AP content drives more Facebook engagements than individual publishers in June, July
Content from The Associated Press drove higher total engagement on Facebook than any of the Top 10 individual publishers in June and July, according to a new survey from content analytics platform NewsWhip.
The results reveal the hidden power of news agency content in a market focused on digital native publishing and platforms.
In July, total engagements on AP content posted by member news organizations and customers topped 34.7 million. The top individual publisher totaled 27.1 million engagements by comparison.
Engagements refer to likes, reactions, comments and shares on Facebook.
In June, engagements on AP content reached more than 31.3 million, while the top individual publisher drove 29.6 million engagements.
“This data demonstrates the value of AP content in a digital-first marketplace,” said Ted Mendelsohn, vice president for commercial and digital markets. “Higher engagement with AP stories, photos and video on Facebook means more revenue for our member news organizations and customers.”
Key findings of the survey include:
- Highest engagement on AP content was driven by breaking news, political, celebrity and “odd” news.
- Some customer sites generated over 180k engagements on a single AP story.
- Two-thirds of the Top 10 Facebook publishers are AP member news organizations and customers.
- On sites that credit AP directly, AP is regularly ranked among the most engaged authors.
- Each month NewsWhip detects between 1.25 and 1.35 million AP content matches.
While NewsWhip did not rank publishers in May, AP content delivered over 32.3 million Facebook interactions that month, highlighting the consistency of the results.
AP, a NewsWhip investor, worked with the company to develop NewsWhip Syndication, a breakthrough tool that tracks news agency content.
AP editors use NewsWhip Syndication and Chartbeat to optimize AP content, routinely updating headlines, story leads and images to increase customer use and engagement.
“NewsWhip helps us measure success in a way that was not possible with agency content in the past,” said AP Global News Manager Mark Davies. “By combining customer use and engagement data we can react in real time, delivering content that resonates on member websites and social media alike.”
NewsWhip identified English-language articles that contained more than 60 percent AP content in order to determine the engagement figures.
NewsWhip’s ranking of the Top 10 Facebook publishers in June and July, as tabulated by NewsWhip Analytics, can be found here.