Facebook's Declining Share Of Total Media Consumption; Another Call For A 'Big Tech Break-up'

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Strike A Happy Media

Digital media consumption grew 13% last year, according to an examination of Nielsen Digital Content Ratings by Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser. Verizon, Amazon, Snapchat and Twitter were relatively flat in terms of their share of digital media consumption from 2016. The big movers were Facebook and Google. That always seems to be true, except in this case Facebook is a downward mover. Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and WhatsApp were up, but a 4% drop in consumer attention for the core Facebook app dragged down overall numbers. Google properties, including YouTube and other services like Waze, were up 5% year over year. Business Insider has more.

Breaking Point

More observers and investors are calling for antitrust-style breakups of the big tech companies. “I would like Google to be broken up into eight or 10 different monopolies,” tech venture capitalist Roger McNamee tells CNBC, adding that he’d prefer Amazon be split into four companies and Instagram separated from Facebook. “The mission of America used to be to create tens of millions of millionaires,” McNamee says. “It appears with our policy around letting these guys go unchecked that we’ve decided our new goal as a society is to collectively crown the first trillionaire.” More. McNamee’s thoughts echo those of NYU professor Scott Galloway, who previously called for the break-up of big tech.

Rock Paper Subscribers

Newspapers are moving away from unique visitor and page-view tallies in favor of metrics around reader loyalty and subscription conversion. Hearst Newspapers shifted its focus from total readers to the share of readers who visit 10-plus times per month, reports Digiday. This is similar to how “appointment viewing” TV programs sell at higher rates; brands like to see loyalty, not just eyeballs. The New York Times and Boston Globe have taken internal marketing and operational data tools to the editorial side of the house, where “editors are encouraged to take responsibility for driving (subscription) conversions with their coverage.” More.

Fox Nation

Fox News is the latest network to launch an OTT subscription service. Fox’s news networks weren’t included in its proposed sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney, currently under review by the Justice Department, and without its media and entertainment arm the cable news leader may feel more pressure to diversify revenue. The streaming channel will launch without advertising, and a subscription price hasn’t been set. The network’s older-skewing audience is typically heavier on cable and less so on OTT. But it’s a group that watches “every night for hours at a time,” says John Finley, Fox News’ head of program development and production. When loyal viewers go to venues like hotels or cruise ships, they’ll often email the network if Fox isn’t available, Finley says. “This is a way for us to meet that demand.” More.

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