Along with having some smart advertising introduce the new layout, integrated well with the IAB standard units, they highlighted another section at the top of their navigation: CNN NewsPulse

This dashboard approach combines a few items you have probably seen elsewhere on content sites. You have probably seen “most emailed”, “most read”, or “hottest” articles from an internal system or a company like Surphace powering a module – but this is first time I have seen this done in front of a large audience. Sites like BuzzFeed are a great example of these engines at work. Putting hot content in front of people and promoting things that do well and letting the audience know when things go viral.

CNN however has created a popularity index which is some combination of activity happening around each article.

These types of data driven decisions are what makes content that is good rise to the top. Influences such as web video plays, twitter links, passed links, emailed stories, etc… should all lead to more data about a story which can be used to help put relevant content in front of someone at the right time. This is starting to happen today.

There has been great discussion recently around headline optimization and A/B testing by the Huffington Post, as well as others doing similar things. I think these types of activities will only increase.

The benefit of optimizing stories, layouts, and even headlines is a better experience for the reader. Some may argue that this changes the dynamic of the publication – but that is exactly what is needed. The old way is being overcome by a wave of real time data and this allows an editor to embrace this data wave and make informed decisions about what to put in front of readers.

It is also clear that offline devices should become smarter as you use them not stay the same. This trend is happening with the power of data to influence front page news and will only continue.

Post from: Eric Friedman
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CNN NewsPulse and the future of content