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FACEBOOK NEWS FEED CHANGES IN ITALY
WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Table of CONTENTS
UNDERSTANDING FACEBOOK NEWS FEED CHANGES 3
EFFECTS OF THE NEWS FEED CHANGES IN ITALY 4
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEWSROOMS 11
METRICS USED IN THIS REPORT 12
ABOUT THIS STUDY 13
CONTACT 13 Information for News Publishers 3
Understanding Facebook News Feed Changes
FACEBOOK IS Improving user experience and spread REDEFINING ITS of reliable news. ENGAGEMENT LOGIC
As of May 2018, most publishers on Facebook have lost engagement.
Publishers most affected: FACEBOOK Large tabloid and viral pages. ENGAGEMENT IS SHRINKING FOR ALMOST EVERYBODY Content type most affected: Video.
Smaller local pages are doing relatively better.
Facebook made a big announcement FACEBOOK in January. ALGORITHM CHANGES ARE ONGOING Changes to algorithm are ongoing and require monitoring. 4 Facebook News Feed changes in Italy
EFFECTS OF THE NEWS FEED CHANGES IN ITALY
Italian news publishers’ Facebook engagement dropped by 17% on average in 6 months.
Italian General Election caused spikes for everybody in March 2018.
Mid-size news pages grew despite the News Feed changes. Pages like Today.it, Leggo and Corriere Della Sera were among the best growing publishers in Italy.
Largest broadcasters suffered more than newspapers.
Engagement on different content types changed. Photos’ engagement grew, while video went down by over 30%.
Link engagement remained stable.
Facebook announced the changes in January 2018, but the effect had already been seen from the last half of 2017. Changes vary across different countries and roll- out schedule is not known outside Facebook. Information for News Publishers 5
Italian news publishers’ Facebook engagement dropped by 17% on average in 6 months, but not everybody went down
SELECTED MAJOR NEWS PUBLISHERS IN ITALY AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER DAY 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018
150 000 la Repubblica Tgcom24 120 000 Il Fatto Quotidiano
90 000 Corriere della Sera Today.it 60 000 La Gazzetta dello Sport
30 000 Leggo - Il sito ufficiale HuffPost Italia 0 Avvenire
Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 May-18 Il Resto del Carlino 6 Facebook News Feed changes in Italy
Several Italian news pages grew despite the News Feed changes
SELECTED MAJOR NEWS PUBLISHERS IN ITALY ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE NOVEMBER 2017 VS. MAY 2018
50 46% 41% 40
30
20 16% 8% 9% 9% 10 0% 0 -3% -10 -8% -14% -14% -20 -16% -24% -30 -27% -40 -41%
-50 -47% Libero ANSA.it Today.it Avvenire Il Mattino Tgcom24 Il Giornale La Stampa HuffPost Italia la Repubblica Il Messaggero.it Il Fatto Quotidiano Il Resto del Carlino Corriere della Sera Leggo - Il sito ufficiale La Gazzetta dello Sport Information for News Publishers 7
Large broadcasters’ pages were hit more than news
SELECTED MAJOR BROADCASTERS IN ITALY AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER DAY 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018
40 000 Radio Deejay 35 000
30 000 MTV Italia
25 000 Virgin Radio Italy
20 000 Sky TG24
15 000 Radio 105
10 000 RTL 102.5 5 000 Rainews.it 0
Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 May-18 8 Facebook News Feed changes in Italy
Biggest changes happened among mid-sized publishers
SELECTED MAJOR PUBLISHERS IN ITALY AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER DAY NOVEMBER 2017 VS. MAY 2018
150 000
120 000
90 000
60 000
30 000
0 Libero ANSA.it Today.it RTL 102.5 Sky TG24 Il Mattino Sky Sport Radio 105 Tgcom24 MTV Italia Rainews.it Il Giornale La Stampa Radio Deejay HuffPost Italia la Repubblica Il Messaggero.it Virgin Radio Italy Il Fatto Quotidiano Corriere della Sera Leggo - Il sito ufficiale La Gazzetta dello Sport
Nov 2017 May 2018 Information for News Publishers 9
News pages’ video engagement dropped and photo engagement grew
NEWS PUBLISHERS IN ITALY ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE BY CONTENT TYPE NOVEMBER 2017 VS. MAY 2018
35 30 33% 25 20 15 10 5 0 -4% -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -31% -35 Link Video Photo 10 Facebook News Feed changes in Italy
Several major Italian publishers grew, despite News Feed changes
SELECTED MAJOR PUBLISHERS IN ITALY BEST GROWING FACEBOOK PAGES ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE NOVEMBER 2017 VS. MAY 2018
50 46%
41% 40
30 23%
20 16%
9% 9% 10 8% 5% 2% 0 ANSA.it Today.it Avvenire Sky Sport Rainews.it Fanpage.it Il Messaggero.it Corriere della Sera Leggo - Il sito ufficiale Information for News Publishers 11
Recommendations for Newsrooms
FOLLOW DATA METHODICALLY.
1 »» Make data available daily. »» Observe the trends. »» Recognise changes. »» Investigate anomalies. »» Share your findings.
USE DATA AND FACTS TO HELP FINE-TUNE YOUR CONTENT 2 STRATEGY.
ASK US QUESTIONS. 3 »» We are here to help!
DON’T GET CAUGHT BY SURPRISE. 4 »» Data informed newsrooms need never panic.
AUTOMATE YOUR NEWS GATHERING AND POSTING FREQUENCY 5 WHERE POSSIBLE.
»» Ability to cover and publish relevant stories still matters a lot. »» Being fast in news publishing is still very important. 12 Facebook News Feed changes in Italy
Metrics used in this report
»» Publisher We look at each publisher’s main page (typically their major news page) on Facebook.
»» Engagement Sum of reactions, comments, and shares on posts on publishers’ Facebook page (on-post engagement) per day.
»» Trend 30 day average (sum of engagement for 30 days divided by 30).
»» Percentage change Average daily engagement on first vs. last 30 days over a period.
»» Content type Content type of a Facebook post (Link, Video, Photo). Video includes both video and live video if not specified otherwise. We look at average engagement per post for different content types.
»» Category Categorisation in EzyInsights Realtime and SoMe Index (e.g. News, Tabloids, Broadcasters, Radio, Magazines).
»» Date range The reports cover a 6 month period. ABOUT THIS STUDY
THIS STUDY HAS BEEN CONDUCTED BY EZYINSIGHTS - THE FASTEST NEWS GATHERING TOOL FOR NEWSROOMS AND JOURNALISTS.
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