Content-discovery tablet app Zite on Wednesday announced a twist on its wildly successful algorithm-driven platform that company executives say will be a big step toward bridging the divide between content creators and aggregators.
The app’s new Publisher Program creates publisher-specific sections to exist alongside its subject-based sections. The program is launching with a group of eight publishers including CNN, Bleacher Report and The Huffington Post.
But the launch of publisher-specific sections won’t tamper with the mind-reading algorithms that are Zite’s secret sauce and have made it a hit with users and reviewers.
When you read the Bleacher Report section, for example, the Zite algorithms will constantly analyze what you read, how long you stay with an article and how you rate articles to keep tailoring aggregated content to your tastes and desires. That smart science has made the app’s sections that pull from a range of sources on different topics and sub-topics successful. The difference now is that the process works almost in reverse; the algorithms are applied to the publisher whose section of the app you are browsing, and span a range of subjects.
“We’re all in this tablet world together,” Zite CEO Mark Johnson told Mashable in a demo of the new capabilities. “The tablet is undermining old business models and giving huge opportunity to new business models, so we think it’s hugely important that we figure out how publications get value for their content.”
Zite launched last March to rave reviews and was acquired by CNN in August. But since its inception, the company has had to deal with the tension between publishers’ competing desires to get eyeballs on their content, but not let third-party aggregators simply give it away for free.
Three weeks after launch, Zite received a cease-and-desist letter from several major publishers objecting to their use of content. What came out of that was an option for publishers to have their content featured in webpage layout within Zite, so that third-party ads would still be served, as opposed to Zite’s preferred clean layout.
No money changes hands between Zite and publishing partners for an individual section to be hosted within the app, but the idea is that both parties — and readers — benefit from the partnership. Zite doesn’t have to mar its clean interface by presenting articles in an ad-laden web-style layout. Partners, meanwhile, expose their content to larger audiences and get to host ads to drive content to their own apps. No third-party ads enter the picture, although the company is leaving the door open for that to potentially change down the line.
Johnson believes the launch of Zite’s publisher program — which he argues will significantly drive downloads of individual publishers’ apps — represents a step toward a middle ground for publishers and aggregators.
“There used to be a fear that aggregators would replace single source publishers,” he says. “I think that fear has been allayed over the course of time because people have realized what readers want is a combination of aggregators who give them an overview of the world and publishers who provide the editorial viewpoint and extra feature they really want.”
Vice president of business development Martin Stoddart calls the new program “very important” to Zite’s success moving forward. He told Mashable the company plans to introduce waves of new additions over the coming months and have a stable of “dozens” of publishing partners by year’s end.
Do you think this is a strong move that will be successful for Zite? Let us know in the comments.
More About: publishers, tablets, zite
http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/zite-publisher-program/
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