Twitter Character Limit Change, U.K. Briefing on Platforms’ Impact on Media, Promoted Content Study, Yahoo Data Breach, TFP Infographic Pick of the Week, and More
Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about the rollout of Twitter’s changes to its 140-character limit, U.K. publishers calling on government to ensure platforms like Facebook and Google don’t threaten their sustainability, a study showing the negative impact of promoted content advertising, how Yahoo’s massive data breach could affect sale of business to Verizon, and more.
- To the delight of marketers, media companies, and other storytellers, Twitter has officially rolled out changes to its 140-character limit under a plan announced earlier this year to “simplify” tweets. The Independent and others detailed the changes, with the main one being to exclude added media from the limit. That means all attached media—including images, videos, surveys, and the like—won’t count toward the character limit. Neither will the user name of the person a reply is sent to, although anyone tagged in the tweet will still count. As the post notes, Twitter had been considering 10,000-character tweets but scrapped the idea in favor of these latest changes and others aimed at boosting user numbers by making the service easier to use.
- U.K. publishers are asking the government to keep Facebook and Google in check, to “ensure that online platforms operate within a framework that is fair, non-abusive, and respectful of media plurality.” (See last week’s This Week in Publishing for related articles.) A briefing presented to ministers by the U.K. News Media Association says while publishers welcome the opportunity to work with the social and search giants to reach new audiences, “the situation is far from win-win, and significant value is being captured by companies who do not invest in original journalism at the expense of those who do.” The overarching concern, according to the document, is “the impact on media plurality and the functioning of democracy.” In short, it said for media companies to survive, profits have to keep pace with costs—and with platforms and ad blocking tech siphoning off their revenue sources, that’s not happening: “The value chain of digital news has become wildly out of step with the contribution that each player makes and this is not sustainable.”
- A new report confirmed what’s already widely viewed as a given in the publishing industry: Recommended content widgets pushing sketchy products and clickbait hurt publishers’ relationship with readers. But with media outlets struggling to scrape up whatever sources of revenue they can, they aren’t going away any time soon, according to a Nieman Lab article. It said a recent study of the top 50 news sites revealed a number of not-so-surprising findings: Only half of the 312 links in widgets tested went to legitimate advertisers; clickbait links are often bait-and-switch; recommended stories widgets still aren’t clearly labeled as advertising; and the vast majority of clickbait sites that buy the ads are registered anonymously.
- And finally, Recode and others reported Yahoo suffered a huge data breach that could impact the $4.8 billion sale of its core business to Verizon. Reportedly exposing several hundred million user accounts, the breach will likely be subject to a government investigation and legal action. That means not only could the completion of the deal be stalled, but because the breach is a liability to Verizon, it could lead to an adjustment in the price it has agreed to pay. Back in August, Yahoo said it was aware of the hack claim and investigating its legitimacy, but didn’t inform users they should reset their passwords, the report said.
On the Technology for Publishing Blog
- TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week: While content is key to a great website, elements like typeface play an important role in its visual appeal and usability. Our new infographic pick offers some font combinations that both grab attention and make content easy to read.
- Don’t miss: Monica Murphy’s lastest AEM Mobile tip shows you how to create cards to display collections, articles, and banners, and how to arrange cards in layouts using card mapping rules.
Photo: Independent
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Posted by: Monica Sambataro
