NewsBeat

December 2015 NewsBeat 13 more capable monetisation. "Every time a Web page takes too long to load, they lose a reader – and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions," says Google's Webmaster Blog. Google, Facebook, and Apple can certainly fix things for us by moving us in with them. Unfortunately, their long-term goals aren't our long-term goals. But they are right. Whether or not you decide to partner in Instant Articles and/or adopt AMP, you must improve your own performance. Many sites, like The Washington Post have realised the consequences of overloaded third-party and advertising network tags, and bloated templates dragging down load times and harming ad views. The news media company cleaned up its code and streamlined the site by " … looking at every element on its pages, eliminating redundancies and ditching features that readers didn't use, such as some of its recirculation widgets," reports Digiday. This reduced its perceived load time by 85%. The Interactive Advertising Bureau also has recognised the digital advertising industry's responsibility to improve performance and win back consumer trust (as most publishers have no control over how fast or well third-party advertising performs). The IAB just launched its LEAN ads programme, stating: "We messed up. As technologists tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience." Facebook, Google, and Apple may not share our objectives or our best interests — but they do share the same experiential requirements for customers and their needs: The right information in the right context at the right time. We can learn a lot by what they ask of their partners and what they do for their customers to meet those requirements — and applying it to our businesses. Recognising the necessity of performance is one we should take to heart. By JESSIE SAMPSON espite a changing media landscape, print newspapers offer a sense of clarity and command a particularly high degree of engagement. On the days that people read their newspapers, they spend an average of 70 minutes with them. Another bonus: print advertising is free of ad-blocking. In recent weeks, there seems to have been a renewed appreciation of the power of print to engage readers, influence opinions, and provide a favorable context for advertisers. It's the content, context, and influence of newspapers that make them stand out in the digitally driven, clickbait-consuming frenzy that is today's news landscape. Amongst all the noise, the verified journalism of newspapers provides a sense of clarity and assuredness while commanding high levels of engagement. It's quite a challenge to multi-task when reading a newspaper, and the latest TouchPoints6 data shows that, on the days they read them, people spend an average of 70 minutes with their newspaper. That's good news for newspapers and advertisers alike. Writing for Media Week recently, James Wildman, Trinity Mirror Solution's chief revenue officer, articulated these attributes perfectly and Why print news still deserves the spotlight rallied against what he describes as "printism" — an unreasoned dislike, hostility, or antagonism toward, or discrimination against, print that isn't based on reason or actual experience of the print medium. "There are few — if any — media that can demand the sales attention of their audience in a trusted brand environment, provide a space and context where commercial messages are actively enjoyed, and genuinely influence the way people think and behave" he wrote. "Our readers know it is special, and it is time we remind ourselves of that too. Millions of people read a physical newspaper, so my message to the media industry is: Don't be a printism pariah." Suffice to say, print's still got it. As The Mail on Sunday's Geordie Greig put it at Shift North: "Newspapers are addictive. If I had to invent a form that could be something that could be thrown away, something that could be preserved, something that could be folded, could even be ironed, something that is easy to sell, something that is cheap, something that if kept for a long time can be valuable, something that could be passed along, printable, holdable, foldable, and disposable, how could one invent it? It is the genius of the newspaper." — Reprinted from INMA D PA Entry form and rules available at nynewspapers.com — just click on the icon on the top right corner of the home page. Avoid Post-Holiday Panic and Stress! Start preparing your Better Newspaper Contest entries NOW!! Questions? Contact Rich or Jill at NYPA: rkhot@nycap.rr.com or jill@nynewspapers.com Deadline is January 12th!

• Cover