Factiva, Twitter and the Devaluation of Content and Journalism
David Chivers, Vice President of Dow Jones' Factiva products, recently interviewed by Social Media Portal (SMP) discussed how free-only information models are having an impact on businesses, and how publishers are reacting via pay walls. Chivers explains, “The low point for the information industry as a whole happened when there was an expectation that all content should be free due to the availability of free content on the Web.”
Chivers adds, “I believe this trend significantly devalued premium content and professional journalism. As a result, professionals were making business decisions based on content from non-credible sources and learned that hard way that not all content is the same or can be trusted, which ultimately impacted their business.”
Later in the interview, Chivers shared how things are now transitioning, with similar sentiments shared with the recent reporting of the Washington Post grappling with content models by The Guardian.
Recently, Factiva announced that it had added Twitter content to its product suite and shared with SMP more on how it works — and why business intelligence is increasingly important to brands.
Ten year-old Factiva sources content from nearly 200 countries, in 26 languages and across 31 industries, basing its content on the business needs of its customers and focusing on relevant geographies, roles and industries of interest. Factiva reviews content across all mediums including newspapers, newswires, publications, social media, and multimedia.
Twitter curated content from Factiva sources tweets from the most influential global influencers adding to the information gathered from its traditional sources and blogs.
According to Chivers, Factiva leverages a combination of technology and editorial staff to curate content from Twitter’s “firehose.” The curated Twitter content in Factiva covers 31 industries, including energy, financial services and technology, with a focus on the most influential tweeters from around the globe.
In the Social Media Portal interview Chivers reveals the challenges of keeping up-to-date with the demands of clients in a recent interview and how their greatest fears are evolving with social media networks. He also boldly offers advice on how business can manage their own content and work better with social media and networks in addition to sharing in what he deems to be the greatest areas that business should focus upon throughout the rest of 2012 and into 2013.
Tim Gibbon is a Director of Elemental, the communications consultancy that created and manages the Social Media Portal (SMP). Gibbon interviewed Factiva in a recent article published on and for SMP.
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