Mobile and the Future of Publishing

It’s 2016, and the Web is permeating across our entire technological lives. From the browser, to the smartphone, to the smartwatch, smart home, and all other things of the Internet, Developers are faced with pleasing the user based on their constantly changing hardware medium. All the while Publishers are faced with having their Developers tailor content to each of these mediums for higher user viewing and sharing, ad revenue generation and of course the analytics to measure it all.

At 601am, we’re following these trends and working with our Clients (Publishers) to stay ahead of the curve. Most recently, we have been working on streamlining the way a Publisher’s content is consumed via mobile, and we’re not the only ones. Google has released AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), their new HTML framework for drastically reducing load time on mobile devices. This is important for three reasons: increased user retention due to short load times, more efficient ad rendering and greater SEO scores, because of course Google is going to reward you for utilizing their code.

Along with Google, Facebook released their answer to mobile user retention at their recent F8 conference. Facebook Instant Articles (FBIA) are created by way of RSS feed sent directly to Facebook or by utilizing one of their newly released SDK’s (software development kits). Which, as of now are quite useful, but could use a bit more love when it comes to the docs. Both RSS feed and SDK are utilized by Facebook to recreate your content in their FBIA format, which greatly reduces load time, allows for FB side formatting and design and most importantly allows the insertion of your direct placement ads OR the automated insertion of their Facebook Audience Network ads within your content.

As Publishers continue to adapt their businesses to the digital world it’s important to at least note what companies like Google, Facebook and even Apple are doing in the mobile space. These internet behemoths are continually tracking the way users interact with digital content and shape their businesses to monetize it any way they can. Understandably, this can be hard for some Publishers as they may not have the tech resources necessary for staying ahead of the mad dash for user’s attention. Thankfully, the world has 601am to help bridge the gap for them.

Hughie Devore is a Developer at 601am , which helps online publications design and develop comprehensive digital strategies.