NEVER MISS A STORY. FACEBOOK NEWS FEED CHANGES IN SPAIN WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Table of CONTENTS UNDERSTANDING FACEBOOK NEWS FEED CHANGES 3 EFFECTS ON THE NEWS FEED CHANGES IN SPAIN 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’S PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Facebook made a big announcement OF ALGORITHM in January. CHANGES DO NOT MATCH UP Changes to algorithm are ongoing WITH CHANGES IN and require monitoring. PRACTICE 4 Facebook News Feed changes in Spain EFFECTS ON THE NEWS FEED CHANGES IN SPAIN Facebook engagement on Spanish news pages dropped 12% on average over 6 months. The largest viral and tabloid publishers are affected across Europe and also in Spain (e.g. PlayGround). The Catalan Independence Referendum and the Regional Elections caused a spike in late 2017. Catalan language publishers are returning back to previous engagement levels. Who grew the most: Local newspapers. Photo engagement remained stable. Video engagement dropped by over 30%. Video is affected across Europe. Link engagement remained stable. Facebook announced the changes in January 2018, but the effect is spread across end of 2017 and first half of 2018. Changes vary across different countries and roll- out schedule is not known outside Facebook. Information for News Publishers 5 Spanish news publishers’ Facebook engagement dropped by 12% on average in 6 months, but not everybody went down SELECTED MAJOR NEWS PUBLISHERS IN SPAIN (SPANISH LANGUAGE) AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER DAY 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018 120 000 eldiario.es Telecinco 100 000 Okdiario 80 000 La Vanguardia 60 000 El Periódico 40 000 El País El Mundo 20 000 Antena 3 Noticias 0 ABC.es Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 May-18 20minutos.es 6 Facebook News Feed changes in Spain Biggest and viral type of publishers suffer the most everywhere, also in Spain SELECTED MAJOR NEWS PUBLISHERS IN SPAIN (SPANISH LANGUAGE) ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018 9% 10 7% 4% 0 -2% -3.5% -3% -10 -11% -14% -15% -20 -26% -30 -27% -40 -38% -41% -45% -50 -54% -60 El País ABC.es Okdiario El Mundo Telecinco eldiario.es El HuffPost El Periódico PlayGround 20minutos.es Diario Público Diario de Ibiza La Vanguardia BuzzFeed España Antena 3 Noticias Information for News Publishers 250 000 200 000 150 000 100 000 50 000 15 NOVEMBER2017-MAY2018 AVERAGE ENGAGEMENTPERDAY SELECTED MAJORPUBLISHERSINSPAIN Mid-size publishersremainedmorestable 0 PlayGround El País La Vanguardia Diario Público ABC.es eldiario.es Telecinco Nov 2017 El Mundo NacióDigital.Cat 324 ElNacional.cat May 2018 Okdiario Antena 3 Noticias laSexta l Noticias 20minutos.es El Confidencial VilaWeb El HuffPost El Món El Periódico Faro de Vigo TV3 7 8 Facebook News Feed changes in Spain Catalan publishers came down after Election peak, Spanish language publishers were affected less SELECTED MAJOR CATALAN AND SPANISH LANGUAGE PUBLISHERS AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER DAY 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018 SPANISH PUBLISHERS 120 000 Antena 3 Noticias El Mundo 100 000 Diario Público 80 000 La Vanguardia 60 000 El País CATALAN PUBLISHERS 40 000 TV3 20 000 324 0 ElNacional.cat NacióDigital.Cat Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 May-18 El Món VilaWeb Information for News Publishers 9 Local newspapers grew the most NEWS PUBLISHERS IN SPAIN ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018 35 32% 30 27% 27% 25 23% 20% 20 16% 14.5% 15 13% 13% 13% 11% 10.5% 10% 10 8% 5 0 El Mundo CORDÓPOLIS Zamora News Diario de Ibiza El Confidencial Libertad Digital Canarias Ahora Diario de Sevilla Mallorca Zeitung El Progreso de Lugo La Verdad de Murcia Ultima Hora Mallorca La Voz de Galicia (Vigo) La Voz de Galicia (Ferrol) 10 Facebook News Feed changes in Spain News pages’ video and link engagement dropped, photo engagement remained stable ALL NEWS PUBLISHERS IN SPAIN ENGAGEMENT PERCENTAGE CHANGE 15 NOVEMBER 2017 - 15 MAY 2018 5 1% 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -20% -25 -30 -32% -35 Video Link Photo 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 Spain 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 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. 01 EFFICIENT NEWS GATHERING WE HELP 02 TOPIC RESEARCH AND CURATION PUBLISHERS KNOW WHEN TO POST ON SOCIAL BASED IMPROVE THEIR 03 ON DATA AND AI EDITORIAL PERFORMANCE METRICS FOR SOCIAL AND 04 DIGITAL WORKFLOW BENCHMARK YOUR PERFORMANCE WITH 05 COMPETITORS CONTACT WWW.EZYINSIGHTS.COM [email protected] MANNERHEIMINTIE 15 B B 2ND FLOOR 00260 HELSINKI FINLAND NEVER MISS A STORY. TO LEARN WHAT EZYINSIGHTS CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS REQUEST A DEMO or email [email protected].