The fragmentation of content and time… and its implications for brands. Presented at Spark Conference 2016 in Bangkok on April 8, 2016.

1. Alan Soon
Founder & CEO
alansoon@thesplicenewsroom.com
@alansoon
@splicenewsroom
Spark Conference 2016:
The fragmentation of content and
time… and its implications for brands

2. Why this matters to me.
• Career journalist
• Radio, TV, newswires, magazines, online
• Ex-CNBC, Bloomberg, Star TV, Channel NewsAsia, Yahoo
• Newsroom strategy and operations consultant
• Digital transformation and change management
• ONA Singapore co-founder

3. The big theme:
Fragmentation of content and time

4. Trend #1
The content experience is fragmented.
News now lives everywhere.
Ongoing Disruption

5. The news distribution model continues to evolve.
v1.0 Portals
Content host: Own site, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Home page

6. The news distribution model continues to evolve.
v1.0 Portals
v2.0 Search
Content host: Own site, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Home page
Content host: Own site, Some Social, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Home page, SEO, Social

7. The news distribution model continues to evolve.
v1.0 Portals
v2.0 Search
v3.0 Social
Content host: Own site, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Home page
Content host: Own site, Some Social, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Home page, SEO, Social
Content host: Social, Mobile, Desktop
Discovery/Distribution: Social

8. The news distribution model continues to evolve.
v4.0 Syndicated Platforms
Content host: Social, Publisher Platforms, Mobile
Discovery/Distribution: Social, SEO, Platform Apps,
Podcasts, Newsletters

9. The rise of ‘homeless’ media.

10. NowThis: “The first video news network for the
mobile and social generation”

11. Facebook Instant Articles

12. LINE News

13. Quartz Daily Briefing

14. Publisher
Audience
Direct relationship.
Publisher has full control of UX, brand, data.
As distribution changes, so does the relationship
with the audience.

15. Publisher
Audience
Website
Indirect relationship. Publisher has less control over UX, brand, data.
Twitter
Audience
Facebook
Audience
Google
AMP
Audience
YouTube
Audience
Apple
Audience
Newsletters
Audience
Medium
Audience
As distribution changes, so does the relationship
with the audience.

16. Ask:
What is your audience’s first contact
with your brand?

17. “Ultimately a brand doesn’t want
a particular post and piece of
media. They want a strategy
for making content across
many networks. Not many
companies that can compete
with us on that.”
— Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti
BuzzFeed’s vision.

18. Trend #2
The evolution of lock screens and
notifications
Within 1 Year

19. “To anyone paying attention, it’s becoming
apparent that the golden age of apps is
coming to a close.”
— Casey Newton, The Verge

20. 3 companies own the top apps of 2015.
Source: Nielsen

21. Ask:
Do we really need a whole app just
to do that??!!

22. The post-app media world.
This is the home page
of the phone.
Content at a glance.

23. The post-app media world.

24. The post-app media world.
“People have different ways they
want to consume information.
Search is one way. Social is
another way. And we think push
notifications might be yet
another. We see that as an
evolving medium and want to
be a part of that.”
— Facebook’s Product Director
Michael Cerda

25. Ask:
If you had to build a content
publisher that only lives on the lock
screen, what will it look like?

26. Trend #3
Further fragmentation of time.
Ongoing Disruption

27. Average attention
span of humans:
8 seconds

28. Average attention
span of goldfish:
9 seconds

29. “Because attention is highly multitasked,
the average American has over 31
hours of activity in a day.”
— Michael Wolf,
Tech and Media Outlook 2016, Activate

30. Source: Michael Wolf, Activate (Tech & Media Outlook 2016)
More than half of the waking day is
spent on tech and media.

31. Source: Michael Wolf, Activate (Tech & Media Outlook 2016)
79% of time is spent on 5 apps
44% of time is spent on 5 websites
100% of time is spent on 18 TV channels

32. Ask:
How much more content can we put
in front of consumers?
How do we stand out?

33. Trend #4
Bots are here.
They’re changing how publishers work.
Within 1 Year

34. Workflow automation changes
everything.

35. Workflow automation changes
everything.

36. Slack as an operating system
for newsrooms
1. Collaborative group and private chatrooms
2. Automated hub for discovery of stories
3. Works across devices and platforms

37. How do you decide which stories to
run on Facebook?

38. And many more options to add…

39. More bots are coming.

40. But that’s the boring part.

41. Ask:
What if we could teach the bot to
recognize, recommend and craft
stories.

46. Trend #5
Chat bots will be the battleground for
content.
Within 1 Year
#ballsyprediction

47. Recap: Remember this?
v4.0 Syndicated Platforms
Content host: Social, Publisher Platforms, Mobile
Discovery/Distribution: Social, SEO, Platform Apps,
Podcasts, Newsletters

48. Well, there’s a fifth version.
And we’ll be there within a year.
v5.0 Chat Bots
Content host: Chat platforms
Discovery/Distribution: Messenger apps, always-listening services

49. One last thought…
Ask:
What will news look like
as a bot service?

50. thesplicenewsroom.com

51. Alan Soon
alansoon@thesplicenewsroom.com
Alan Soon is Asia's leading specialist on newsroom
operations, digital transformation and the business of
media. He is the Founder & CEO of The Splice
Newsroom, an editorial consultancy that builds,
develops and transforms newsrooms.
For more than 20 years, Alan has worked in radio, TV,
news wires, magazine and online across Asia. He
started out as a reporter and grew into other
operational roles including producer, editor, newsroom
manager and eventually a business leader.
Alan led one of the largest digital news teams in the
industry as Yahoo’s Managing Editor for India and
Southeast Asia. He’s also worked at CNBC and
Bloomberg across Asia.
Alan is a regular speaker at international media
conferences and is a co-founder of the Online News
Association in Singapore.