Pulsar has introduced a new Syndication Detection service that intelligently groups similar or repeated Online News and Print coverage across different outlets. By leveraging cutting-edge algorithms and artificial intelligence, Syndication Detection identifies identical or closely matched news stories that have been reposted, providing a comprehensive view of your media coverage.
What is Syndication?
News syndication refers to the distribution of news content, articles, or multimedia materials across various outlets. In this process, a news organisation or content provider makes its news stories available to multiple other organisations for publication or broadcast. For example, a news story produced by The Times can be syndicated to various news outlets across the world, who then republish the story on their platforms. This allows the original content to reach a wider audience and provides additional exposure and traffic to the media outlets that republish them.
Why is Syndication Important?
In today's dynamic media landscape, staying ahead requires more than just monitoring individual channels. The ability to identify syndicated content is crucial for several reasons but we feel the two most important are
Content Authenticity: Syndication helps in distinguishing between original content and republished coverage, ensuring that clients are working with authentic and reliable information.
Reputation Management: Identifying repeated content across various outlets is vital for managing a brand's reputation. Syndication allows clients to monitor how their messaging is being disseminated across different channels and adapt their strategies accordingly.
Syndication goes beyond traditional monitoring by not only identifying similar articles but also contextualising how content is shared and re-shared. This nuanced approach ensures that clients can extract actionable insights from the vast sea of online information.
Syndication on Pulsar
Benefit to Clients
This new detection service offers many benefits for Pulsar's clients:
Enhanced Accuracy: Syndication minimises redundancy and eliminates the noise associated with repeated content, ensuring that clients receive more accurate and refined data.
Time Efficiency: By automating the identification of syndicated content, clients can save valuable time by easily keeping track of content distributed across different outlets, enabling the better allocation of resources to manage communication efforts effectively.
Comprehensive Insight: Syndication provides a holistic view of how news stories and broadcast content are disseminated across various outlets, offering clients a deeper understanding of their audience and the media landscape.
Strategic Decision-Making: Armed with precise and consolidated data, businesses can make more informed decisions, tailor their communication strategies, and respond effectively to emerging trends.
Using Syndication Detection on Pulsar
Now that we’ve run through syndication and the benefits, let’s talk about how you can leverage this on Pulsar.
Data Sources Supported: Syndication detection currently works for Online News and Print News content, with plans to support ANZ Broadcast in Q2 this year.
Exclude Syndicated Content at Search Setup: This is a significant improvement in handling syndicated content in your searches on TRAC! During Search Setup, users can now exclude syndicated coverage from being collected in their searches, meaning they only ever receive the original piece of coverage from its original outlet, and any syndicates are not collected. This option on Pulsar was not available when collecting Online and Print news and should therefore enhance your media monitoring experience on TRAC going forward.
Ability to Filter Out Syndicates in Results: We have added a new filter option to the filter panel, allowing users to filter out syndicates from their results. And of course, this new filter will only be available in searches that have been setup to collect syndicated media coverage in the first place!
View Original and Syndicates in the Feed: Where a search is collecting syndicated coverage, we now clearly display in the Feed side panel - the original content that was produced by a particular source, and then the list of syndicates that were distributed and re-published across multiple outlets. This experience is consistent with how we display retweets in a threaded view. In addition to this, you get the total performance metrics generated by the syndicates: Social Shares, Visibility, Media Reach and AVE.
A Syndicates Counter in the Feed: Mousing over the syndicate icon in the Feed will display the total number of syndicates within the syndicate group.
Ability to Group and Ungroup Syndicates: We have also added the ability to group and ungroup syndicated content, akin to consolidating your coverage into a single group, or expanding it into single media coverage items. This is a useful way to help you understand the unique coverage in your media monitoring, but without losing the syndicated items view from your results altogether, which would be the case if you were to simply filter out syndicates using the filters.
When “Group Syndicates” is ON as shown below, Pulsar will automatically roll up any original coverage and associated syndicates into one single media item, and you will be able to view the list of syndicates in the side panel in the Feed. You will also see a rolled up and consolidated view of the performance metrics such as Media Reach and AVE, etc.
When “Group Syndicates” is OFF, as shown below, Pulsar will expand and treat the syndicates as separate media items in the Feed - this is the default “pre-syndication” view, which you’re already familiar with on Pulsar. Some visual cues in the Feed will still help you understand which of those media items have been syndicated and you will also be able to view the list of syndicates in the side panel and performance metrics such as Media Reach and AVE, etc.
Similar to filtering out syndicates in the search results, grouping and ungrouping syndicates will only be available in searches that have been set up to collect syndicated coverage in the first place.
Managing Syndicates: Users will be able to add or remove articles from a group and reassign syndicated content from one group to another in the Feed.
Email Alerts and Digests: Users will be able to exclude syndicates from Email Alerts and Email Digests using the filters, and if they want to receive syndicates, they will be able to define how they want to receive syndicated content - grouped or ungrouped.
Pulsar's Syndication Detection represents a significant leap forward in our media monitoring capabilities. As the media landscape continues to evolve, Pulsar remains at the forefront, empowering businesses with the tools they need to navigate the complex world of online communication.