Megyn Kelly’s Move to NBC, Google AMP, Wall Street Journal’s Push Notifications, Magazine Media 2016 Highlights, InDesign CC Tip: Straddling Footnotes

Happy 2017, everyone! We’re back from the holiday break with a new roundup of news, stories of interest, and tips for media industry pros. This week, we’re sharing posts about Megyn Kelly’s move from Fox to NBC, why some publishers are wary of Google AMP, the Journal’s new approach to push notifications, the Modern Magazinist’s 2016 review, and more.

  • Kelly photoMegyn Kelly announced she’s leaving Fox News to join NBC, where she will host a daytime news and talk show, anchor a Sunday evening newsmagazine program, and play a prominent role in the network’s political coverage. A top cable news personality and now a best-selling author, Kelly rose to star status after clashing with Donald Trump during the presidential debates. With her Fox contract due to expire this summer, Kelly had been “hotly pursued” by other networks, according to The Washington Post, and was offered $20 million—a $5 million bump in pay—to stay on as the host of her daily program at Fox. A New York Times report said despite the value of Kelly’s high profile, her decision to move is a “calculated risk” given the challenges ahead. That includes succeeding in the daytime talk show format, which it said has proved to be “a virtual graveyard” for other big-name news anchors in the past several years, and going up against the likes of “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.
  • The Times also reported on the “ambivalent” relationship some publishers have with Google and its Accelerated Mobile Pages. As its name implies, the format promises to load their mobile pages faster—and there’s little disagreement that it works as advertised. But a big objection, particularly for small and individual publishers, is having to give up control to Google, which presents articles as Google articles, displaying google.com in the address bar instead of the publisher’s web address. For big publishers with name recognition, this is less of a worry, the Times said, and many report AMP is working well for them. Google nevertheless is addressing concerns with plans to change AMP this year, including making it possible for publishers to display their own links and for readers to be redirected to their websites.
  • New year, new approach: The Wall Street Journal shared in a Nieman Lab post how a change to its preferred metric and new testing methods have lifted its push notification average open rate by 21% since last spring. Using A/B testing and a new weighted open rate metric that takes into account devices that haven’t opened its app in more than two months, the Journal’s mobile team is now better able to target and direct resources toward individual readers who are most likely to engage with its news notifications, said product manager Greg Emerson. “The next push that we send is not going to motivate” those users who haven’t used the app for an extended period of time, he explained, so the question became “Can we target our push strategy at…people who regularly visit us, maybe not every day or every week, but have some kind of casual relationship with us? Can we write our pushes better, choose better content for that group, and engage them better?”
  • On Folio’s site, the Modern Magazinist offered highlights in magazine media this past year. One magazine that enjoyed an upswing in 2016 was Vanity Fair, which saw a spike in subscriptions following Donald Trump’s Twitter “meltdown” over an unflattering VF article about his Manhattan steakhouse. Similarly, at Mad magazine, covers and articles lampooning the now president-elect translated into big gains, with the publication’s first Trump cover doubling sales. Other notable stories included redesigns at Consumer Reports and Fortune, a change of guard at Esquire, and the demise of Self. In general, the column noted, magazines held steady in 2016 and most “settled into a comfortable balance between their print and online versions.”

On the Technology for Publishing Blog

NYT Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images

Visit our blog for highlights of interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world every Friday, and sign up for TFP’s This Week in Publishing newsletter. Think we missed something great? Let us know! Leave a comment below or drop us a note.

Tagged with: , , ,

Posted by: Monica Sambataro

Monica Sambataro
Monica Sambataro is a contributing editor and copyeditor for Technology for Publishing. Her publishing background includes work for leading technology- and business-related magazines and websites.
0