This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next blog post is Monday, March 17,
Update #2: New York City, Friday, March 14, 11:02
TAKEAWAY: Curating content for mobile news may turn out to be the type of fun job many have only been dreaming of.
Can curate mobile content. Will travel.
Likely to be the two sentences that we will see in a lot of resumes now and in the future.
I have seen it coming for quite some time. In the midst of an avalanche of information that comes at us from a variety of sources and platforms 24/7, we will want to join the Basta Brigade (to be referred to as BB henceforth), and hope for that little moment when someone somewhere reminds us that he/she has selected content for us.
We get some interesting information and perspective from Raju Narisetti, News Corp’s Senior Vice President/Strategy:
“Clear differences in consumption patterns have emerged now. On mobile both sheer number of visits to a phone daily (100+ in general) and using it for in the moment news versus tablet (2-3 times a day at best and clear wanting to complete),” he said.
Several news organizations are taking advantage of these consumption patterns. I just hope that the audience tunes in and takes advantage of the offerings. Here are the editions we now know of specially created for mobile:
Yahoo selects stories for the digest using a combination of algorithms and human editors, and sends you a push notification when your digest is ready. It is also one of the best-looking newsreading apps. I personally look forward to it when it comes twice a day.
Yahoo News Digest offers users a list of what they ought to know and nothing more. There’s no personalization, no limitless stream of other stories they could read. Just a list of around a dozen stories and you’re done.
The idea of completion is important here, and one of the creators used the word “calming” to relate to Yahoo News Digest. Calming, I assume, because it does have an end. You do feel that you have completed your news work out for that time of the day.
For more:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5284300/yahoos-sleek-news-digest-app-swims-against-the-stream
The Times has just announced that it will launch “very soon,” NYT Now featuring curated content from the Times, and unlike the publication’s current algorithm-powered mobile app, it will have a dedicated staff responsible for hand-picking stories and repackaging them for consumption on your phone.
NYT Now will consist of headlines and short summaries taking readers to full Times articles. A “morning briefing” and an “evening briefing” — presented in a conversational voice,
From the Times’ announcement of NYT Now:
“Expect shorter, more visual stories, with bullet points and minimal paragraphs to get to the core of a story quickly. In addition to articles from the paper, NYT Now will feature an “Our Picks” tab that highlights content from around the web curated by Times editors. There’s also a “Save for Later” section, which lets you bookmark articles.”
Of related interest:
The idea is this: to give mobile-phone users something else to be addicted to — namely, a specially curated version of The Times (and other news), designed to be used on the go. It offers a small fraction of The Times’s daily offerings — enough to satisfy the itch for high-quality news but not enough, it is hoped, to undercut more expensive subscriptions.
Circa has editors who rework the top stories of the day into bite-sized “atomic units” of information—quotes, photos, maps, facts, background. Users can follow topics they’re interested in and get updates on new developments.
Circa doesn’t show you an entire news article, the way a mobile news app from the New York Times or some other traditional outlet would: instead, it breaks the news down into its “atomic units,” which consist of a series of news facts, background information and other elements (photos, quotes, etc.) A user can then choose how many of those atomic units to read at a given time.
Circa has editors who rework the top stories of the day into bite-sized units of information—quotes, photos, maps, facts, background. Users can follow topics they’re interested in and get updates on new developments.
For more:
Circa wants to rethink the way we consume the news on a sub-atomic level
Breaking News curates the latest pieces of news around the world, providing brief and fast updates. They combine these updates into topics, allowing users to be alerted to updates on their favorite topics or mute those they are not interested in.
The creators came to the conclusion that focusing on the consumer goal of “time saved” trumps the newsroom goal of “time spent.”
Inside creates short, scannable summaries of top stories, each designed to fit on a single phone screen. It’s geared at users who are satisfied with “just enough news”—-not all breaking reports or complete aggregation.
The Inside formula — 300 characters, 40 words, 10 facts per update.
Jiust annonced this week: Cartoon Network will release an app later this year that will deliver original 15-second content bites — videos, games, polls, and trivia — solely to mobile devices, the company said Friday. Cartoon Network Anything, which the company calls a “micro-network,” aims to tackle the brand-new technology question of how to deliver device-specific content
For more:
http://www.nowthisnews.com
Now This News is part of NBCUniversal’s news division and it aims at a young audience. The main emphasis is videos, which are selected and edited with this audience in mind.
NBC News producers work with the start-up’s journalists to create videos for the millions of younger viewers using Vine, Instagram and Snapchat. Some videos will be branded NBC, some both and some NowThisNews. Those videos will also be featured on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC.
Behiind the videos selected, curators who will be thinking of what that specific young audience craves.
What do all of these have in common?
In addition to requiring curators to select and to edit the material, I have selected key words in the descriptions of each: here are key words that are part of curated content:
The New York Times:
…..a dedicated staff responsible for hand-picking stories and repackaging them for consumption on your phone….
Yahoo News Digest:
….giving the readers a sense of completion….
Breaking News:
….curates the latest pieces of news around the world, providing brief and fast updates—concentrating on “time saved”, not “time spent” consuming the news….
Inside:
….getting just enough news on a story……
This is only the beginning.
I tell my students at Columbia University that there will be great opportunities for content curators, and not just necessarily in established legacy media companies, but in some information outlets that are not even in existence and that may spring up in the months and years ahead.
What’s the qualification to be a content curator?
Ideally, someone with nose, ears and an intuitive feeling for stories that seduce.
Someone who understands the “everywhereness” of information consumption today.
Someone who has analyzed how we read on phones and tablets and can select and edit content for those platforms.
The rest? Someone who has been there: a consumer of information on mobile devices, a person craving for surprises, but also for keeping well informed and one step ahead of everyone else.
Finally, curators who understand how to write, edit and design for the journalism of frequent interruptions.
By the way, Cory Bergman, GM/Founder of Breaking News (@breakingnews)lists his own qualifications for the perfect content curator:
The best mobile curators (for us): fast, great news judgment, Twitter junkies, tight and bright writers, social sleuths.
That summarizes the idea of the mobile edition curator.
Are you up to it?