Q&A with Hearst’s Troy Young, Facebook’s Stock Slide, BBC’s Experiments with Storytelling Formats, Wired’s 25-Year Anniversary Event, TFP’s Infographic Pick
Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news, stories of interest, and tips for media industry pros! This week we include posts on Hearst’s appointment of Troy Young as the company’s new president, Facebook’s rocky week, the BBC’s experiments with new storytelling formats, Wired’s 25-year anniversary bash, and more.
Hearst announced digital chief Troy Young will take over the reins from David Carey, who is stepping down as president of the media company at the end of the year to serve as a fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (see This Week in Publishing). Young says in a Q&A with AdAge that as he assumes responsibility for both print and digital, which are currently run as completely separate teams, he will “ask a lot of questions about the right way to organize the company and organize our resources.” That means there may be some changes ahead, including a shift in leadership style, with the report contrasting Carey’s “mild air” with Young’s more “aggressive” approach.- Facebook took a beating this week, losing $119 billion in value—the largest one-day loss ever—after a disappointing earnings report on Wednesday. News outlets offered various takes on what happened and what’s likely ahead for the social platform as its growth stalls and data privacy troubles mount. It has also faced heavy pushback from media companies this past year, and there are questions as to how it will monetize Instagram Stories, a Digiday report says. “Stories is a new format, and we definitely see that it takes a while for advertisers to adopt a new format,” COO Sheryl Sandberg told investors.
- The BBC has been experimenting with new storytelling formats, a Nieman Lab post details, highlighting which ones worked and which didn’t. Among those that got a thumbs up: The Expander, a highlighted ellipsis that, when clicked on in an article, expands with additional information; The Incremental, which lets readers create the same content in different forms; and Fast Forward, a feature that provides “subtitles” for navigating around video. Formats that got a thumbs down include: Atmosphere, background audio that plays while users read an article (“too distracting”); Consequences, a button that lets users select a bullet summary of a related topic (“nothing fancy about it”); and Drawing In, which intros a story with a movie-trailer-like visual (“people want to know what the story is about before they decide to invest time into it”).
- Be there or be square: WWD reported Wired is “going big” for its 25th anniversary celebration, with a four-day festival/conference planned in San Francisco in October. The event, priced from $35 to $2,150, will feature a “dream list” of tech luminaries, including Apple design chief Jony Ive, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Napster founder Sean Parker, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Kim Kelleher, Wired’s chief business officer, says the event is not intended to “make a lot of money” but to celebrate a brand that has “morphed its business model” over 25 years and is now “exactly where I’d hoped it would be.”
On the Technology for Publishing Blog
- TFP’s Infographic Pick: With artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, and other smart technologies taking hold, mobile app development is a fast-moving target. Check out this week’s infographic pick to learn the latest trends.
- ICYMI: Monica Murphy’s InDesign Tip shows you how to get creative with an update that lets you customize corners on paragraph shading.
Image: AdAge
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Posted by: Monica Sambataro
