Poynter. » Media Lab

As Android tablets grow, publishers struggle to match the iPad experience

Sam Kirkland — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:21:26 +0000

When the IDC forecast this month that Google’s Android operating system would soon surpass Apple’s iOS in tablet market share, publishers of digital magazines could be excused for some handwringing.

Since 2010, Apple’s dominance of the market allowed publishers to … Read more

Twitter research shows how multimedia increases engagement

Jeff Sonderman — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:14:39 +0000

To update an old saying for the Twitter era: A picture is worth a thousand characters.

Research by Twitter shows that tweets that include a photo or video receive 3 to 4 times more engagement (retweets, replies, etc.) than those … Read more

5 reasons mobile will disrupt journalism like the Internet did a decade ago

Cory Bergman — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:27:54 +0000

Imagine being able to rewind to the 1990s and help your news organization make key decisions — and create new habits — to help prevent a landslide of layoffs and enable the business to thrive on the Internet. That’s the … Read more

‘Frictionless sharing’ is an instructive failure of 2012

Jeff Sonderman — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:24:37 +0000

Two of the news organizations that led the push into social reader Facebook apps are retooling their products, and Facebook itself is signaling that it’s time to leave behind the “frictionless sharing” experiment.

The Washington Post has extended its Social … Read more

When to go fast, when to go slow on social media

Jeff Sonderman — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:32:05 +0000

Reuters | Nieman Lab
Ben Walsh writes that his unfiltered Twitter stream “was basically unusable as an information source” during the Newtown school shooting.

Because he follows so many journalists and news organizations, his timeline repeated the same facts … Read more

Newtown response shows perils of requesting interviews on Twitter

Jeff Sonderman — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:15:17 +0000

Any journalist who’s had to ask grieving loved ones for an interview in the wake of a tragedy will tell you, it’s one of the hardest parts of her job.

It’s also one of the most difficult requests for non-journalists … Read more

News orgs circulate Facebook profile, photos of man who wasn’t the shooter

Jeff Sonderman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:35:06 +0000

Reporters and producers around the country, frantically searching for information online about the alleged school shooter, found what seemed like a match. Ryan Lanza, 24, was believed responsible for the deaths of 27 people in Newtown, Conn., at the Sandy … Read more

What the world population is doing on smartphones and social networks

Jeff Sonderman — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:34:35 +0000

In the past year, American cell phone owners became more likely to use the Internet on their phones (51 percent, up from 43 percent in 2011) and capture pictures or videos (67 percent, up from 57 percent).

That’s one insight … Read more

Twitter-Instagram photo war reveals new business realities of social networks

Jeff Sonderman — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:36:11 +0000

The photo-sharing turf war is escalating, with Twitter copying Instagram-like features and Instagram (owned by Facebook) no longer making its photos viewable within tweets.

No matter which company wins, users will lose.

It seems time to just accept that Facebook … Read more

2 major lessons from the demise of The Daily

Jeff Sonderman — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:57:07 +0000

The publisher of News Corp.’s The Daily said earlier this year that the iPad-only publication might need a few more years to be profitable. Today the company announced it won’t get that chance.

Although it has been one of the … Read more