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Reuters web content tracking deal reveals thirst for 'infotainment' stories.

Posted: 03/03/08 By: Oliver Luft

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Reuters' deal with web tracking firm Attributor has revealed thirst for lifestyle and entertainments stories amongst its clients and other users of its content, said its global head of strategy and business development.

Speaking at the DNA conference in Brussels, today, Maria Molland told delegates that the news giant was three months into a deal with content tracking firm Attributor to monitor how clients and the wider web uses its content.

Speaking later to Journalism.co.uk, Molland said the agency had been surprised by the demand for 'fluff' stories and that results from the tracking research were fed back to editorial so it could determine if it needed to dedicate more resources to these areas.

"The primary reason we signed the deal is because they [Attributor] take a fingerprint of all the content we produce and we can track how its used by our customers and those who are not our customers, so we're really getting a better insight to the use," she told Journalism.co.uk.

"We send out this feed and we don't know what happens to it...this deal has really let us understand how people are using it, before it was just sent away with no user feedback."

The system started by monitoring text-based content, she added, then extended to cover photographs. It's expected that agency video will soon also monitored in this way.

"We have been a little surprised they [online readers] are moving more toward fluff stories, infotainment, as a result we are putting a lot more editorial resources behind sport and lifestyle.

"Overall with our content, it turns out people are using a lot more of the lifestyle material, which is very different from those Reuters core elements - business, finance and hard news. That was one big shock.

"The second was understanding how photos are used in conjunction with text.

"Our theory, and I think it has been backed up by Attributor, is that people are using photos and text in conjunction, so it's becoming much more important to find out how we can create links between different types of stories.

"If you have a photo, video and text together of the new Russian president, for instance, that will be much more appealing to users than if they were all supplied separately."

In addition to understanding the wider use of its news, Molland said that the software is also used to drive additional revenue by tracking use on the web by publishers to whom they do not directly supply and forging business relationships.

This new approach to forging syndication deals, she added, had already brought several smaller publishers to Reuters as clients.

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