This week’s link herd June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014 by Andrew Leave a Comment

This issue of the Link Herd contains plenty of pointers to the future.
What is the Zebra Eclipse future, you ask? I believe that marketing agencies and publishers share a common evolution. Both are now interested in engaging with audiences (not always with content) with the aim of turning that engagement into business value.

In the news below you’ll find publishers launching agencies (content marketing), publishers merging their marketing and content teams and marketing agencies discussing content and audience strategies. You’ve even got one switched on retailer who admit they’re essentially a publisher these days.

WhatsApp emerges as big share driver for publishers
WhatsApp can drive significant amounts on traffic – more than Twitter for those publishers able to track it. The lack of tracking is one problem and the other significant challenge is just how hard it is to integrate the share functionality in site and apps.
The HuffingtonPost moves all comments to Facebook
In a move that shows the importance of community (return visitors and those who’ll persuade others to become return visitors) the US version of the HuffingtonPost is moving exclusively to Facebook comments. They say this is where readers want to discuss their articles but the team will have looked very closely at comment rates, engagement and traffic too.
Everything you need to know about the future of newspapers is in these two charts
Two charts that paint a clear but bleak future for newspapers. The trend away from newspapers is likely to accelerate. At the same time the stats says the newspapers over index with advertisers with mobile ready to rise up and close the difference.
VICE to Gawker: Fuck You and Fuck Your Garbage Click-Bait ‘Journalism’
Gawker and Vice continue their handbags at dawn battle. Interesting? Only in the sense that the two, page impression seeking, companies are doing this in public.
John Lewis marketing director and winner of The Drum’s Marketer of the Year Award Craig Inglis: ‘We regard ourselves as a publisher’
John Lewis’ marketing director Craig Inglis is on hand to argue the Zebra Eclipse cause – in this article and video for The Drum (a publisher who recently launched a content agency) he says that the retailer considers itself to be a publisher.
Bloomberg gives its native ads a data spin
A data-mining department within Bloomberg that is part of the editorial side of the company is being used to power and native ads in a program called Bloomberg Denizen. It’s the merger of publishing and marketing. Zurich Insurance Group is the first client and they’ve already signed on for a two-year campaign.
How Disney learned to stop worrying and love copyright infringement
An insightful look into how Disney has done almost a 180 when it comes to policing their copyright and now seems very happy to let their fans create, curate and parody the property the company owns. Why? It’s good for business. These are the people who buy Disney. These are the people who turned Frozen into a phenomenon.
What Television Will Look Like in 2025, According to Netflix
A great read on what Neil Hunt of Netflix predicted TV might look like in 10 years. Curation will be hugely important – albeit automated and provided by Netflix’s recommendation engine.
The Drum launches content marketing agency led by former NMA editor Justin Pearse
Another clear signal that publishing and marketing are converging: The Drum have launched a Content Marketing Agency called The Drum Works. The Drum Works will be seperate from the editorial business but will create engaging content for The Drum’s online and print audiences.
The Future of eBooks? Streaming is Now 21% of Music Revenues in the US
The growth of music streaming, completely legal, continues at a pace. In the States streaming now accounts for more than 20%. The Digital Reader asks what this means for the future of eBooks.
Publishing 2014: 3 brands tackling the digital challenge
How are publishers adapting to the digital challenge? This article, a piece from Tara Honeywall at Mediator, looks at the FT, Conde Nast and the Times.

Machinima faces backlash and boycott

January 6, 2014 by Andrew Leave a Comment

YouTube went on a copyright crackdown. The system is strongly in the favour of anyone making a complaint as Google needs to stay in “Safe Harbour” of the US’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As a blogger I’ve been hit with this. I upload a game trailer to YouTube in response to a request from PR or a Digital Marketing agency – or even the game maker themselves – and write about it. Some-time later; 12, 18 or even 24 months someone else claims copyright on a fragment used in the trailer. It could be a logo. It could be a slice of music. It could be anything.

YouTube’s response; the entire channel gets a black mark against it and you lose all access to ad income and a host of tools. Three black marks and you’re out completely.

I’ve protested each black mark I’ve had, being able to cite written permission I had to use the video and won every time. One day I won’t win and I’ll lose my channel. Most recently my counter-claims haven’t even been contested. I just have to wait a few months for the system to automatically rule in my favour given my counter-claim remains.

It’s a worse situation for super user level computer game bloggers though. Many of them had been part of large networks like Machinima and they had some extra protection; a higher tolerance against what counts as a copyright match.

That changed recently and very many YouTubers, people who made their money off the platform, got hit by waves and waves of copyright claims. The networks like Machinima were no longer given special treatment. So, what’s the point of them?

I argue that digital agencies are acting increasingly like publishers – they use content to engage and audience and earn money from that. I also argue that publishers have to act like digital agencies – they have to help promote and market the content produced by their creators. Why? What else are they doing? Publishing to YouTube is a push button affair once you have your video. Again; what’s the point of the publisher collective?

In this protest video Clash, with some 180,000 subscribers, underlines that he’s trapped in a contract with Machinima, that they take an undisclosed cut for doing nothing and he can’t get out. He urges a boycott and announces he’ll stop running ads completely.

I hope Clash investigates other ways to make money from his videos. It is possible. He could become a store and overlay to his own products. That’s allowed. It’s even possible to put affiliate links in the video descriptions.

We’re yet to see what Machinima does. Clash’s protest makes it hard for them to delete his channel without seeming churlish. They make terminate his contract – or if there’s fine print in there about not bringing the brand into disrepute (a common clause) then there may be legal action.