Comparative analysis of mobile web applications for the main international news agencies: state of the art and preliminary results Pere Freixa, J. Ignasi Ribas and Lluís Codina Universidad Pompeu Fabra 1. Object and universe of the study Despite having a key role in digital journalism as content creators (Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, 1998; Paterson, 2006), news agencies have not been prominent in the academic studies and analysis of cybermedia. The debate regarding the hegemonic role of the four main Western agencies, Reuters, AP, UPI and AFP, as well as the creation of UNESCO-promoted NOMIC, has taken up what little academic research about news agencies has been conducted during the last two decades (Alleyne and Wagner, 1993; Savio and Giffard, 1995; Boyd-Barret, 1998 and 2006; Esperidiao, 2011). This lack of visibility since the Internet was created and first developed might be attributed on the one hand to its business model, which is clearly B2B, but also to the lack of determination of news agencies when the time came to position themselves and to establish their online roles. They arrived late to the Internet, where disparate and often confusing strategies were adopted. During the 1990s, agencies were resistant to the medium. For instance, Reuters did not trust the circulation of news on the Internet (Palmer and Nicey, 2012), and at the same time was establishing strategic relations with Yahoo in order to spread information through its portal (Paterson, 2006). However, this seeming invisibility coincided with one of the periods when their incidence increased the most. As a matter of fact, the creation of news aggregators and portals on the Internet at the beginning of the 2000s meant a significant increase in the presence of agency-produced content. As indicated by Davis, (2008: 07), from 2001 to 2006 the amount of digital news originated by agencies went from 68% to 85% of total news production, although, as is characteristic of it, much corresponded to re-elaborated news whose sources were unidentified. In recent years, the transformations brought about by digitisation and convergence have also encouraged studies and reflections on the need to transform the financial model of news agencies (Muro, 2006), on the changes in the professional praxis (Czarniawska, 2011) or on the need to redefine the roles and functions of agencies in the chain of production and distribution of global information (Artero and Moraes, 2008; Johnston and Forde, 2011). The emergence of the mobile web is accelerating the establishment of new formats for consuming information, with applications for smartphones and tablets (Westlund, 2013) notable among them. Studies conducted in the United States in 2012 reveal that 62% of traditional newspapers already have one application for mobile devices (Filden, 2012). In this context, the most important agencies are considering different strategies to find their place in this new scenario. This study is focused on comparing the presence of the main news agencies in the mobile web. The functionalities and specifications of the different applications designed by the news agencies Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI) and Agencia EFE (EFE) for Android and iPad mobile devices will be analysed in order to determine the existence of new communication strategies. This study is part of the project Audiencias activas y periodismo. Interactividad, integración en la web y buscabilidad de la información periodística, CSO2012-39518-C04-02”. This project belongs to the Plan Nacional de I+D+i from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. 2. Problems and hypotheses The choice of the universe of study has been shaped by the explicit acknowledgement on the part of the news agencies of a crisis situation and of the need to radically transform and adapt their business, market and production models to the changing scenarios of convergence, connectivity and globalization. No agency has managed to consolidate a sustainable financial model. Reuters’ information services, which are possibly their healthiest area, represent only a 10% of their financial revenue (Artero and Moraes, 2008: 63). As Muro points out (2006: 43), the sector perceives the new reality as a “diminishment of spaces”, a continuous loss of impact in areas where the activity of the agencies had enjoyed hegemonic exclusivity. Four factors tend to concur as the main causes for this change: the creation and proliferation of press offices, the consolidation of large corporations, the characteristics and dynamics of the Internet, and the consolidation of the information continuum of global multimedia channels such as CNN or Al Jazeera. 2.1 Press offices The proliferation of press offices of public bodies and administrations, large corporations, advertising agencies and companies has become one of the most visible symptoms of the loss of exclusivity that news agencies are suffering. Press offices and advertising agencies create contents and information which are directly distributed to the media. These actions not only affect the activity of the agencies, but also dangerous pressure and influence mechanisms are set in motion (Phillips, 2010: 94). In Australia, 55% of the news comes, directly or indirectly, from contents elaborated by public relations departments (Forde and Johnston, 2013). 2.2 Corporations The concentration of media in large groups and corporations implies the direct loss of customers, because supply is reduced and corporations are increasingly capable of self-management. As Muro describes (2006: 45-46), faced with large corporations news agencies lose any chance of intervention in the chain of content production: The agencies witness how part of their services are replaced with internal resources from the group. (...) This vector becomes a particularly destructive force when the publishing group develops vertical and specialized products, either in sports, economy, medicine and health or new technologies. In these cases, their power allows for a direct relation with the sources, which makes the contribution from agency services irrelevant. 2.3 Internet The presence of news agencies’ content on the Net has been a continuous cause for suits and conflicts between the agencies and the various typologies of corporations from the press clipping sector. News aggregators and portals compile information for users who consume it for free, in a context which is completely dissociated from traditional media, far from the original producer and distributor of that content. On the Internet, the tempi of content distribution and validity have become notably accelerated. News has had its life cycle drastically reduced. Struggling to maintain the traditional business, news agencies spent years trying to prevent the appropriation of their contents by legal means. For instance, in 2008 Associated Press took legal action against All Headline News for copying, rewriting and reediting their contents (Park, 2010). Previously, in 2005, Agence France-Presse made claims for payment from 600 online customers (Paterson, 2006). But in a change of strategy, by the end of 2011 the most important agencies had created Facebook and Youtube pages (Palmer, Nicey, 2012). That same year, the AFP’s Social Media Guidelines invited its journalists to increase their impact on those sites, and announced the agency’s imminent presence online, thus dispensing with traditional media: “AFP journalists can play a vital role in protecting the credibility of the agency’s work and championing the quality of our journalism. (...) By building up networks on Twitter, AFP journalists not only develop useful sources of information, they also help to gain visibility for AFP’s journalism across the Internet” (AFP, 2011). The online expansion of the agencies enhances the brands’ value among end users (Boy-Barrett, 2010: 21). Internet users are being reconsidered as potential future clients in the new B2C profile of this sector. 2.4 Global channels Since the late 1990s, news agencies and large channels of global information such as CNN compete to lead in the provision of a continuous information flow for the media. News agencies and channels have an interdependent relationship. As Camille Laville and Michael Palmer point out (2013: 179) “News agency journalists seem to be torn between mimesis and distinction. Mimesis because they have to cover all the events covered by their competitors, and distinction because they seek to provide distinctive ‘branded’ news; their professional (and market) reputation depends on this”. The positioning of news agencies between these two poles, mimesis and distinction, will be a key aspect in the definition and design of the products being developed for mobile applications. 2.5 Strategies To re-establish roles and to guarantee the permanence of news agencies in the information production chain, companies must not forget, in the words of Muro (2006: 54) that: As content providers, their social role is to satisfy the changing needs of the existing media and to favour the birth of new ones, to adjust the prices to the value provided in each case, to develop new product offers adapted to new media, to expand markets to new agents that are end consumers of information, to become the organization of reference in new territories and collectives. However, the strategies of the different agencies are clearly differentiated. As Juan Pablo Artero and Renata Moraes specify (2008: 70), Reuters is committed to increasing its online presence and to offering free contents as mechanisms to increase the value of the brand. On the other hand, AFP and AP (Paterson, 2006) defend the exclusivity of their contents and keeping up with B2B exploitation models. 3. Goals The main goal of this study is to develop and test a model of analysis which allows us to perceive the manner in which each company has adopted its strategies regarding the mobile web, specifically for every product analysed. Thus, it is a proposal based on the tradition of rhetorical analysis that seeks to detect the communication strategies used by the authors of the applications when defining their foreseeable uses, functions and interactive dialogues (Freixa, 2009). This structure aims at reestablishing, starting from the analysis of end products, the creative process which led to making the set of decisions converging on their elaboration. Secondly, the comparative analysis of results seeks to detect which elements stand out, either because of their similarity or because of their singularity. Given the same scenario, similarities between applications can provide a vision about the global one, whereas particularities allow for differentiation among the directions each agency has decided to take in order to distinguish and position itself. 4. Methodology and system of analysis A system of analysis has been developed to be applied in two different phases. In a first preliminary analysis, which basically serves the purpose of identification and description (Diaz Noci, 2011), general descriptive data are gathered related to the companies, their web strategy and positioning. In the second analysis, the set of parameters allowing the observation of the main characteristics of the applications are described, enumerated and assessed: content, structure, functions, interface, interactivity and characterization of the users. 4.1 Analysis system 1: identification A / Identification data a.1 Generic name of the agency a.2 Company, corporation a.3. Basic description a.4 E-mail address a.5 Date of the last analysis a.6 Analysis device a.7 Operating system B / Online implementation b.1 Online presence [text] [text] [text] [webmail address] [data, dd/mm/yyyy] [device / commercial model] [operating system] . Web . Generic apps for Android . Generic apps for iOS . Apps for smarts android . Apps for smarts iphone . Apps for tablet android . Apps for tablet ipad . Apps for Blackberry . Apps for Windows phone . Apps for OVI / Nokia . Apps for Web OS / Palm C / Generic web data regarding the mobile web c.1 Device recognition c.2 Applications section c.3 Link to download apps c.4 Applications support c.5 Social network use c.6 Advertising c.7 c.7.1 c.7.2 c.7.3 c.7.4 Application inventory Commercial name Device Operating system and version Description RSS Facebook Twitter Podcast Newsletter Linkedin Blogs Others [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [number] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [validate, yes/no] [text] [validate, no / yes, own / yes, others / yes own and yes others] [text] [text] [text] [text] Table 1: Analysis 1. Corporate strategy and positioning in the sector. Web analysis. 4.2 Analysis system 2: applications D/General description of applications d.1 Number of applications and total (analysis internal value) d.2 Commercial name d.3 Vendor d.4 Category d.5 Device d.6 Operating system d.7 Operating system version d.8 Application size d.9 Version d.10 Date latest version d.11 Date first version d.12 Cost d.13 Potential audience 1 d.14 Potential audience 2 d.15 Languages 1 d.16 Languages 2 d.13 Others d.14 Advertising E/Specific analysis: Content e.1 Typology of contents: text e.1.1 Text e.2 Typology of contents: photographic image e.2.1 photographic image e.3 Typology of contents: infographic e.3.1 infographic e.4 Typology of contents: video e.4.1 video e.5 Typology of contents: multimedia e.5.1 multimedia e.6 Typology of contents: interactive e.6.1 interactive e.7 Typology of contents: others e.7.1 others F, G/Specific analysis: Structure and functionalities f.1 Main structure f.1.1 f.1.2 f.2 Secondary structure 1 f.2.1 f.2.2 f.n Secondary structure n f.n.1 f.n.2 g.1 Functionalities H/Specific analysis: Interface h.1 Interface 1 [n. / n. total] [text] [text] [text] [validate: smart/tablet/both] [validate: android / iOS] [text] [value n. in kb] [text] [data, dd/mm/yyyy] [data, dd/mm/yyyy] [validate: free / value €] [validate: general / expert] [validate: general / local] [validate: yes/no] [enumerate, text] [text: description] [validate, no / yes, own / yes, others / yes own and yes others] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [validate: yes/no] [text: description] [text] [text: description] [text: description] [sketch] [text: description] [sketch] [text: description] [sketch] [text: description] h.1.1 h.1.2 h.1.3 h.n h.n.1 h.n.2 h.n.3 [text: description] [sketch] [matrix analysis] Interface n [text: description] [sketch] [matrix analysis] I/Specific analysis: Interaction elements i.1 Resource 1 i.1.1 i.1.2 i.1.3 i.1.4 i.1.5 i.n Resource n i.n.1 i.n.2 i.n.3 i.n.4 i.n.5 [text: description] [location: interface, structure] [options] [action/ actions] [sketch/ states] [text: description] [location: interface, structure] [options] [action/ actions] [sketch/ states] J/Specific analysis: Characterization of the users j.1 Characterization. Directionality j.2 j.3 j.4 j.5 j.6 [validate: unidirectional/ bidirectional] Characterization. Participation mechanisms [text: description] Customization of the application. PUSH notifications [validate: yes/no] Customization of the application. Contents [text: description] Customization of the application. Functions [text: description] Customization of the application. Others [text: description] Table 2: Model of specific analysis for the applications 5. Definition of the sample There is consensus on considering Reuters, FP, APF and UPI the most important and influential information agencies at the worldwide level (Alleyne and Wagner, 1993). This study analyzes the main applications created by these agencies, specifically for mobile devices. The sample also includes Agencia EFE because it has been implemented internationally, mainly in Latin America. Regarding UPI, its virtual site is analyzed based on queries from mobile devices, since its online implementation strategy does not yet contemplate the creation of specific applications, but rather the use of responsive design resources. The data provided by Alexa’s Traffic Rank (Alexa.com) confirm this predominance when referring to their respective portals or website. As Table 1 shows, the four agencies appear in the ranking of the 500 communication corporations with the highest user traffic, and they constitute the first four global news agencies on the list. Medium Position in the ranking of the 500 most important media World ranking Best national ranking (country) Reuters.com Ap.org Upi.com 18 52 91 270 1,362 3,255 172 (usa) 408 (usa) 986 (usa) Afp.com 203 5,787 261 (venezuela) efe.com -27,314 1,901 (spain) Table 3: Traffic Rank of news agencies online. Data are from October 2013, summarized from the information gathered during the last three months. Besides the main applications of each agency, four more applications have been included in the analysis: The Wider Image, Ap English, News Minute and AFP Olympics 2012, for it has been considered that their contributions provide significant innovations in the conception and design of applications, and demonstrate an interest in expanding both potential audiences and products. Name of the application Reuters Reuters News Pro AP Mobile AFP Ipad Edition EFE noticias Upi.com Typology of product Application Application Application Application Application Web Platform and device Apple iOS // tablet and smartphone Apple iOS //tablet and smartphone Apple iOS / Android // tablet and smartphone Apple iOS //tablet Apple iOS //tablet and smartphone The Wider Image AP English News Minute AFP Olympics 2012 Application Apple iOS //tablet Application Android // smartphone Application Apple iOS //tablet and smartphone Table 4: list of analyzed products 6. Initial results Tumblr Dailymotion x x x x x x x x x Meneame Pinterest RSS Blogs x Google+ x x Youtube x Linkedin Newsletter x x x x x x x x x x Table 5: use and link to social media resources x 1 Windows Phone 1 Web OS / Palm 3 OVI/ Nokia 3 Blackberry x IOS Tablet* Facebook Podcast Twitter x x x x x IOS Smart* AFP AP EFE Reuters UPI x x x x x Android Tablet* Medium / Device and operating system AFP AP EFE Reuters UPI Android Smart * Medium / platform The following tables show the comparisons of data obtained from sections A, B and C of the analysis. 2 2 1 28* 3 2 1 38** 1 1 1 1 1 1 AFP AP EFE Reuters UPI Yes, own and others Yes, others commercial Yes, own and/or corporate No Medium / Advertising Table 6: Application development for mobile devices. * Some Android and Apple iOS applications run on both smartphones and tablets. In such cases, the same application has been counted in both boxes. ** All of the Thomson Reuters corporation applications have been counted. x x X X x Table 7: Characterization of the advertising present in the main portals of the websites. In future developments, our group intends to conduct new series of studies which will contemplate sections E, F, G, H, I and J of Table 2. 7. Conclusions 7.1 Information and identification It has been verified that every agency has a web presence and uses several social media sites. Reuters and AP are particularly involved in the development of mobile web proposals. UPI is exclusively committed to responsive design on its website, and therefore is experimenting with the adaptation options offered by technology to this type of device. 7.2 Contents and Structure. Certain uniformity is detected regarding the way of conceiving, structuring and presenting content to the user, and of making suggestions about how to read it and interact with it. Most of the applications organise content into sections, corresponding to the main typologies of sections in traditional media. There is a common primary structure: the basic content unities are formed by a headline, an initial presentation text, a developed text and, generally, a photographic image. In applications for mobile telephones, these units do not make much use of hypertextual possibilities. Some applications such as AP Mobile or Reuters News Pro include sections with images and video in their tablet versions. AFP iPad Edition organizes the main page through a double structure: it allows an access to content by sections and by typology. There is practically no connection between the applications and external resources. The hypertextual capacities offered by the Net are reduced to external links to social media sites. 7.3 Interactivity –Adaptation User participation basically concerns the possibility of utilizing customization options and of interacting with the content. EFE noticias allows for content search, the activation and deactivation of sections and saving news items. AP Mobile allows for homepage customization, the activation or deactivation of sections, notifications and editions, and obtaining weather information adapted to the user’s location. It includes two different participation tools: Report Issue, which allows for malfunction notifications, and Send to the Associated Press, which activates e-mail contact. Reuters News Pro includes the choice of edition and the possibility of configuring the interface to financial contents. Regarding AFP Ipad Edition, it allows for the selection of edition and the activation of a fast load of the selected contents. 7.4 Interactivity – Participation Bidirectional participation, that is to the say, the addition of options allowing for feedback or an active and conscious response from the users regarding the development or contents of the application, has only been developed by AP. AP Mobile includes a section to facilitate the participation of the users, Report News to AP. When this function is activated, a dialogue box appears through which the user can send news, photographs or videos to the agency. Image 1: Interface of the Report News to AP drop down option 7.5 Innovation It is relevant that AFP, AP and Reuters create products wherein the degree of innovation and specialization allows for the development of original proposals and solutions. AFP’S application AFP Olympics 2012 explores the possibilities of publishing exploitation by the agency. The application, which was published for the celebration of the Olympic Games in London, allowed a day by day following of all the events and news. Thanks to an enormous deployment conducted by the agency, once the Games were over the application has become a multimedia search product. Image 2: Interface of the AFP Olympics 2012 application. 7.6 Efficacy Also remarkable are the simplicity and efficacy of AP’s AP English News Minute application, which has been exclusively developed for Android smartphones. It is based on a selector of one minute fragments from the audio summary of the news of the day, designed for learning English. Although direct causality cannot be proven, Alexa’s Traffic Rank data show a significant increase in visits coming from schools and educational centres to the AP’s website. Images 3-6: Interfaces of the educational application AP English News Minute 7.7 Interface Finally, we would like to highlight Reuters’ The Wider Image application exclusively focused on presenting the photographic reports of the agency, which displays some of the most original proposals regarding interaction and interface design. Organized by most recent or by authorship, this application’s stories may also be consulted through an interface that places them dynamically on an interactive world map. Image 7: Interface of the Explore option in the The Wider Image application. Reports are explored and selected through a world map. 7.8 Research The seven items highlighted as the first results obtained from our analysis proposal show that, although our proposal can undoubtedly be improved, it already presents significant results. In addition, these items provide signs that the large press agencies taken into consideration finally seem to be trying and succeeding in becoming integrated into the Web. Future analyses are bound to allow not only for the refinement of our analysis system, but also for disclosing new forms of innovation that might be applied to other online media, so that we might contribute to a better understanding and development of the Web’s information ecosystem. 8. 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