New Publishflow Whitepaper Series

We are excited to announce the release of our new whitepaper series for digital media publishers.

The "Understand Your Live Audience" whitepaper series is intended to shine some light on how live data can be used by digital media publishers to better understand audience, competitor, social and topic trending data.

We would like to thank Scott Anderson for all of his efforts wording, packaging and getting these ready to share with our clients and prospects.

Scott is a digital media executive and consultant with more than 15 years of relevant experience as Senior Vice-President of Digital Content Strategy for Postmedia Network Inc, Managing Director of canada.com, Senior Vice-President, Content at Canwest Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of the Ottawa Citizen.

You can view each of the whitepapers at the links below.

Part of the "Understand Your Live Audience" Whitepaper Series:
Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Part of the "Understand Your Live Audience" Whitepaper Series:
Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper

Part of the "Understand Your Live Audience" Whitepaper Series:
Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper

Part of the "Understand Your Live Audience" Whitepaper Series:
Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper

Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper

Part of the "Understand Your Live Audience" Whitepaper Series:
Publishflow Audience Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Competitor Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Social Media Analytics Whitepaper
Publishflow Topic Analytics Whitepaper

The new publishflow has arrived

To our long time publishflow enthusiasts, users and readers, you may notice a few things around here have changed.

After 3 full on months, we are happy to announce that publishflow v2 has arrived with a new website, a new interface experience for desktop and tablet devices and most importantly, the introduction of several new live data streams to help your media team make better informed content publishing decisions for web, mobile and social audiences.

Publishflow v2 combines real time audience, competitor, topic and social trending data in a single service. Anyone on your team can now launch personalized live trending dashboards in minutes.

All of the live data streams can be viewed on a single screen. There is much more freedom for you to turn data streams on and off as you need them and as your hour to hour or day to day needs change. 

You can watch the publishflow v2 overview video here for a taste of the new service:

 

We will be launching many new service videos in the coming weeks that will explore all of the new live data streams in detail, however for now the main product highlight for publishflow v2 are:

Audience Analytics
Spot the stories, referrers, authors, locales and mobile devices driving audience interest right now.

Competitor Monitoring
Get notified anytime a lead story changes on the home page or section page of a competitor website.

Topics Trends
Live updates of emerging topic trends as they unfold in mainstream media, blogs and social media.

Social Media Search
Keyword search social media services including Twitter and Facebook. Get results by location, gender and sentiment.

Personalized Dashboards
Configure your dashboard views with the live data streams that matter to your specific job function and workflow.

Tablet Ready
Live audience, competitor, topic and social trending data is at your fingertips all the time.

If you are interested in setting up an online demo please send us a message using our contact form or you can call our VP Sales Jamie Thompson directly at 1.866.390.5446 ext 710.

How many links a day do you produce?

One of the things we monitor for our digital media clients is the number of new content links they produce each day. New content links can be stories, blog posts, photo galleries or videos. Anything published to the web or mobile with a unique URL that has a chance to be consumed.

Generally "New links per day" is an overlooked metric, which can actually be an excellent indicator over time of:

1. Search visibility - more seo friendly links means more love from google, yahoo and bing

2. Sharing potential - more links enables your twitter and facebook fans the opportunity to share more frequently

3. Revenue generated -more links means more potential page views with CPM display ad payouts

If you notice that your new links per day is trending up over time, then you are boosting your chance to increase your search, sharing and revenue possibilities on web and mobile.


At the #paywalls12 conference in London today, some recent tweets to confirm similar thinking at economist.com.

Economist doubles content production...





New content has to increase...






Contact us to find out how to start measuring your new links per day and other visitor, competitor and topic trending metrics.

Kontexto Secures $1.4 million Growth Investment

We are pleased to announce that Kontexto, owner of publishflow.com, has secured a $1.4 million investment from Akoranga AG.

Details are available in the press release below:



Kontexto Secures Series A Growth Investment

Investment to Accelerate Sales and Product Development of Company’s Real Time Data Collection and Analysis Platform

London,UK (PRWEB UK) 15 January 2012

Kontexto Inc., a high growth leader in real time data collection and analysis for media organizations, today announced that it has secured $1.4 million in funding from Akoranga AG. Akoranga is a swiss based private investment firm. This investment will primarily be used to grow Kontexto’s sales and product development activities.

Kontexto provides media companies with a complete set of real time data collection and analysis services that help to extract business value from massive amounts of online audience, competitor and social sharing data. Broadcasters, newspapers, content agencies, portals and B2B publishers are all working with Kontexto’s platform to facilitate their ongoing real time data collection and analysis needs including copyright audits, audience analysis, revenue performance monitoring, social sharing trending and competitor intelligence.

“We reviewed many companies across Europe and North America who are trying to help media organizations create value from online data analysis. Kontexto in our estimation has the most flexible data collection capabilities and when they say real time data analysis they mean it,” said Jenifer Osterwalder of Akoranga. “Our strategy is to find great teams with big visions and early customer adoption of their services, Kontexto fits this and we are pleased to welcome them into our investment portfolio.”

“We have spent the past two years strategically building our customer base with the largest media brands in the world,” said Tom St.John CEO and co-founder of Kontexto. “Now is the time to accelerate our sales and product development activities in North America and Europe. Akoranga is the right investment partner to help us with this next growth phase and we are excited to be working with them.”

With the new funding, Kontexto will be hiring a new VP of Global Sales to help build and manage the sales activities of the Kontexto real time data collection and analysis platform. Additional investment will be made in expanding the platform capabilities to handle real time data analysis across all social media services including Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus and Foursquare.

Link to release

ottawacitizen.com and canada.com are live

publishflow continues its Canadian roll out from coast to coast. The service is active in every major news market in Canada.

ottawacitizen.com and canada.com are the latest news websites to activate publishflow.

With each additional newsroom activating publishflow, we continue to gather all the feedback we can to keep improving the service.

As the only service on the market combining real time audience, competitor and topic trending metrics in a single interface... publishflow is quickly becoming a real time tool of choice for digital newsrooms across the country.

publishflow is cookie free

There is a growing movement internationally towards improving online data privacy and protection for consumers.

Website owners are being pressured and directed by government bodies to become more transparent about their online data collection practices.

The main area of priority for privacy regulators right now centers around the policing of "Cookies".

Cookies are text files installed on a website visitors computer. They are used to store information about website visitor activity.

Some cookies expire when a website browser is closed down (Session Cookies) and some remain on a users computer after a browser is closed (Persistent Cookies).

Some cookies are installed by the website owner (First Party Cookies) and some cookies are installed by third parties (Third Party Cookies).

publishflow currently uses a single cookie to identify new viewers vs returning viewers on our client websites.

For all new clients signing up for publishflow, we now offer a cookie free option.

We take your privacy concerns very seriously and have taken steps to become one of the first real time analytics service providers to offer a cookie free service.

You still get access to all the same real time audience, competitor and topic trending data , however you can be confident that we are not capturing and storing session based data or viewing history depending on your privacy requirements.

If you have any questions about this please contact us directly

Amazon Cloud Reader validates HTML5

A lot has been said of HTML5 and its potential to disrupt or eventually displace the stranglehold Apple has over the mobile app marketplace. As with many new technologies, we all wait to see the killer app to teach the rest of us what is possible and to raise the bar. Amazon has done this with their web based book reader. I 'installed' it (by visiting https://read.amazon.com/about in my browser) last night on my first-gen iPad, logged in and started reading a book where I had left off the previous evening. It just works. Scrolling and swiping through pages felt no different than the native reader.

One of the first things the app does is request permission to increase the amount of local storage permitted to 50MB. The reader takes advantage of HTML5 local storage and lets users read while offline. For what it's intended to do, read books and browse/buy from the Amazon book store, it's excellent.

I think this app will show other book, newspaper and magazine publishers 'how to do it' and slowly begin the move away from Apple's app store. Publishers that make the move will gain access to a broader audience across more devices while keeping an additional 30% of each media sale in their pocket rather than handing it over to Apple.

Referral Analytics for Online News Teams

Understanding where your readers/viewers are coming from and which precise links they are spending time with is something online news teams need as quickly as possible.

News is a fast changing and unpredictable business and so are the infinite number of potential places your links can show up across the web to ultimately drive readers/viewers back to your website(s) or mobile web services.

publishflow has just launched a new version of its real time referral analytics system, making it even easier and more effective for online news teams

All of our existing clients and any new clients going forward can now access real time referral data in one click.

Although publishflow monitors real time referrals from any web domain... we have paid special attention to search engine referrals from Google, Yahoo! and Bing, real time Twitter referrals and real time Facebook referrals.

You read it right. With one click in publishflow you can view real time referral data for Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Twitter, Facebook and any other referrer across the web.

To give you a taste, let's take a quick look at how your online news team can use publishflow real time referral analytics to monitor your performance across all the Google search properties:


Google Quick Glance Graph - Real Time Google Distribution








Google Quick Glance Table - Real Time Google Referral Breakdown












Google Drilldown - Real Time Page Views for Specific Story Links












Google Keyword Drilldown - Real Time Page Views for Specific Story Topics













If you are interested in activating a free 30 day evaluation of publishflow click here to send us a message or contact us @kontexto.

Will HTML5 Get A Boost Today?

June 30 (Today) is the deadline for app makers to get in compliance with Apple's strict new rules for in-app payment and subscription links.

Everyone's still confused about how to interpret the rules -- and as written, the guidelines could get big-name apps like Amazon's Kindle booted from Apple's iTunes App Store. The new rules explicitly prohibit apps that include "external mechanisms for purchases ... such as a 'buy' button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book."

The issue is that Apple wants content sellers to use its own in-app payments system, which gives Apple a 30% cut of all sales. Many merchants consider that a dealbreaker.

Other developers are evading Apple's clutches by eschewing mobile apps altogether and building around an emerging Web standard called HTML5.

HTML5 supports video, offline reading, touch and gestural interaction -- all functions that, until recently, were only available for mobile devices on native apps. The Financial Times and ESPN each built new mobile apps in HTML5.

That lets them connect with customers directly through the mobile Web -- no app store required.

Most of the publishers we work with will be going the HTML5 route as part of their mobile content delivery strategies moving forward. Using existing development talent, controlling the revenue stream and making mobile app experiences on the fly without having to wait for in-store approvals seem like the perfect storm to make this inevitable for all publishers.

publishflow Keeps News Orgs In The Know

Publishing has certainly become a more competitive market over the last 10 years, with editorial budgets falling, print readership dropping, and the difficulty that news sites have had in securing paid memberships. This economic reality is driving many changes in the journalistic trade and the news media industry. One such change might be increased competition for readers and more varied news sources come onto the scene. Enter publishflow, a web service programmed to watch your editorial back. Read full story by Garrett Wilkin at programmableweb

publishflow at WAN-IFRA International Newsroom Summit

We are in Zurich for the WAN-IFRA International Newsroom Summit a two day gathering of news execs, editors and digital enthusiasts.

Up on the Agenda today are Tablet publishing and business models for the newsroom.

One of our Canadian clients Postmedia is presenting "New revenue models for the newsroom"... publishflow is one of the services they are using on a daily basis to monitor real time audience, competitor and topic trending metrics in their newsrooms across Canada.

Looking forward to the session to hear more about some of the emerging business models Postmedia is putting in place.

CTV News Selects publishflow™

Although we have a news section for our Press Releases at the bottom of the About Us page, I will keep posting them on the blog as well so our readers can easily grab them.

Most recent press release is our CTV News announcement.



Kontexto to Provide Real Time News Trending Information to CTV News Editorial Teams Across Canada

CTV News will be utilizing publishflow™ to provide real time news trending information to its editorial teams across Canada

(PRWEB) April 18, 2011

Kontexto™, a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers, today announced that CTV News will be utilizing publishflow™ to provide real time news trending information to its editorial teams across Canada. publishflow™ uses a combination of live web dashboards, email notifications and mobile applications to help professional news organizations monitor critical news trends.

"CTV News is committed to delivering the highest quality online news experience to our audience in Canada and around the world. The more we understand about visitor, competitor and story trends as they are happening, the more we can shape our coverage to address the important news items of the moment," says Mark Sikstrom, Executive Producer News Syndication and CTVNews.ca. "publishflow™ lets our editors, reporters and senior executives monitor visitor, competitor and story trends in real time, we did not have this capability before."

Using services like publishflow™, professional news organizations can monitor real time visitor, competitor and story trends to better understand local, national and international news trends.

"It is rewarding for us to work with news organizations like CTV News. They are one of Canada's most trusted media brands and are leading the way in using real time news trending information as part of their online operations." says Tom St.John, CEO Kontexto Inc.

publishflow™ is offered as a software as a service and is activated in under 5 minutes.

For more information on publishflow™ please visit http://www.publishflow.com.

About Kontexto Inc.
Kontexto is a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers including newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and portals. publishflow™ delivers live visitor, competitor and topic trending data to news publishers around the world. Find out more at http://www.publishflow.com.

publishflow goes mobile

We have had a number of requests from clients for a mobile application that would allow them to access the full publishflow service while on the go. Up until now, our customers have been able to receive service notifications on their smartphones via email or sms, but for those who have come to rely upon the service they required more.

So the dev team here at Kontexto got busy and developed a mobile app for the publishflow competitor headline monitoring service. There are two versions of the application. The first is a web app, available to customers now and accessible by any smartphone (i.e. iphone, android, palm pre, new blackberries) with an HTML5 compliant browser. The second version will be available in the Apple App Store in the next couple of weeks (we are waiting for approval).

New publishflow office in London, UK

We finally made the move to a new office in London, UK located in "Silicon Roundabout".

publishflow is located at Sophia House, 76/80 City Road, London, EC1Y 2EQ to be exact.

This area is quickly becoming the destination of choice for tech companies in London and all of the associated businesses that work with them.

I have to thank Angus Bankes for helping us find a home for publishflow at this location in London. Lots of great people and ideas floating around the building.

A few quick snaps of the building and Old Street...

Press Release Live Competitor Monitoring

I have had a few requests from our clients for our most recent press release so I thought I would put it online in our blog so you can access it easily if you wish.





Kontexto Launches the First Live Competitor Monitoring Service for News Publishers

Editorial teams around the world now have access to live competitor publishing data.

(PRWEB) March 21, 2011

Kontexto™, a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers, has just announced the launch of publishflow™, a live competitor monitoring service for news publishers.

Based on data collected from over 25 professional news organizations, Kontexto discovered that a typical midsize news organization can spend over $1.5 million a year manually and repetitively looking for headline changes on competitor websites. On average, a mid size editorial team will spend upwards of 3000 collective hours every month manually monitoring competitor websites.

Although repetitive competitor monitoring is one of the most common daily activities carried out by editorial teams, it is often overlooked as a major cost point that can be dramatically reduced using software solutions like publishflow™.

"publishflow™ enables news organizations to realize significant cost savings and efficiencies by automating their daily competitor monitoring activities. Not only do editorial teams free up thousands of hours each month, but they also increase the number of competitor websites they can monitor," notes Tom St.John, CEO of Kontexto Inc.

Using a combination of live web dashboards and email notifications, publishflow™ is quickly becoming the service of choice for news publishers who are serious about implementing a competitor monitoring strategy. Managing editors, web editors, reporters and bloggers are now equipped with an efficient way to monitor the editorial moves of their competitors.

Some of the specific capabilities of publishflow™ include:

Live Headline Monitoring
publishflow monitors over 8000 home pages and section pages for lead story changes 24 hours a day.

Live Email Notifications
Editorial teams are notified of competitor headline changes via live web dashboards or email notifications.

Live Competitor Trends
Live publishing trends uncover the categories and stories receiving the most investment by your competitors.

Detailed Competitor Summaries
Intra day and end of day competitor publishing summaries for managing editors, section editors and executives.

"Our desire to build publishflow was born out of conversations with news publishers around the world over the past 2 years. The common thread from these conversations is their desire to know what competitors are publishing as soon as possible. publishflow™ solves this problem for them and makes live competitor monitoring a reality for news publishers of all sizes," says Tom St.John, CEO of Kontexto Inc.

publishflow™ is delivered as software as a service. It takes a few minutes to activate and requires no integration.

A publishflow™ overview video can be viewed here: http://www.publishflow.com/about/product_demo

Live Competitor Monitoring for News Publishers

publishflow™ has just launched a live competitor monitoring service for news publishers.

BILLION DOLLAR HIDDEN COST FOR NEWS PUBLISHERS

Based on data collected from over 25 professional news organizations, we discovered that a typical midsize news organization can spend over $1.5 million a year manually and repetitively looking for headline changes on competitor websites. On average, a mid size editorial team will spend upwards of 3000 collective hours every month manually monitoring competitor websites.

Although repetitive competitor monitoring is one of the most common daily activities carried out by editorial teams, it is often overlooked as a major cost point that can be dramatically reduced using software solutions like publishflow™. With close to 2000 global news publishers facing this problem every year, there are billions of dollars in hidden costs spent each year on competitor monitoring. publishflow™ helps to tame this hidden cost for global news publishers.

DO YOU HAVE A LIVE COMPETITOR MONITORING STRATEGY?

Using a combination of live web dashboards and email notifications, publishflow™ is quickly becoming the service of choice for news publishers who are serious about implementing a competitor monitoring strategy.

Managing editors, web editors, reporters and bloggers are now equipped with an efficient way to monitor the editorial moves of their competitors in real time.

SHORT DEMO FOR YOU TO VIEW

You can watch a brief introductory video below:



SOME OF THE BENEFITS FOR NEWS PUBLISHERS

Live Headline Monitoring
publishflow monitors over 8000 home pages and section pages for lead story changes 24 hours a day.

Live Email Notifications
Editorial teams are notified of competitor headline changes via live web dashboards or email notifications.

Live Competitor Trends
Live publishing trends uncover the categories and stories receiving the most investment by your competitors.

Detailed Competitor Summaries
Intra day and end of day competitor publishing summaries for managing editors, section editors and executives.

IT TAKES UNDER 5 MINUTES TO ACTIVATE

Please be in touch to activate your free 30 day evaluation. Email or Twitter.