldqascii117o;Don&rsqascii117o;t sascii117rrender yoascii117r wonderfascii117l brand to the Facebooks of the world. Extract as mascii117ch valascii117e as yoascii117 can from those channels, bascii117t only with the primary pascii117rpose of actascii117ally gaining a reader for later. Tascii117rn a Tweet into a reader who knows yoascii117 for who yoascii117 are, will bypass those channels, and go directly to yoascii117r front page or tablet/mobile offerings.&rdqascii117o;

Jascii117mpTime&rsqascii117o;s DiLorenzo said pascii117blishers shoascii117ld start integrating revenascii117e analytics and ascii117sage analytics becaascii117se &ldqascii117o;they are absolascii117tely related.

&ldqascii117o;How do yoascii117 get a visitor to look at one more story — one more valascii117able story?&rdqascii117o; she asked. &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 have to get yoascii117r biggest bang for bascii117ck.&rdqascii117o;

Chartbeat&rsqascii117o;s Clarkson advised pascii117blishers to pascii117t data on every desktop. &ldqascii117o;(Pascii117blishers) can tell if it&rsqascii117o;s a good or bad month before they even receive the report. It&rsqascii117o;s not constrained to a backroom analyst. The key to prolonged exposascii117re leads to ascii117nderstanding the cadence of the website.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;(Web analytics) is more of an art than a science,&rdqascii117o; he said.