Shift to mobiles and tablets

A major survey of our media habits confirms the inexorable shift to mobile devices – a YouGov poll of 18,000 online consumers of news commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows a 23 per annual drop in the number of people mostly using a computer as their source of news online. […]
Explaining journalism

The new buzz term ‘explanatory journalism’ begs the obvious question – what sort of journalism isn’t explanatory? However, if you can shrug off that annoying tautological platitude, there is something interesting going on here. Big American media outlets are rushing to satisfy the demand on the web for news with context. As soon as Vox […]
Why you need an app

You have a nifty website which hopefully is responsive so people can enjoy your content on their mobiles and tablets and you have a strong print magazine – why do you need an app? The latest report from circulation data crunchers Neilsen succinctly explains: A year ago people were still questioning whether apps had […]
A simple quiz

Here’s a simple quiz: what’s the most popular format on the web right now? And the obvious answer is quizzes and by a long way. Take a look at the this list (lists used to be the top dog) of Buzzfeed’s big hitters in January 2014. It seems the reach of quizzes sneaked up […]
Mobiles are the message

If you ever need proof that mobiles are taking over the world, check out the images below says Graeme Gourlay, Syon’s MD. The theorists at Google argue that a platform shift occurs every decade – mainframe to mini-computers, mini computers to desktops and now desktops to mobile. Don Dodge, a developer advocate at Google, uses […]
Twenty per cent of British adults regularly read digital magazines

The latest figures from the National Readership Survey in the UK reveal that in the last quarter of 2013, 72.3 per cent of British adults (over 15 is their yardstick) regularly read a magazine. That’s 37.7 million people! And to cheer us up even more 20.7 per cent of British adults are reading those magazines […]
Mobile matters

Mobiles are increasingly important for the future of publishing. Syon MD Graeme Gourlay reports Two interesting points come out of a recent survey into shopping trends in fashion carried out by Fits.me in the UK published this week. First web purchases on mobiles account for 30 per cent of transactions, but only 15 per cent […]
Digital squabbles – the Guardian and The Times slug it out

It’s good fun to watch the Guardian and The Times slug it out in a war of words over their respective strategies. Syon MD Graeme Gourlay looks at what it means for digital publishers… News UK chief Mike Darcy landed a few solid right hooks last week at the Digital Media Strategies Conference in London when […]