Fairfax and Channel 4's Scrapbook

Fairfax goes “digital first”

Fairfax, who this week confirmed job cuts and the introduction of pay walls for their Australian sites, have announced a "digital first" publishing strategy which will see "greater sharing of editorial content across geographies and across platforms." As digital content consumption continues to attack traditional media, we’ll see a lot more publishing and content-based business adopting the same approach.

The figure back up Fairfax’s strategic position. In the last social media update I asked you how you first heard your news and 38% of you said you heard news first on news websites. Fairfax is targeting you.

Interestingly, 11% of respondents said that television was their first source of news against 15% who said social media and 23% radio.

Channel 4 launch “Scrapbook”

Channel 4, who have long been considered digital innovators in the UK, have launched a new service on their site allowing users to collate articles they're interested in into an online scrapbook. The service is imaginatively entitled Scrapbook and you can take a look at it for yourself here.

http://scrapbook.channel4.com/

I honestly think that Channel 4 have dropped the ball with this. While it's nicely designed and easy to use (as you'd expect) I can't see what the consumer need is for such a service. Creating quick and easy links to articles and sites of interest is already perfectly achievable through simple in-browser bookmarking. The distinct lack of sharing options puts this in stark contrast with Pinterest which has similar functionality but allows you to create "boards" that you can share with your friends and in turn browse theirs. This seems to fulfil the human need for sharing ideas, creating a sense of identity and creating communities through shared interests in a far more social sense than Scrapbook.

Would you use Scrapbook? Let me know by taking part in this quick poll...

http://poll.fm/3rqqp

Facebook must let users opt-out of sponsored stories

It's been a tough couple of months for Facebook and now a ruling in California has forced them to give users more control over which of their actions can be promoted in Sponsored Stories. A lawsuit claimed it was illegal under Californian law to use people’s names and images along with advertisements without compensating them.

Facebook have agreed to create a way for users to view which of their interactions have been displayed in Sponsored Stories and take action to opt out of these being shown further.

The change could have a negative impact on Facebook’s advertising business, which increasingly relies on Sponsored Stories over traditional ads that do not include social context of what a user’s friends Like. Sponsored Stories have higher clickthrough rates than other ads on Facebook, especially when they are displayed in News Feed or on mobile devices.

This is a really interesting precedent to set. While I can't see this ruling having a huge impact on the effectiveness of sponsored story ads in the short term, if further territories choose to challenge Facebook’s current stance on the use of user data it’s more than possible that more concessions could be necessary in the future.

For anyone who’s not sure what a sponsored story is here’s a good example…