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It is vital that publishers implement mobile strategies and exploit data about audience, BBC media editor Amol Rajan has said, whilst discussing the challenges facing organisations such as Facebook and the BBC.
Giving the first keynote speech at the second day of the IPG’s Spring Conference in Oxfordshire on Thursday (8th March), the former editor of The Independent discussed the publishing industry’s role within the modern media sector.
Many industries are finding it difficult to understand the implications of a shift to mobile, he warned, with people under 35 consuming much more content through their handheld devices. "It's where they want to read books, essays, long-form pieces", he said. "A lot of content is now consumed mobile first".
The BBC was in "huge trouble" with younger audiences because of the implications of shift to mobile, Rajan disclosed. He said that the corporation is built around pyramids of linear channels, which are not relevant to under 35s due to the extent to which they’re consuming content through that medium. "You need to have a mobile strategy [to reach this audience]', he said.
However, striking a more optimistic note, Rajan said there was a great body of evidence suggesting people were more willing pay for quality content, which is heartening for publishers and journalists. "There wasn’t evidence 10 years ago to say that", he said. "People will pay for content, if it's of good quality and unique, which is reassuring. We don’t have to rely on Mark Zuckerberg [founder of Facebook]."
Rajan also hinted that underlying assumptions that massive social media superpowers, such as Facebook, will continue to grow, could be false.
Suggesting that Facebook in particular had reached its peak, Rajan told delegates of the “astonishing development” that the number of users on Facebook in North America, its biggest market, had fallen for first time in 14 years, along with engagement. Both Google and Facebook are "absolutely terrified" about the shift to mobile, the BBC media editor said.
"The internet population is going to near double in fast growth economies in the next few years, and Google and Facebook are terrified they've not sufficiently innovated to take advantage of that. In China, for example, a whole generation missed out desktop computers and went straight to mobile. The data economy is innovating terribllity fast", he said.
Fast growth economies in China, India and many “hugely diverse” countries in Africa were innovating in ways Western companies feel “very uncomfortable about," he added. "Technology in these areas comes with an infrastructure that Silicon Valley companies don’t feel they have the skills to exploit. While they have the language advantage, they worry that Chinese companies are so good they’re going to penetrate the Western market."
The importance and value of "good, reliable data" about audience cannot be overstated, he continued, suggesting that many advertisers are losing faith in Facebook because it does not provide them with good enough data. Rajan cited the chief marketing officer of Unilever’s decision to stop advertising on Facebook and made the "radical prediction" that many brands would stop looking to the social media platform to advertise because of this reason.
With Facebook's news feed algorithm filtering the news that people see, Rajan said it was dangerous for users to get their current affairs information from social media. "The new news universe is in great danger of dividing people in a fundamental way instead of uniting", he said. "As individuals, any system which incentivises you to only follow your own like-minded souls is catastrophic. Part of your mission as publishers is you want people to be confronted with ideas they think are heretical."
Rajan added: "We have to try and encourage [a clash of ideas]. We need to move to model of citizenship where it is morally important to be fully informed and encounter dangerous ideas. As I say this I know I sound hopelessly naive and hopelessly idealistic. This goes against all of the ideologies of the companies I’ve been talking about today, but I still intend to fight for it."
The IPG conference continues today with sessions on AI, e-book marketing and academic library trends, as well as another keynote speech from Ken Clarke MP.