Clickability Evolving Web Content, One Solution At a Time

By Barb Mosher (@barbmosher) Nov 17, 2008

Clickability is keeping their eye on the marketplace. Even in a time of economic instability, companies are not going to turn their websites off. Which is good news for the SaaS-based Web CMS provider. Today they offer a new solution to their large base of media clients.

The Clickability Media Solution is a consolidation of features, functionality and partnerships in the media space, tailored to the needs of the publishing industry and designed to make publishing even easier.

A Look at the Publishing Industry in General

Does this diagram look familar?

It should, we've been eluding to it for a while now. Things are changing for the media industry. Some stats from Clickability:

% of people getting their news from the Internet has tripled in the last 10 years (Pew Internet Research)
Radio and newspaper news audience down 14% - television news audience down 9% (Pew Internet Research)
Internet users consumed 10 billion videos online in Feb 2008 - 66% increase over 2007 (comScore)
Internet usage will usurp television as biggest advertising medium in Britain by end of 2009 (IAB, PWC, World Advertising Research Centre)
By 2010, 20% of publishing revenues will come from print, 80% from other channels

This is all good news for those who have embraced the Internet and are moving to take advantage of it. Much of the media industry is still struggling though:

NY Times reports 51% decline in income – credit rating downgraded to junk status, layoffs announced
Major Media Conglomerates and Newspapers announce major layoffs (e.g. Time Inc. - 600 people, LA Times - 700 people)
AP cuts revenue estimates by $30M - major publishers jump ship
News Corp. announces 30% decline in net income
Christian Science Monitor eliminates print edition – online publisher only

Clickability Media Solution

Clickability has been watching what's been happening within the media industry. They have paid attention to the things their own media customers have been doing and have come up with a solution that makes things even easier.

“In order to overcome immediate market challenges, media companies need to explore new business models and technology options right now,” said John Girard, Clickability’s CEO. “Those who aren’t bold enough to move aggressively and transform their businesses are unlikely to survive. The constantly evolving Clickability Media Solution gives media companies the platform they need to prosper financially.”

Clickability Media Solution platform

The Media Solution starts with a central content repository that is used to share content across the entire organization and publish it across any device or web channel required.

Key aspects of this new solution include the ability to publish across multiple channels and devices and the formalization of the solution partner ecosystem.

Web CMS Enhancements

The Clickability platform is an ever evolving solution. In the last nine months over two dozen features and/or tools have been added to the platform. Some of the more recent, larger enhancements include:

FeedLoader: This content importing and exporting feature now has business logic built in. The ability to know what content has already been imported is an example.
Photo Galleries: A popular driver of traffic, photo galleries can now be created on the fly with any number of images, can be publish quickly and images can be easily remixed based on rules to create new galleries.
Blogging: A URL has been set-up that opens a page to create blog entries without having to go to the publishing admin site.
Breaking News: Driven by a need from NBC, a new feature has been added that enables publishers to creating a breaking news entry and update it as it evolves. This includes timestamping and tagging updates giving the story a chronology.

Multi-channel, Multi-device Publishing

Media companies need to constantly experiment — well every industry does actually. People are getting their news from an ever evolving number of devices and web channels and media companies need to stay on top of what these are, ensuring their content can be accessed easily.