Team behind Broadersheet app launches 'Last.fm for news'

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The team behind personalised newspaper iPhone app Broadersheet has developed a new application described as "a Last.fm for news". Readness.com is billed as a "social news services" and recommends articles to users based on what their friends and contacts on Facebook have read. The service is available as a browser extension on Google Chrome and uses Facebook Connect.

Users can track news sources and topics via their profile settings on the site and view the profiles of friends too.

"The idea is that as you're reading a news article a small subtle window scrolls out once you reach the end of the article and offers a few recommendations. It only recommends content from the site you're currently on, so publishers should see really great increases in engagement - we can recommend relevant articles, that your friends have read, that you have yet to read - and most importantly, whilst you're in the mindset for consuming content," Peter Clark, chief executive officer, told Journalism.co.uk.

"Our vision is to become the "21st century news corp" and we think the logical company to base ourselves on is Google - not actually produce content, but simply push people in the direction of content they'll want to read."

The sharing of links and content through social networks can create a more personalised and relevant news feed for users, but "recommendations are not one size fits all", said Clark.

"When I tweet a link about a new hip hop song only 25 per cent of my followers are interested - but they're really interested, similarly if I tweet a venture capital article, maybe 50 per cent of my followers find that interesting, but the remaining followers are totally baffled.  We wanted a way to get a 'firehose' of what content people read, and from there we can offer recommendations - when appropriate," he said.

In the future, Clark would like to partner with news organisations to make Readness recommendations a feature on their websites. The service currently has a whitelist of sources that users can track through their profiles, but is calling for more publishers to nominate their websites.

"I think Readness.com will make for a better experience for publishers. This comes back to our platform vision. What if publishers could offer incentives to readers to engage in their site? Maybe if they read or shared four articles about Big Brother, they'd be given access to an exclusive content area - or they wouldn't have to pay to read the Times content if appropriately engaged," he said.

But such partnerships would not come above the demands of the individual using the site: "The service and extension is very safe and secure. Firstly, only your friends can see what articles you read, everyone else can see your aggregate 'news profile' and also any articles you've starred. No one, publishers included can expose explicit users - they can only see aggregate anonymous data."

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Readness.com Quick Tour from peter clark on Vimeo.