Newsbrands and social media

UK newsbrands hit record highs on social media
@Telegraph@MailOnline
@guardian @DailyMirror@Independent
@EveningStandard
@thetimes
Analysis of data from August 2015

UK newsbrands have driven 770 million social media interactions*
so far in 2015
• Facebook: 587m article likes
111m shares
142m comments
• 53m Twitter shares
• 4.7m LinkedIn shares
• 2.9m pins on Pinterest
31% increase in social media interactions from January to October
2015
*Facebook likes, shares & comments; Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest shares
Headlines
Source: Newswhip Jan ‘15– Oct ‘15
UK Newsbrands: dailymail.co.uk, theguardian.com, independent.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, mirror.co.uk, express.co.uk, standard.co.uk,
metro.co.uk (from March 2014), thetimes.co.uk (May 2014), dailystar.co.uk (May 2014)

56,757
50,592
46,015
64,447
56,037
71,021
67,608
82,393
86,939
96,481
80,324 80,284
84,121
Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15 Sep-15 Oct-15
000s social media interactions
Source: Newswhip Oct ‘14 – Oct ‘15
*Facebook likes, shares & comments; Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest shares
Global social media interactions* from UK
newsbrand articles have grown by 48% year on
year

56,757
84,121
41,251 37,042
6,428 6,163
16,331
22,164
2,597
2,582
000s social media interactions
Newsbrands Buzzfeed Upworthy BBC Huffington Post
UK newbrands have more social media
interactions than Buzzfeed

10,638
7,656
7,162
9,104 9,000
9,350
9,800 10,114
11,034
11,738
10,525
11,012
12,526
4,796 4,722
3,998
5,657
5,034
5,594
5,169
5,531
5,190 5,402 5,187 5,110 5,348
000s shares
Facebook Twitter Estimated data
UK newsbrand article shares have experienced
steady growth throughout the year

53% 56% 56% 59%
64% 69% 70% 65% 66% 67% 64% 63% 62%
19% 15% 15% 14% 8%
7% 5% 12% 13% 12%
13% 14% 15%
19% 18% 18% 17% 18% 15% 16% 15% 15% 14% 15% 16% 16%
8% 9% 9% 9% 9% 8% 8% 7% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6%
1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
Share of UK newsbrand interactions by social media brand*
Facebook Likes Facebook Shares Facebook Comments Twitter Shares LinkedIn/Pinterest
Facebook is the most important social
media brand for UK newsbrands

Total Facebook interactions* for UK newsbrands
have doubled over the year
51,520
42,592 41,518
58,236
50,437
64,699
61,797
76,085
80,925
90,211
74,354 74,286
77,841
Interactions (000s)

…and UK newsbrand articles’ Facebook likes
have also more than doubled in the last year
30,268
28,270
26,189
38,038
36,106
49,156 47,518
53,761
57,034
64,868
51,595 50,804 52,152
(000s)

Daily Mail
188m
Daily Mirror
178m
New York
Times
155m
W/ton
Post
104m
USA
Today
83m
Total Facebook interactions January - August 2015
UK has three of the top four biggest English
language newspapers on Facebook
The
Guardian
155m

Generally UK newsbrands are less reliant on
Facebook than US providers
89%
78%
82%
87%
70%
76%
64%
62%
52%
77%
72%
48%
11%
22%
18%
13%
30%
24%
36%
38%
48%
23%
28%
52%
buzzfeed.com
dailymail.co.uk
huffingtonpost.com
metro.co.uk
mirror.co.uk
express.co.uk
standard.co.uk
independent.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
dailystar.co.uk
theguardian.com
bbc.co.uk
Shares – Facebook vs Twitter
Facebook shares Twitter shares

• Pure players are more reliant on very high numbers
sharing each article, e.g. Buzzfeed
• UK newsbrand success is more dependent on
larger number of articles being shared
• BUT the most shared UK newsbrands also have
highest ratio of shares to articles
• Optimising number of shares, particularly on
Facebook is key to social media success

Examples of top Facebook shares
October 2015, dailystar.co.uk
790k interactions, 100k shares
October 2015, metro.co.uk
October 2015, independent.co.uk
October 2015, telegraph.co.uk
October 2015, dailymail.co.uk
Source: Newswhip Oct ‘15

It’s not just trivia, lists and snippets
Biggest categories among UK top newsbrand stories:
• 72 UK news, world
news and current
affairs
• 5 sport
• 5 showbiz
• 1 video/gallery links
• 13 science
• and 3 list/quiz

“I think I first saw the Guardian on
Facebook. Friends just started posting
links to articles. I found myself clicking on
them. After a while I liked the page and
began reading more. Then when I started
getting the train regularly I found myself
buying the paper for the journey
Camille, 23
Developing newsbrand reading habits via
Facebook
Source: Generation News 2015

73 % of Millennials say they that:
Developing newsbrand reading habits via
Facebook
“ If I hear about an interesting news
story on social media I’ll go to my
preferred newspaper website to get
more info ”
Source: Generation News 2015

UK newsbrand Twitter shares similar to BBC
4,796
4,722
3,964
5,657
5,034
5,594
5,169
5,531
5,190
5,402
5,187 5,110
5,348
4,212
3,960
3,752
4,563
5,038
5,411
3,605
3,946
3,570
3,947
3,574
3,526
3,488
924 861 820 937
1,501
1,079 964 954 1,054
903 833 749 802
142 118 99 140 107 117 109 110 110 134 118 115 115
Twitter shares (000s)
UK newsbrands BBC Buzzfeed Huffington Post (UK)

Examples of top Twitter shares
October 2015, telegraph.co.uk
16k shares
October 2015, mirror.co.uk
7.5k shares
October 2015, dailymail.co.uk
5.7k shares
October 2015, theguardian.co.uk
3.5k shares
October 2015, bbc.co.uk
3.9k shares

How many follow UK newsbrands
35%
17%
49%
59%
Follow newspaper
brand
Follow newspaper sub-
brand
Follow newspaper
journalist
Any of these
% Twitter users
Source: You Gov January 2014
Base: All UK Twitter Users (1266)

Newsbrands often are Twitter conversation
catalysts
Following The Mail on Sunday's publication of an extract from Lord
Ashcroft's unathorised biography of David Cameron 'Call me Dave',
#Hameron #Oink and #piggate were trending on Twitter.
According to it, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, took part in an
obscene act with a dead pig's head in his young student days, as part of an
initiation ceremony…

A Twitter account @Cameron’s Pig was created within minutes
and gained over 15,000 followers within 24 hours …

Gossip/Banter
I want to relax and enjoy myself
Twitter has a unique humorous side to news
stories. It’s a backstage pass into the lives of
celebrities and allows me to be part of the
gossip.
Knowledge
I want to be the first to know
Twitter gives me instant access to the news
and is where news stories tend to break first.
It’s the best place to follow news stories as
they develop during the day.
Community
I want to find out about things I care about
Twitter gives me the chance to engage with
stories relevant to me with a community of
like-minded people. Discovering people with
shared interests I wouldn’t otherwise meet
through shared news interests.
Opinion
I want to know what people think
Twitter is a way of discovering different points
of opinion and commentary on news stories.
More personal opinions of celebrities/writers.
Interaction with the
news on Twitter
Twitter adds four core benefits as a news
platform for users…
Source: #NewsOnTheTweet 2014

Gossip/Banter
Witty and celebrity columnists
Newsbrands are responsible for some of the
most popular individual tweeters. Individual
journalists are key contributors to the humour
content on Twitter.
Knowledge
Trusted instant updates
Newsbrand handles provide legitimacy and
authority when news is breaking on Twitter.
They also provide journalists that offer
quicker, more accurate instant updates on
stories as they happen.
Community
An opportunity to connect with like-minded
content and people
Through their sub-section handles and the
overarching strength of newsbrand identities
newsbrands offer users the opportunity to
discover more content that is relevant to
them and engage with other people through
these communities.
Opinion
Honest and expert opinions and debate
Newsbrands offer expert opinion pieces and
the individual journalists offer honest and
frank opinions as well as engaging with
followers.
Interaction with the
news on Twitter
Newsbrands underpin these 4 key benefits
Source: #NewsOnTheTweet 2014

Newspaper brands provide an
authoritative viewpoint and
offer verified news in a user
generated content world.
Twitter helps newspaper
brands to become part of
breaking news in people’s
minds through instant
updates
Newspaper brands provide
detailed analysis behind 140
character Tweets
Twitter provides opportunities for
users to engage with newspaper
brands that they wouldn’t normally
read in other formats.
Newspaper brands offer
content and recognisable
brands that can bring
people together through
shared interests
Twitter enables newspaper
readers to connect with
newsbrands and content in a
more direct dialogue
The whole is stronger than the sum
of the parts

http://www.newsworks.org.uk/newsonthetweet
For further information see:

Top 10 most shared UK newsbrand stories
each month on Twitter are almost all in top 35
of Facebook shares – usually with higher
interactions on Facebook
But top Facebook stories are not always big
on Twitter:
• timing of story?
• demographics?
• Twitter more biased towards quality sector and serious news
Source: Newswhip Jan - Oct 2015

What’s the best time to post a story on
Facebook?
9 9
15
17
20
17
13
6 am to 12pm 12pm to 2pm 2pm to 4pm 4pm to 6pm 6pm to 8pm 8pm to 10pm 10pm to 6am
Source: Newswhip blog. Times are GMT. Based on data from MailOnline, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Upworthy, The New York Times, Elite Daily,
MTV and Fox News
The most shared stories were
published between 4pm and 10pm.
% of Top 100 stories
shared at this time

Newsbrands are also big content providers for
LinkedIn and Pinterest
328 332
264
409
367
431
404
440
496
529
508
528
569
112
120
144 145
199
298
238
337 328 340
275
360
364
000s interactions
LinkedIn Pinterest

@thetimes
439,246 likes
608,000 followers*
*excluding sub-brands and journalists
@standardnews
488,626 likes
270,000 followers*
@guardian
4,993,469 likes
4,590,000 followers*
@DailyMirror
1,862,938 likes
548,000 followers*
@Independent
3,433,949 likes
@MailOnline
3,117,179 likes
@Telegraph
2,702,448 likes
@TheSunNewspaper
1,935,844 likes
920,000 followers*
1,113,679 likes
216,000 followers*
@MetroUK

Summary and implications
• UK newsbrands have driven 770 million social
media interactions so far in 2015.
• Massive shared audiences on a daily basis
• Facebook sharing is increasing UK newsbrand
audiences, this is vital to social media velocity
• Wide range of stories to tap into for advertisers

methodology
What Are NewsWhip’s Social Rankings?
Each month, NewsWhip publishes lists of the top social publishers of the previous month, covering Twitter, Facebook and sometimes
LinkedIn and Pinterest.
The rankings are based on the number of shares, tweets, comments and other interactions accrued to content published by each site in
the relevant month.
What content is covered?
For Facebook, NewsWhip combines the total number of likes, shares and comments on content published during that month alone.
For Facebook, if someone on a site uses an on-site share button to share an article to their timeline, that action counts as one share. If
someone copy-pastes the link directly to Facebook, that share will count in the exact same way.
The rankings have nothing to do with the number of people who ‘like’ a publication’s Facebook page that month, although that may have
some effect on how engaged the audience is with the content. A publisher with many “likes” has better audience access and may have
access needed to drive more activity around their content.
For Twitter, NewsWhip counts the total number of tweets that include links to each publisher’s articles (that includes re-tweets) from that
month. Twitter favourites are not currently included.
For all sites, the figures relate solely to content published during the month in question alone. Older content that continued going viral, or
archived material posted without a new URL is not taken into account.
Where does the data come from?
All the data comes from Spike, which monitors about 50,000 publications in 12 languages, categorising content from each one by country,
topic and publisher, and gathering data on topics, authors, and videos associated with each story. Spike tracks the speed at which each
story spreads on Facebook and Twitter.

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