Social media and mobile tech have brought a sea change in news consumption

Presented in association with SWNS Media Group

In the last 20 years digital technology has brought a series of radical changes to the news business, but none have been as fundamental as the shift in reader consumption, and consequently publication methods, brought about by mobile device ownership and the growth of social networking.

Today, readers use multiple devices to access news, consume a high number of stories at speed and share via a variety of social platforms and messaging apps.

The way readers now consume news has created a need for mobile-friendly content that can be delivered at speed and with maximum impactJack Peat, SWNS Media

SWNS Media Group’s recent Media Consumption Report found more than a third of people now access news through social media, while more than nine out of 10 people consume news on multiple devices, with a further seven out of 10 claiming social networks made accessing news simpler.

The survey also found that more than half of social media users watch videos on Facebook with almost half saying they share videos across the network.

In this climate of rapid consumption, says Jack Peat, head of digital at SWNS, the pressure on digital editors to supply a continual flow of multimedia news is unprecedented. In such a content-hungry world, quick and easy access to high-quality news is vital.

The recently launched Digital Hub is a news wire service that supplies editors with copy, images, audio and video in ready-to-use formats. The service has been designed with busy editors in mind as they can also download a single zip file containing story assets bundled together; vital items to support news and feature pieces like infographics, high-resolution imagery, video and viral games.

With just four clicks between story capture and publishing, the Digital Hub acts as a one-stop-shop for time-poor editors faced with the pressure of continual publication throughout the day.

"The way we consume and interact with media is undergoing seismic change,” says Peat. “News is now multimedia and a conversation as opposed to a broadcast. It’s predominantly consumed on mobile devices, shared, then discovered socially by others. News moves virally."

Aimed at online news publications and influential blogs, Digital Hub’s story packages cover numerous areas of interest including celebrity, entertainment, parenting, sport, health and travel.

The free-to-use service, adds Peat, allows publications to quickly grab then use quality stories that have already been tailored for particular audiences.

The aim of this approach, he says, is to help ease the time constraints faced by digital editors that can sometimes compromise the quality of a publication’s output.

"The way readers now consume news has created a need for mobile-friendly content that can be delivered at speed and with maximum impact," adds Peat. "And as consumption changes, so too must the method by which news is supplied to the editors of digital publications.

"Supplying high-quality, bundled news to publishers makes it easier for them to feed readers with the strong content they need, it helps editors maintain high editorial standards while meeting the ever-increasing expectation of the audience to supply multimedia content that works seamlessly across a range of mobile and desktop devices."

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