The January / February issue of InPublishing magazine was published last week. Here are some of my takeaways from it, one from each article:
- Press regulation: In order to protect freedom of expression, you have to protect the public from abuse by news brands. Regulating the press and protecting freedom of expression are mutually reinforcing principles. (H/t Charlotte Dewar)
- Back to basics: In the face of growing AI encroachment, publishers should frame their strategy around four durable customer needs: trust, relevance, utility and community. (H/t Sajeeda Merali)
- Keeping it real: Photojournalists document reality and should never over-sensationalise stories. Images that focus on sensationalism often end up undermining truth and eroding trust with the public. (H/t Jack Hill)
- Purpose of tech: Technology should be used to buy time for humanity. So, build tools that allow your journalists to stop acting like data processors and start acting like investigators and storytellers again. (H/t Peter Barr-Watson)
- Saying ‘no’ isn't enough: Oftentimes, the AI bots will just turn up and scrape your content, despite the fact that you’ve implemented the code to say ‘no’. (H/t Dickon Ross)
- Keyword adblocking: It’s a myth that hard news environments have a negative impact on ad campaigns. In an experiment, both brand lift and action intent more than doubled on ‘unsafe’ content classifications versus ‘safe’. (H/t Kara Osborne)
- Staying true: When a mainstream news title publishes a story which is subsequently shown to be untrue, it damages all journalism, contributing to an overall erosion of trust. (H/t Sarah Donaldson)
- The state of political journalism: Circumstances - from the fragmentation of the media to lower budgets and the demands for speed over thought driven by online publishing – means that there’s much more rubbish published than there used to be. (H/t Philip Collins)
- Infinite has its limits: Social media, despite being our most common leisure activity, delivered the lowest joy score of 21 leisure activities surveyed. This reinforces something many people already instinctively feel; digital environments designed for infinite content don’t deliver infinite fulfilment. (H/t Dominic Lobley)
- The appeal of video: Once, homes brands offered nice images of interiors; now consumers want to be shown around a property, and hear what the owners have to say for themselves. (H/t Jason Orme)
- Threat to the free press: The US president is waging an all-out war on press freedom and journalism. Trump is a press freedom predator. (H/t Clayton Weimers)
- Metrics: In the ongoing structural shift from volume to value, new, industry-wide metrics are needed that measure attention, engagement, dwell time and meaningful interaction. (H/t Jim Bilton)
If you want to read the full issue, then please register here. Once you’ve completed your registration, you’ll be provided with a link to the digital edition.
You can catch James Evelegh’s regular column in the InPubWeekly newsletter, which you can register to receive here.
