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from Atlantic 57The Atlantic's brand evolution firm.

Five quick takes on media and tech trends from the past seven days,
distilled and contextualized to power your work.

IF YOU read ONE THING
Understanding ‘digital campfires’

Want to reach younger audiences? Contemporary wisdom for the last few years has said, “Go to social media.” While that’s still true, the state of younger audiences on social is becoming more nuanced: In a piece for Harvard Business Review, digital content strategist Sara Wilson points to a growing body of research that suggests social media usage among young audiences is plateauing or declining. According to one study, young people are withdrawing from established social platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat “in favor of deeper, richer connections found in smaller bespoke communities that share their specific passions”—what Wilson calls “digital campfires.” In order to reach younger audiences, she writes, brands need to understand the distinct characteristics of these online spaces: “If social media can feel like a crowded airport terminal where everyone is allowed, but no one feels particularly excited to be there, digital campfires offer a more intimate oasis where smaller groups of people are excited to gather around shared interests.” Although reaching audiences in these communities requires more groundwork and intentionality, putting in the work could “potentially have big payoffs for brands in terms of loyalty, retention, and long-term love.”
 

POWERSTAT

In a recent survey of 1,000 TV watchers, the vast majority of respondents (93%) said that they subscribe to a paid streaming service, according to Nielsen. Just 30% of respondents subscribe to three or more services, however. To find out the breakdown of viewers on each popular streaming platform, read a summary of the report here.

Source: TechCrunch

TREND WATCH
Breaking through the noise

The podcast landscape is fluctuating once more as competition for listeners and advertiser dollars heats up, Digiday’s Max Willens writes. With more than 850,000 podcasts available globally, according to Chris Yarusso from Spark Foundry, and demand for high production value intensifying, smaller publishers are struggling to remain on the medium. “It’s no longer just, ‘Grab a mic and interview some people,’” said Stephanie Beran Sanderson, the director of strategy at the audio agency Wordsworth & Booth. “The interview was a go-to idea because it’s so simple. But the problem with that is that [format] is incredibly saturated.” While podcasts once offered creators a low-cost way to reach digital audiences and grow revenue, competition for listeners and ad dollars has since intensified. Now, to draw audiences on the medium, publishers must heavily invest time and resources in the podcast’s creation. Although certain publishers, such as Vox Media and Barstool Sports, have been able to successfully monetize podcasts at scale, others, like Politico and Bustle, have started to decrease the frequency of some of their podcasts or discontinue them altogether. 

NEWS YOU CAN USE
The different ways to tell a modern story

As technology evolves, journalists and designers are constantly inventing new ways of storytelling online. To highlight and rank the best of the best is a daunting task, but for the ninth straight year, the Society of News Design has done just that. Over four days, a panel of judges convened to review over 1,300 entries, culling the list down to the final awardees in categories such as “mobile storytelling,” “use of audio,” and “information graphics.” While the awardees provide plenty of inspiration for web-based storytellers, the society also asked its judges to share their thoughts about trends in digital storytelling:

  • Find balance in scroll-based interaction. Scroll-based storytelling or “scrolly-telling” is an effective way to add interactivity on the page. In the Gold Medal winning Notre-Dame piece, for instance, the graphic changes the further the user scrolls. But judges urge restraint in adding too much: “There are many pieces that the entire thing is scrolly-telling, and you don’t know when it’s going to end, you just scroll and scroll and scroll … it becomes a very exhausting experience mentally,” writes Jeremy C.F. Lin of Bloomberg
  • You’re not only limited to visuals. Audio, when used well, adds an additional layer of emotion to a news piece. A good example can be found in this Politico piece focused on AM talk radio hosts that (literally) puts a voice to a name. To Libby Bawcombe of NPR, this is just the beginning: “The pieces that I’ve seen, for the most part, have used audio as ambient sound to set a place of scene ... but can we push audio beyond setting the mood with music? … I mean, podcasts [are] so hot right now, and as more and more people are turning to that for their storytelling and their journalism, is that something that we can work better into the web?”
  • Too much data always isn’t a bad thing. Even if a user wouldn’t interact with all the data on a piece, it provides for a more interactive experience that could pull in users and show that the creator put in real work. Martin Frobisher of the Tampa Bay Times, speaking to a piece about Tesla, shared this: “Even though I know I’m not going to read every quote from some Tesla owner, it’s just, to me, it actually validates the story I’m reading, like you really did go out and dig up all this data or interview all these people. I’d like to see more data-driven projects, although good writing is good writing, there’s no doubt about that.” 

PERSPECTIVES
Could we have predicted McClatchy?

This week, McClatchy Co., the owner and operation of newspapers such as The Miami Herald and The Charlotte Observer, ended 163 years of family control as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The staff of the newspapers under the organization are safe for the time being, as the company has secured funding to temporarily keep it afloat. Many found the news unsurprising and expressed sadness and concern for the future of journalism:

  • “McClatchy’s purchase of Knight-Ridder in 2006 was described as ‘a dolphin swallowing a small whale.’ That, coupled with the smartphone revolution and the Great Recession, rendered McClatchy’s decline almost a given. But, still. Ugh. #journalism matters.” — Susan Wiesinger, journalism professor at California State University, Chico (Twitter
  • “Reading [with] sadness and anger about [the] bankruptcy of McClatchy today. It's the final blow from a terrible deal orchestrated in 2006 by two men: Bruce Sherman and Gary Pruitt. That deal possibly had as much impact on newspapers' finances as the internet.” — Chris O’Brien, European correspondent at VentureBeat (Twitter
  • “It’s a lot of money guys making all this happen, not a lot of news people, and the aim for all of them is cutting costs enough to squeeze out cash flow, do enough M&A to maximize efficiencies in the back shop, and … well, enjoy the profits until they stop. I’d expect to see Tribune and McClatchy give it another go, maybe with Lee throwing its hat in too. Or MNG trying to tie up with Tribune, uniting Alden’s two victims. Or all of the above. That’s how, in the span of a few months, the five largest newspaper chains might well become two.” — Joshua Benton, director of Nieman Lab (Nieman Lab)
  • “So please, yes, let’s talk about the financial challenges of the local news industry. Understand them beyond the headlines. Especially today. Because, by all means, we must keep this journalism going, keep these reporters reporting, and editors editing.” — Kristin Roberts, vice president of news for McClatchy (Twitter)

This week in our office

This week, we combined forces and broke bread with our talented colleagues from across The Atlantic, joining together in Washington, D.C. for two days of learning, inspiration, and connectedness. The teams gathered to align on company goals, put names to faces, and, most importantly, sing our hearts out at karaoke.

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