The Weekly Bulletin | July 31, 2024

Catch up on your members' content, check out the community buzz, and browse through job opportunities

Author

Vahe Arabian
July 31, 2024

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Blasting News publishes around 16,000 news articles and videos each month, providing news to around 30 million monthly readers. This content is created by a network of 2,000 freelance writers and editors.

At the same time, Blasting News is a member of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) and Eunomia as part of a stance against misinformation. The platform follows The Trust Project quality standards and has a perfect (100/100) NewsGuard score on transparency and credibility.

So how does Blasting News balance quality and quantity?

Angelo Paura, Global Editorial Director at Blasting News, explained the process at one of our events, and below is a summary of the editorial workflow processes that allows Blasting News to publish large volumes of high-quality content:

The editorial workflow process at Blasting News

  • Using Blasting News’ proprietary algorithm, their community managers daily review and distribute a series of topics and ideas to our authors.

  • The writers – or “blasters” – craft articles using the internal text editor of the platform. Blasting News requires reliable and fresh sources, not older than three days.

  • Each article undergoes automatic SEO standard checks.

  • The blaster submits the article for editing, where it appears in a list reviewed by the editors for the first edit. Editors have two options:

    1. They can send it back to the blaster with a comment for revisions.

    2. They can approve the article and forward it to the content manager of the respective country.

  • If the article is sent back, the blaster can make corrections and resubmit it. After the third submission, the editor can only choose to publish or discard the article.

  • Once approved, the article undergoes a final check in the control room by content managers – integral members of Blasting News’ internal newsroom. Only after this final check is completed does the article get published on the site and social media platforms.

Following the completion of the editorial process, another significant aspect of the workflow comes into play: Blasting News’ internal platform called BX. Here, the micro influencers, also known as social blasters, have the opportunity to decide whether they want to share the article and on which platforms. If they choose to share the articles on social media, they are eligible to share potential revenues with the author.

For additional quality control, after this entire process, Blasting News implements a randomized check to identify any errors that may have been overlooked.

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Monetizing Sport News in the Age of First-Party Data

Monetizing sport news webinar

Learn how to scale your first-party data collection results and maximize the revenue potential of your current data sets

🗓️ 8 August 2024
🕓️ 4 PM Sydney | 2 PM Singapore

67% of consumers follow sports on a regular basis via various media platforms. That’s a massive audience that presents countless opportunities for publishers.

What the webinar will cover:

  • Zero party vs first party data

  • Leveraging your existing data for maximum reach

  • Generating more revenue from existing data sets

  • Creating an always-on content plan

SODP POSTS

Sponsored
Content Strategy for Google’s AI-Powered Search

Google has always rolled out updates and features. In 2023 alone, it rolled out ten updates to the ranking algorithms. With the world infatuated with the rapid growth of AI tech, it’s only natural to see AI Overview (AIO) integrated into the Google search experience.

Many content marketers fear AI will make content marketing much harder, if not obsolete. A lot of these fears are centered around Google’s AI Overviews.

How can we create an AI Overviews content strategy, and how can this new feature change the future of search? This article will explain everything in much-needed detail.

Hindustan Times Digital Q&A: The Future of Newsrooms in the Age of AI

Binoy Prabhakar is a journalist of 23 years with a background in print, digital and multimedia. He is presently Chief Content Officer, Hindustan Times Digital, one of India’s largest media publishers, heading a newsroom of 330 journalists. He is an entrepreneurial journalist focused on running agile and efficient newsrooms, building successful journalism products, and finding innovative business solutions.

In this interview, he explains Hindustan Times Digital’s approach to AI and how gen AI-powered tools can benefit the media industry as a whole.

Jaemark Tordecilla Q&A: The Risks and Potential of Gen AI Tools in the Media Industry

Jaemark Tordecilla is a Fellow at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, where his focus has been on studying the implications of generative AI on the media industry – from ethical issues and pitfalls to potential applications.

In this interview, he shares his thoughts on the future of gen AI in the media industry, addresses the problem of uneven access, and discusses the limitations of AI tools.

JOB BOARD

➡️ BBC News is seeking an assistant editor to run a stable of newsletters which showcase the best of the BBC’s journalism each day (London, UK). SEE MORE

➡️ Hearst Magazines is looking for a director of data and audience activation to create and execute strategies to increase sales opportunities and revenue (NYC, NY, US). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️ The traditional metrics of success for online publications have long been centred around traffic numbers—page views, clicks, and unique visitors. However, the media landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. This shift from the "traffic era" to the "audience era" is not just a change in metrics but a fundamental realignment of how we connect with our readers. READ MORE

➡️ Google's Gary Illyes suggests incorrect hreflang tags may not hurt SEO, but the content language remains a key signal for search relevance. READ MORE

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Aravind Srinivas on LinkedIn:

Today, we're announcing the Perplexity Publishers Program. Our success relies on ensuring answers are factually grounded in high-quality sources of information. The most scalable and sustainable way to work with creators and publishers is to share our revenue and make our technology accessible to their users through APIs.

To support the work of media organizations and creators, we need to ensure publishers can thrive as Perplexity grows. We're excited about the program and our first batch of partners: TIME, DER SPIEGEL, Fortune, Entrepreneur Media, The Texas Tribune, and WordPress. We look forward to working with everyone in the online information ecosystem to shape the Internet of the future as the paradigm shifts from blue links to answers, something we've pioneered since Dec 2022.

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP