The last year has proved a tumultuous one for news reader apps. Circa, which was hailed for its innovative spin on news presentation, collapsed this summer after running out of cash. Weave, a news reader for the Windows Phone, was discontinued in March after a five-year run. And last week, Prismatic cited a sluggish growth rate in an announcement that it was shutting down its iPhone, Android and Web-based offerings.
Meanwhile, new entrants are making the market for news readers increasingly competitive. In September, millions of iPhone owners downloaded Apple’s news app when the company’s latest iOS update went live. Blendle, a Dutch startup that touts itself as the iTunes of news, announced last week it’s planning to make a push into the United States.
Amid all this turmoil sits Flipboard, a venture-backed news reader that has managed to outlive many competitors since its founding in 2010. It has persisted despite reports that rival products from tech giants Apple and Facebook could hasten its demise. In July, as journalists were forecasting Flipboard’s downfall, the company closed a $50 million round of funding from JP Morgan.
Despite the competition, representatives for Flipboard say the statup is confident about its prospects heading into the new year. The company says it’s doubling down on its social bona fides, relying on its base of more than 100 million users who share and curate content on the app.
“We’ve definitely focused on being a social magazine,” said Marci McCue, Flipboard’s vice president of marketing. “We have not only great content, but content curation and sharing and discovery. And I think that is truly what sets Flipboard apart and why we feel so positive about where things are headed.”
On Thursday, the startup announced it’s releasing a series of updates aimed at helping news organizations who publish on Flipboard connect with and monetize their audiences. Among them: verified profiles designed to help readers quickly identify reputable publications; “end cards,” a feature that allows publishers to serve up related stories to readers as they finish up an article; and an integration with the popular ad platform DoubleClick for Publishers, which Flipboard says will streamline advertising management on the app.
Taken together, these changes are a prelude to a ramp-up that will see Flipboard offering additional features to publishers, said Jack Mazzeo, head of partner platform products at the startup.
“It’s really the first step in a series of product investments we’re making to make some of these things that publishers need — like data, like analytics, like discoverability, more turnkey for publishers,” Mazzeo said.
Flipboard is also allowing publishers the ability to consolidate all their disparate content into a single profile, a move McCue says is designed to help them concentrate all their efforts on one branded account. One potential upside of the increased visibility that comes with having a consolidated account is increased readership, McCue said.
“What we want to do is make it so the reader finds one destination to discover all of that stuff,” McCue said. “The Washington Post can put all of their wood behind one arrow, if you will, behind investing in their profile — which will include their feed and all of their magazines.”
Flipboard is optimistic that the coming year will see its userbase continue to grow even as the competition goes more fierce. Time — and the inevitable tide of premature elegies from critics — will tell whether it can continue to outlast those deep-pocketed rivals.
