Social + mobile conference to expose revenue opportunities

Social and mobile are two of the hottest spots on the digital media landscape. As revenue projections for targeted mobile advertising on social media sites and apps grow exponentially, smart media companies are taking advantage of "SoMo" revenue opportunities.

A variety of SoMo case studies will be explored at the "Social + Mobile: Show Me the Money" conference from 21 to 22 August in Chicago. The event is sponsored by Borrell Associates, Local Media Association and Local Search Association. 

The speakers will be from Internet pureplays like Google and Facebook, and from local media companies and technology companies. The opportunities for revenue-making in the social and mobile space will be key, with the integration of Google, Facebook, Groupon, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter and more into locally targeted campaigns on mobile.

Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, comScore, will show how research data illuminates the opportunities for revenues in the Social and mobile space, including Pinterest, the fastest growing social media site. Pinterest is a target marketer's dream, as 80 percent of its users are women.

At a recent Borrell conference, Greg Stuart, CEO, Mobile Marketing Association, talked about the Local + Mobile opportunity. There are unique advantages of mobile – it’s personal, pervasive and provides proximity, Stuart said. “Make the local advertiser buy local,” he said. Manage frequency, capitalise on the time of day. Ad size and page placement matter, he said. “Location, location, location - targeting opens up a new set of customers who want to target specific areas within the (geography),” he said. 

Click here to register for the conference.

An EU-funded online news service to “report accurately” on EU affairs

The European Union is offering millions of euros of funding for a new online media outlet to “report accurately” on affairs of the Union, while gathering content from mainstream third-party sources and focus on issues that include “political priorities” of EU institutions, according to a report by publicserviceeurope.com.

The commission earlier claimed that the newspaper and online reporting of EU is "often scarce, irregular, lacks any broader European perspective, and citizens do not have any specialised platform where they can find and share quality content.” 

Through this initiative, the commission aims to address this problem by financially supporting the establishment of an online news service that will “strengthen citizens understanding and awareness on EU affairs and stimulate exchanges of opinions and debate on key current issues". The media outlet will offer original content, but at least half of its material will be republished articles from mainstream sources, translated into a minimum of 10 EU languages.

The online news service bureau will be staffed with professional journalists that will offer a selection of content aggregated from news sources and websites in and around Europe, while promoting articles that “report accurately and "focus in particular on issues at the top of the EU and commission agenda (political priorities)." According to a tender document published in June, it stresses that the organisation that wins the contract will enjoy full editorial independence.

This new website will create its own content – blogs, editorials, live coverage of events such as EU summit and European parliament elections to offer “balanced and neutral point of view.”

In addition, "free or paid contributors" such as politicians, lobbyists, representatives of non-governmental organisations, scientists and other experts will be encouraged to contribute blog posts, while readers will be able to participate through a comments system and on social media. Content appearing on the website must have a genuine EU dimension with explicit links to the policies and activities of the EU, while purely avoiding national or local angles, as specified in the tender document. 

The tender document sets a deadline for bids until August 14 and stipulates “independence will be guaranteed" under the EU's own editorial charter.

It is seen as a follow-up to Presseurop.eu – a Paris-based website funded by the commission, which serves a similar purpose, publishing material in 10 EU languages. The EU also provides financing for the multilingual media organisation Euronews, headquartered in France.

By: Savita V Jayaram

Mail Online goes for editorial expansion in UK, US and beyond

Mail Online plans for significant editorial expansion in UK and US, with further plans to expand editorial operations in other countries that include Australia, as well, PressGazette.co.uk reported.

This move follows the recent online success recorded by the website, with highest traffic in the month of May, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation, reaching an average of 8.2 million unique visitors per day and 128.6 million over the month. While the nature of the journalistic openings and the number of openings were not revealed by the publisher of Mail Online, Martin Clarke hopes to find the right journalistic talent to fuel the growth plans.

The world's most popular newspaper website says it has 'no cap' on recruitment and plans to launch in new territories, MediaGuardian reported. The Daily Mail website will increase "significantly" its number of staff from the current total of more than 100. Clarke said there were "massive opportunities for future growth" of the website but declined to give details on where it plans to open offices or how many staff it will hire. The showbiz-heavy site already has offices in the US and in India.

"We've been very successful in the domestic and American markets thanks to the strengths of the core editorial team we have here – they're the best. Now I want to find and hire the best journalists outside of the Mail Online to help us grow that success. The global publishing market is tougher than it ever has been and the jobs we're looking to fill will be very demanding. However, the opportunities are enormous, which is why we need the cream of the journalistic crop to realise our ambitions," Clarke added.

Currently the company is not focused on chasing profits but on increasing global revenues and expanding presence to build upon the audience engagement. The profits will flow consequently; hence the company is keenly on lookout for opportunities and on an investment mode.

By: Savita V Jayaram