July 2018 New(s) Ideas Winner
Twipe Tool Helps Publishers EngageReaders
Our July New(s) Ideas winner, Twipe Mobile, has deployed exciting reader analytics technology to equip news publishers with unique insights to improve audience engagement, and thereby subscriber retention.
Twipe is a Belgian company specializing in solutions for digital publishing and ePaper analytics. Publishers across Europe have been trusting Twipe’s power of innovation and expertise in digital publishing for over seven years.
Twipe’s EngageReaders tool identifies top-performing stories and articles readers especially enjoyed – which it calls “hidden gems” – on a publisher’s site, giving them valuable insight into what content their readers want, and delivering more of that content. Through its ePaper analytics, EngageReaders offers newspaper publishers analytics they can apply not only to their digital editions, but their print editions as well.
Twipe’s demo shows how its EngageReaders content analytics tool works.
We caught up with Mary-Katharine Phillips, business development at Twipe, to learn more about the product and how news media can leverage its features to improve audience engagement and readership.
What is Twipe’s EngageReaders?
EngageReaders is our Google DNI-backed ePaper analytics tool that uses artificial intelligence to help make better editorial decisions. Through predictive modeling, EngageReaders is able to identify over-performing and underperforming articles and highlight hidden gems, the articles which are read by a limited number of readers but are loved by those who did read it. With custom reports and dashboards, members of the newsroom are able to see at a glance how the edition is performing.
How did the idea for EngageReaders come about?
EngageReaders emerged from the Digital Reader Engagement project, a multi-year research project we undertook with the University of Leuven and Belgian publishing group, Mediahuis. The goal was to define, measure and predict engagement of readers with their digital newspaper on a mobile news platform and to translate those measurements into key insights that can be used in the newspaper production process. We outfitted a panel of readers with sensors to track device interaction, posture, pupil movement, heart rate and blood pressure, and asked users for feedback on content. After all this data was gathered, an extensive analysis of the user reactions and interactions was conducted. From this we built EngageReaders, a predictive model to identify over and underperforming articles to better engage readers.
What challenges does Mobile EngageReaders help news media organizations to overcome?
Most analytics tools fall short of actually measuring reader engagement, as they primarily quantify the number of eyeballs on a piece of content, but they do not give any insights into how a reader feels while reading or how they appreciate a particular article or publication. To date, EngageReaders is the only tool focused purely on newspaper editions, using ePapers as a proxy for their print counterparts, meaning newspapers can use the data from their digital edition to improve their print product as well.
What are some different ways news media organizations can incorporate Twipe’s EngageReaders into their business?
EngageReaders allows for newspaper layout decisions to be made by more than just gut feeling, instead relying on data-backed insights. In one case, a Belgian daily newspaper saw that bundling the regional sports section with the regional section rather than the national sports section helped to lower bounces and increase the average time spent reading an edition.
With newspapers using EngageReaders we’ve seen a reduction in churn, meaning more readers are staying engaged with the content and not leaving. By placing more engaging articles earlier in the edition, the average time spent reading the editions has increased. From this, we see that publications with articles that are read longer have higher Net Promoter Scores by 3-5 percent.
In addition to increasing reader engagement, newspapers are using EngageReaders to improve their app ratings. By targeting their engaged readers and asking them to rate the app in the app store, they are able to highlight their positive endorsements. This helps to increase the chances of being seen and well-referred.
Finally, EngageReaders is a great way to increase engagement in multi-channel strategies. One such way a newspaper is doing this is by putting the articles EngageReaders highlights as hidden gems (stories that are opened by a limited number of readers but loved by those who open it) on their website and social platforms. This way, they know the story is engaging and will attract more readers.
What else does Twipe do?
Twipe is focused on digital publishing, analytics and AI solutions for newspapers. In addition to EngageReaders, we develop Replica and NextGen solutions for ePapers and we’re working on a variety of media innovations with our partners.
What is Twipe working on for the future?
Our latest Google Digital News Innovation project is a collaboration with The Times & The Sunday Times of London (News UK) called “JAMES, your digital butler.” Using machine learning and AI, JAMES will gradually get to know the habits, interests and preferences of readers in order to expose them to relevant content in editions in their preferred formats, channels, times and frequencies. Through this, we will enable the individualized distribution of digital editions, helping to transform conversion and engagement strategies.
How can publishers interested in Twipe’s EngageReaders get started? Does Twipe’s EngageReaders require any special computer equipment or software for newspapers to use it?
EngageReaders can be easily integrated into any existing ePaper solution. Then, once the tool is integrated, newsrooms can quickly see at a glance how their edition is performing in order to discover hidden gems, craft the perfect composition of their edition and activate their readers.
Any publishers who are interested in getting started with EngageReaders can contact me at Mary-Katharine.Phillips@twipemobile.com
What do you see as the future of news media?
I’m a strong believer in the power of editions, because in today’s world of the constant onslaught of news, readers appreciate the curation and “finish-ability” that editions provide. I see that publishers now understand the importance of focusing on engagement rather than reach. They’re beginning to create news media products that reach their readers where they are. That can be in the style of The Economist‘s Espresso, giving readers a ‘shot of the news’ each morning or The Daily from The New York Times, which creates a daily listening habit and showcases the great journalism they’re doing. You can find other examples of news products that are redefining the newspaper of tomorrow in my research report “Reinventing Digital Editions.”
Do you have a great New(s) Idea? Enter your product or service in our contest today – winners are selected and featured monthly, with a grand prize winner who will be selected in December to receive a dedicated eblast and webinar with Alliance news media members! Entries not selected during the month they were submitted are automatically entered for the next month. Click here to learn more.
View all New(s) Ideas Winners
Lindsey is Director, Communications at the News/Media Alliance. She has over 15 years of experience working in communications for nonprofits.
