NEWS IN 2017 A Digital Marketing Perspective Growing online audiences through enhanced search and content strategy In the UK, news consumption online has grown incredibly over the past year and continues to do so in 2017. This is largely due to key events, namely Brexit and Trump, which have dominated the headlines.
We are not only consuming more news across broader sources, we are also thinking about and questioning the role that news providers play.
In this report, we look at key online trends and takeaways for news providers in 2017. We go back to basics, including knowing what to write about, when to publish and who to target, and provide tactics to increase and retain online market share. Introduction Top Industry Stats
To put the size of the industry into context, 1 in every 9 visits online were made to News & Media sites in 2016. This has grown by 11%, from 1 in every 10 visits, compared to 2015.
We also spent an average 5:04 mins per session on Print Media sites in 2016, although times largely varied by publication. Out of the top 20 print publications based on visit share, times ranged from 7:48 mins on Daily Mail, down to 3:06 mins on Forbes.
Top 20 Print Media Providers (ranked by average visit time)
2016 - Average Visit Time (mm:ss) News Site 2016 - Visit Share to Print Media
07:48 Daily Mail 17.6%
06:10 The Guardian 8.3%
05:46 Telegraph 4.6%
05:12 The Independent 2.9%
05:01 Express 2.1%
04:45 The Scotsman Online 0.5%
04:37 Liverpool Echo 0.8%
04:36 Daily Record 0.9%
04:36 The Sun 4.1%
04:33 Chronicle Live 0.6%
04:26 The Mirror 6.2%
04:26 Daily Star 0.9%
04:04 Metro 1.8%
04:04 Manchester Evening News 1.2%
04:03 Wales Online 0.7%
03:53 Financial Times 0.5%
03:48 The New York Times 0.7%
03:48 Birmingham Mail 0.5%
03:20 Evening Standard 0.6%
03:06 Forbes 0.4%
Data Collection: Hitwise Intelligence, average time and share in 2016.
News in 2017 Report 3 Table of Contents
What Do People Read And When? 1 How our consumption of news changes by the hour
What Should You Write About? 2 Drawing inspiration from fast moving search terms
How Long Does An Article “Live” For? 3 Understanding article duration and frequency of posts
Who Reads Your News? Understanding audience crossover with other publications and the impact of key 4 news events
What Drives Engagement And Subscription? 5 Enhancing article content that leads to greater audience engagement 1 What Do People Read And When?
In this section, we look at how news topics change, depending on day of the week and hour of the day. We also see how breaking news disrupts typical hourly patterns, and why this matters to publishers.
Day of the week, hour of the day and topic need to be considered when determining the best time to publish articles.
To illustrate this, we analysed the top 5 news topics on the weekday, compared to the top 5 news topics at the weekend. Politics has dominated the headlines and will continue to do so over the course of the year. In particular, Trump and Brexit accounted for 5 out of the top 10 read articles, based on total page views over the end of January to end of February 2017.
Top 10 Articles – Print News
Article Print News Provider
1 Donald Trump US travel ban refugees airports The Guardian
2 Nasa announcement today solar system exoplanet sun planets (...) The Independent
3 Piers Morgan fired from Good Morning Britain and REPLACED Express
4 Article 50 debate vote bill (...) ambassador to eu politics - live The Guardian
5 Supreme court Article 50 judgement announce - live The Guardian
6 Tara Palmer Tomkinson found dead Mirror
7 Socialite Tara Palmer Tomkinson dies aged 45 Daily Mail
8 Donald Trump obnoxious karma reincarnated as himself The Guardian
9 Motorist parks car driveway blocked in Daily Mail
10 Trump travel ban executive order world protests - live The Guardian
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence, from 22-Jan to 28-Feb-2017. Ranked by Page Views. News about the UK eclipses all other topics, peaking at 4-6pm on weekdays, compared to 12pm-7pm on weekends. US news also increases on the weekend, particularly from 4pm onwards.
News Content – Topics Consumed Per Hour Consumption of US and Trump news increases on WeekdWeekdayay - Top - Top Topics 5 Topics WeekendWeekend - Top- Top 5 TopicsTopics weekends, from 4pm onwards.
01 2345678910 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 01 2345678910 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Hour of the Day Hour of the Day
UK Politics US Americas World UK US Politics World Trump
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence. Hourly article consumption from top 7 print news providers – Daily Mail, Telegraph, Express, The Sun, The Mirror, Independent & Guardian. Timeframe: Jan/Feb 2017. The above looks at news content specifically from top 5 topics, and excludes other content types, such as entertainment and sports.
Our hourly news consumption also shifts with breaking stories. For instance, news patterns changed dramatically on the day of Trump’s state visit debate (on the 20th of February). Whilst news consumption typically peaks in the evening, on the day of the debate, articles with “Trump” in its headlines saw multiple spikes.
Trump Articles By News Provider (on Monday 20-February) In the evening, The Guardian captured Trump traffic with their coverage of the state visit debate. The Guardian captured Trump (on Monday 20-February) traffic in the morning, with the Swedish terror attack claim.
01 2345678910 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the Day
The Guardian Independent Daily Mail
Source: Hitwise Custom Intelligence, Articles with “Trump” in the Headline on 20th February 2017.
Although the Daily Mail received the highest traffic volume out of all online newspapers, theGuardian won share over their Trump coverage in the early morning and late evening. This was predominantly the result of two articles - Trump’s Swedish terror attack claim and state visit debate.
Top Track hourly patterns across your key competitors, and drill down to top viewed articles to inform your own content strategy. Be agile and responsive for breaking Takeaway news, to capture market share by the hour.
News in 2017 Report 7 2 What Should You Write About?
Search terms provide a rich source of inspiration for publishers, representing people’s “top of mind” thoughts and queries.
News providers need to keep a close eye on fast moving terms to get the first mover advantage.
For example, search was expertly used by The Independent to win the lion’s share of traffic from the Nokia 3310 relaunch. Online buzz around the revived Nokia 3310 first came aboutalmost 2 weeks before its official announcement (at the Mobile World Congress on the 27th February).
Top Fast Moving Search Terms – All Industries (ranked by week-on-week volume difference)
Search Terms 18 - Feb 11 - Feb Volume Difference Nokia 3310 appears in fastest 1 pewdiepie 0.021% 0.002% The Guardian 0.019 growing search terms, and was 2 james heltibridle 0.010% N/A 0.010 searched for 3 eugenie bouchard 0.009% 0.002% 0.008 almost 2 weeks before its official 4 champions league 0.009% 0.001% 0.008 announcement 5 oroville dam 0.007% 0.000% 0.007 at Mobile World Congress. 6 paula williamson 0.007% N/A 0.007
7 nokia 3310 0.007% 0.000% 0.007
8 paul nicholas 0.006% 0.000% 0.006
9 adele 0.006% 0.001% 0.006
10 arsenal 0.019% 0.013% 0.006
Data Collection: Hitwise Competitive Intelligence, Top Fast Moving Searches excluding domains (e.g. YouTube and Facebook).
If we dig deeper into the search variations around “Nokia 3310” during this week, terms with high organic rates also included “relaunch”, “new” and “price”.
“Nokia 3310” – Search Term Variations (Variations in the week of 18-Feb) (Variations in the week of 18-Feb)
Search Terms Search Clicks Paid Rate
1 nokia 3310 51.68% 2.39%
2 new nokia 3310 6.27% N/A Common terms 3 nokia 3310 re-launch 5.02% N/A (with high organic click rates) were 4 nokia 3310 relaunch 3.87% N/A “relaunch”, “new” 5 nokia 3310 release date 3.55% 2.22% and “price. ”
6 nokia 3310 new 1.99% 3.97%
7 nokia 3310 for sale 1.84% 31.13%
8 nokia 3310 2017 1.79% N/A
9 nokia 3310 android 0.94% N/A
10 nokia 3310 new model 0.91% N/A
Data Collection:11 Hitwisenokia Competitive3310 price Intelligence, 1 rolling week to 18-Feb 0.70% N/A
12 nokia 3310 android price 0.69% N/A Looking at the downstream traffic from these searches,The Independent had gained the highest share in the weeks of the 18th and 25th of February. Within these weeks, the publication used the top searched for terms with high organic rates, such as “relaunch” and “new” in their headlines to gain traffic. Other publishers, such as The Sun, Telegraph and Tech Radar, eventually caught up with their coverage in the week of the 25th.
“Nokia 3310” – Top Downstream Websites (Variations in the week of 18-Feb and 25-Feb)
Downstream Websites
The Independent
The Sun
Express.co.uk
Amazon UK 18 - Feb
25 - Feb TrustedReviews
Telegraph
TechRadar
Data Collection: Hitwise Competitive Intelligence, weeks of 18th and 25th Feb.
14th Feb: Top Independent Article
14th March: Top Searches for Independent and Nokia 3310
Top Use fast moving organic terms as a source of inspiration to get the first mover advantage. Replicate key organic terms to optimise click share against your Takeaway competitors.
News in 2017 Report 10 3 How Long does an Article “Live” For?
The “life” of an article, i.e. how long a single piece of content is read for, differs by mode and topic. Publishers need to track their article duration to optimise content frequency.
It’s no surprise that some news topics resonates more than others. The question is, by how much?
Knowing how frequent content needs to be written and refreshed is critical for all news publications. By looking at the BBC News, which accounted for 9% of all traffic to News & Media sites in 2016, we can uncover some of these insights.
Standard news articles, defined as content accessed through web browsers on desktop and tablets, typically have a 2-day life on the BBC. Yet, popularity on Day 2 varies by topic – from UK news (19% on Day 2) to US news (34% on Day 2).
BBC News – Article Lifecycle
Standard Articles
100% Standard articles typically have a 2-day lifetime. For UK & Entertainment, almost 75% is consumed on Day 1. 75%
50%
25%
0% Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
UK Entertainment Middle East Europe US
Whereas, mobile-optimised content* has a significantly shorter life of only 1-day, especially for topics related to Europe, Middle East and US news.
Mobile Articles *
For Mobile-optimised Content, 100% articles typically have a 1-day lifetime, particularly overseas news.
75%
50%
25%
0% Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Europe Middle East US UK Entertainment
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence, BBC News Article Analysis, November 2015. * Note – Mobile articles distinguished as “mobile”.
News in 2017 Report 12 Live news*, which are feeds that get refreshed and updated as breaking news and events unfold, has a more varied life depending on topic. Consumption of news related to the Middle East typically peaks and lasts for one day, compared to live news related to Europe which lasts for up to 3 days.
Live Articles *
100% Breaking news has a varied lifetime, from typically 1 day for Middle East articles, to 75% 3 days for Europe articles.
50%
25%
0% Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Middle East UK US Entertainment Europe
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence, BBC News Article Analysis, November 2015. * Note - Live articles distinguished as “live” in URL.
Top Track the lifetime of your articles, and that of your competitors, to understand frequency (how often content needs to be produced) and duration (how long an Takeaway article stays featured on a website). 4 Who Reads Your News?
Key events, such as Trump’s inauguration, have helped blur the lines between audiences of traditional right and left-leaning publications.
Audiences that consume online news tend to shift more regularly than audiences of offline news.
For example, people who associate with liberal politics are probably not likely to purchase The Sun in print format, but would still read online news from a range of right and left sources. Key political events, particularly coverage on Trump, have further blurred the lines across online audiences. For instance, Trump’s inauguration has potentially impacted where people read the news.
Comparing the month before and after Trump’s inauguration, left-leaning newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent have gained readers from traditional right-leaning tabloids, such as The Sun, Express and Daily Mail.
Audience Overlap for Key Print News Publications Relative Difference between Pre and Post Trump Inauguration
IndependentIndependent TheThe Guardia Guardian n
ExpressExpress +13%+13% ExpressExpress +6%+6%
Daily DailyMail Mail +12%+12% Daily DailyMail Mail +4%+4%
The SunThe Sun +10%+10% The SunThe Sun +4%+4%
The GuardianThe Guardian +8%+8% IndependentIndependent +2% +2%
After Trump’s inauguration, left leaning newspapers gained readers from traditional right-leaning tabloids, particularly The Express.
Data Source: Hitwise AudienceView Intelligence, one month pre and post 20th January 2017. Note - The above graph calculates the relative difference in audience crossover of the above five print media publications, between pre and post Trump’s inauguration.
News and Publishing Report 15 News providers need to keep track of these audience shifts, and understand who have gained (or lost) and why. In the case for The Independent, this shift came from millennials living in the Yorkshire, Wales & South East regions. For a publication who normally attracts an older demographic, The Independent could then try to understand what types of content drew this particular audience and how to retain them.
TheThe Independent Independent –C –hange Change in Online in Online Audienc Audiencee PrePre & Post& Post Trump’s Trump’s Inauguration Inauguration
Age Group Region
+25% +16% +20% +12% +9%
+1%
18 - 24 25 -34 35 -44 WA- Wales SE -South LN -London East
Data Collection: Hitwise AudienceView Intelligence, visitors to The Independent 4 weeks before and after Trump’s Inauguration. The x-axis is ranked from largest to smallest relative difference. Each graph features the top two and bottom age group/region.
Top The profile of a publication’s online audience is constantly shifting, especially with the current political environment. Keep track of your audience and crossover with Takeaway others. Analyse content consumption by audience to retain new profiles.
News in 2017 Report 16 5 What Drives Engagement and Subscription?
For subscription-based publications, like The Times, human interest stories drive higher engagement than general news.
News providers also need visibility over the types of content that leads to greater engagement.
This can be tracked through various metrics, such as page views, article life and registrations or subscriptions (relevant for paywall publications). For instance, for The Times, human interest stories drove significantly more registrations(40%), compared to general news and reporting on events (27%), in the three months leading to January 2017. These stories included unique content to The Times, such as interviews with UK political figures, sports stars and everyday people with extraordinary events.
Trump also seems to be a winning topic for The Times (also for The New York Times – despite controversy with the US president), resulting in the most registrations at 14% compared to other content topics.
The Times Articles Driving Customer Registrations
40% 14%
11% 27% 10% 8% 19%
5% 8% 3%
Human News & Commentary Reviews & Advice Trump Celebrity Brexit NHS Savings Interest Events Rankings News
Data Collection: Hitwise Custom Intelligence, Articles read on The Times before Registration, 3 months to Jan-2017
Top Understand what content drives engagement. For paywall news, track regularly content that enables registration and subscriptions, and shift Takeaway articles accordingly.
News in 2017 Report 18 Key Takeaways
For News and Publishing Companies
›› Optimise when articles are published by considering day of week, hour and topic.
›› Track the lifetime of articles to understand frequency (how often content needs to be produced) and duration (how long an article stays featured on a website).
›› Use fast moving search terms as a source of content inspiration and replicate top keywords to improve click through.
›› Keep track of your online audience and crossover with competitors.
›› Understand what type of content generates engagement, to differentiate your publication and retain new audiences. For more information visit us at: www.hitwise.co.uk