The Weekly PR and Social Scoop

Future closes titles and events citing low growth

Future Publishing has closed several “low to no growth” titles and events in an ongoing “portfolio optimisation” period.

Confirmed titles closing so far include tech website iMore, Total Film, 3D World, All About Space and automotive magazine Total 911.

After more than 15 years at the forefront of Apple-related news, iMore will close all operations, although users can continue to access its archive of articles.

Future’s sister technology websites TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, Windows Central and Android Central will continue to operate, as will the recently acquired lifestyle brand, ShortList.

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Reach Plc journalists expected to produce up to eight articles per day

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The editorial director of Reach Plc’s websites has described page views as “the best thing we’ve got right now” amid a drive to increase the number of published stories.

?In an email to staff, Paul Rowland said article volumes were being talked about “a lot in newsrooms at the moment” and blamed, in part, the volatility from previously huge traffic referrers like Google and Facebook.

?A separate email, sent by Birmingham Live editor, Graeme Brown, suggested journalists should file at least eight stories per day unless newsgathering outside of the office.

?In a later email chain, Brown said he understood concerns but stated “this is about better connecting you all with the issue. Page views are our currency and there was a time we were getting 50% of our traffic from Facebook – now it is more like 5%”.

?In its?half-year results?published in July, Reach revealed page views were down 25% due to the “ongoing impact of 2023’s referrer deprioritisation of news”, but added: “Trends are improving and open market prices for mass scale programmatic advertising have stabilised.”

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Snapchat pushes sponsored posts and “promoted places”.

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Snapchat is introducing new ad formats aimed at reaching users through direct messaging after a successful trial with Disney.

The social media platform is reportedly actively looking to attract brands who wish to target its young audience in what it sees as new and effective ways.

Snapchat says these sponsored Snaps enable marketers to?deliver full-screen vertical video Snaps, directly to users’ inboxes.?

Snapchat is also monetising another notable feature, Snap Maps, with something called “Promoted Places”.

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This enables businesses and brands to add locations onto Snap Maps, a feature usually reserved for tracking the movement of friends.

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“Promoted Places” will initially launch with fast food outlets McDonalds and Taco Bell.

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Meta tests AI animations on adverts

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Meta is testing new AI video editing capabilities on Facebook and Instagram that will allow advertisers to animate images.

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With the AI animation tool, advertisers can upload a static image and then choose to generate a video.?

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The new tools can also increase the size of existing videos by using AI to generate “unseen pixels in each video frame”.

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Meta is starting to roll out these features now and plans to make them more widely available early next year.

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This builds on Meta’s existing AI features, which already allow companies to generate images and text, and will work with a full-screen video capabilities coming to Facebook.

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Meta isn’t the only platform creating adverts with AI. Last month,?Amazon released a tool that creates clips?based on product images, while TikTok is experimenting with?using AI-generated avatars in adverts.