At a “packed” event at the GNM offices in London yesterday, GNM unveiled its new commercial Open Platform model to key agencies, commercial partners, developers and industry insiders.
The Guardian Open Platform claims to be a first for the newspaper industry, and it reinforces the paper's leading position as an innovator in digital technology. Adam Freeman, Director, Consumer Media, GNM, said: "The commercial launch of the Guardian's Open Platform marks a unique and pivotal step forward for the online publishing landscape, and a new area of development for advertisers. Not only will GNM's award-winning journalism and online content be able to reach new audiences, but other online publishers and brands will be able to use our content to develop more compelling digital campaigns, products and services.
"There will be benefits for major brands who want to take advantage of our open philosophy and 33million monthly unique users, and to demonstrate our commitment to this initiative, we are offering a £50k media value to the next commercial project which chooses to use our Open Platform, if they commit £100k or more. Smaller publishers who want to enhance their online presence by using our content will also be able to take advantage of the new models."
The Open Platform launched last year as a beta service, and GNM became the first newspaper publisher to open up its database to partners, allowing them to select and collect content for re-use on their own websites. Since then, over 2,000 developers have registered, and over 200 apps, products and data visualisations are now live using the Open Platform.
Today's commercial launch will open up many different types of partnership with GNM. Partners will be able to build applications to be integrated within the Guardian network, as well as develop their own applications using Guardian content for other digital platforms. A variety of models for sponsorship, revenue sharing, and commission-based partnerships to help brands and businesses reach audiences in new, innovative ways on a range of online platforms are now available.
After the presentation, there will be a '24-hour Developer Challenge', sponsored by Amazon Web Services, during which GNM's network of developers will respond to briefs pitched to them that morning in order to demonstrate the flexible and creative solutions that the Open Platform will be able to offer partners. They will then present their ideas at 2.00pm on Friday 21 May.
About The Guardian Open Platform
The Guardian says: “The Open Platform consists of two distinct products. The Content API allows users to search the database and download content from articles in a format that is easy to integrate with other web applications. The Data Store is a directory of statistics curated by Guardian editors.
In order to maximise the opportunities for a range of different customers with different goals and resources, GNM has structured access to its services through three levels:
Tier 1 - Keyless: Free access to Guardian headlines, tags and meta data. No registration or key required. Partners can keep any associated revenue earned using Guardian content on their own applications.
Tier 2 - Approved: License to publish Guardian articles in full. The Guardian embeds ads, performance tracking and a watermark within the articles we make available. Partners can keep any associated revenue earned. Registration and access key required.
Tier 3 - Bespoke: Custom solutions for licensing content and integrating rich applications directly within the Guardian network. We offer sponsorship, licensing, revenue sharing, and other custom commercial programs. Contact us for more details.
