A daily newspaper has begun using a digital tool which allows smartphone users to read its stories in full on Facebook, in what is thought to be a UK regional press first.
The Manchester Evening News has started using the Instant Articles innovation, which has been developed by the social networking site for iOS or Android phone users.
The tool allows people to view full-length articles posted on the MEN’s Facebook page instantly on the Facebook app, rather than a link being opened separately on the paper’s website in a different browser.
The MEN has been using the feature since Tuesday, while fellow Trinity Mirror regional news website Wales Online has also signed up.
Alison Gow, digital innovation editor at Trinity Mirror Regionals, has welcomed the tool’s introduction.
Praising the innovation on her personal blog, Alison, pictured, described it as an “answer to the horrible problem of mobile load hang time for publishers”.
She wrote: “It is, I guess, odd that we rely on a third party to solve a problem we created ourselves with our heavy loading pages but I’m employing my maxim of ‘better to light a candle than curse the darkness’ here.
“After all, the issue of heavy loads isn’t something newsrooms can solve; getting content out and in front of readers is something they are good at, and if the tool exists, use it, I’d say.”
Alison went on to add there had been a “loud and sustained outcry” against the idea of Facebook hosting other publishers’ content on its own platform when the idea had been mentioned at the International Journalism Festival last April.
However, she added: “For what it’s worth, this is why I’d say it is worth trying: Facebook is huge and as an editor I’d want people to read my content and give commercial colleagues the chance to sell into that if they want to.
“If someone is scrolling through content on Facebook and see something interesting the chances are they want to read it there and then and if it takes longer than a couple of seconds to load, your fickle reader is off to the next thing.
“If we can deliver a fast, decent user experience – and a great piece of content – it gives my brand a big tick, with the reader and with Facebook.
“So congratulations to MEN editor Rob Irvine, social media editor Beth Ashton and regionals head of social media Gayle Tomlinson (along with other TM colleagues) for doing a bit of ground-breaking work for regional journalism, and trying something new.
“It’s always a good feeling to be at the forefront of trying new things.”
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This sounds like an ingenious solution to a persistent problem, though I know I and others of my antediluvian generation will shake our heads and make disapproving noises. Journalism, both for its creators and consumers, is now split into two camps – those of a certain age who prefer a paper or PC publication for their news – and fresher folk, digitally enabled every waking moment, who access it via their mobile devices. The former once made heaps of cash; the latter has got to prove it can if non-broadcast news-gathering and dissemination is to survive as a paying profession. Will it? Can it? More questions to ponder at the end of another year.
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Mr Minim, the answer to both your questions are ‘no’, at least in its present form, a model that I believe will not last into the next decade.
Our generation, the ones that still like print, will disappear gradually, or, to be blunt, die. Or they may well just give up on print as publishers turn their attention ever more to digital at the expense of newspapers, leaving them to deteriorate and become the second-rate rubbish some of them are today.
Hyperlocal websites may well flourish, but these days Joe Public is more interested in the antics of celebs or how many balls a dog can juggle while balancing on a skateboard than what’s going on in their own streets.
Face it, old chap. It’s nearly over.
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I can only echo your analysis, echo. It was good while it lasted… but so, for example, were coaching inns, farriers and petrol pump attendants (one of my earliest jobs). For all that, I hope some young blade (male or female) comes up with a revenue-generating idea that at least continues the best principles of local journalism, even though the means used to deliver it change beyond recognition for us oldies. And with that, Minim leans on coppice gate and, Thomas Hardy-like, stares into the thickening gloom of the dregs of another year. It’s being so cheerful what keeps me going.
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Dick – I’ll call you Dick since you’re calling me Echo. Sometimes it’s your posts which keep me going.
And you’re right. I did enjoy being a farrier.
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‘ the horrible problem of mobile load hang time’ . That’s a real first world problem isn’t it.
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@MovedOn – West Country, I’m not even sure what it means? Taking a guess I would say that they are saying that people don’t visit their websites because they are not optimised for mobile.
Sounds like either (a) have useless web developers or (b) they flood the pages with adverts and associated tracking code.
Having seen lots of regional news websites I’d say ‘b’ is pretty likely.
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Revenue? How does the newspaper propose to pay the journos that write the stories?
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“answer to the horrible problem of mobile load hang time for publishers”
Does Alison Gow and the other digital experts at TM Towers realise that is a ‘problem’ entirely inside their own control?
Stop making Trinity Mirror sites terrible user experiences with auto load adverts and other plastering of nonsense and you will not have to opt for such ‘magic’. Simple tools give a rundown of load times and element domains sourced from.
As for the tougher Facebook audiences? Post stuff your audiences want rather than becoming like every other facebook publisher and your natural reach will expand rather than fighting for a handful of slots on a persons daily feed.
Ms Gow had published a warning about clickbait and the short term gains v long term brand damage earlier this year http://alisongow.com/2015/03/02/the-beige-world-of-clickbait-journalism/ Infact re-reading after the clickbait targets is even more interesting.
Can someone from TM answer the simple question, why are you not making fast loading mobile websites with all your resources, what are the technical issues that are out of your control?!
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It’s threading needles to patch up the holes between previous patches.
You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
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