InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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February 26, 2001 |
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Syndicators Spin Out More News For Web Sites
Online content providers let companies offer information from a variety of sources
By Marion Agnew
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hen purchasing managers at manufacturing companies want to compare product prices, Jerry Steinbrink hopes they'll do their research at Manufacturing.net LLC.
To help convince them, Steinbrink, VP of content and product development at the portal, buys industry-specific news from syndicator NewsEdge Corp. and Lexis-Nexis to lure customers to the site. A joint venture between i2 Technologies Inc. and business-magazine publisher Cahners Business Information, the site relies heavily on advertising from the manufacturers for its revenue. The more visitors Manufacturing.net gets, the more the site can charge for ads.
Steinbrink saw a hole in the site's content before adding NewsEdge. "As the site has grown in sophistication, users have evolved in their need for up-to-date information," he says. "They get perspective through Lexis-Nexis, and now they'll get up-to-the-minute information from NewsEdge." NewsEdge aggregates content from more than 2,000 sources and uses a combination of technology and human input to target the content to its customers' needs.
Companies in search of content to bolster their products or post on their Web sites often turn to content sources, such as NewsEdge, that aggregate and syndicate news and analysis from a variety of sources. Besides being less expensive than developing in-house editorial and writing expertise, buying content from a syndicator gives customers access to a wider range of information than an in-house staff could possibly generate or buy directly from news vendors such as Lexis-Nexis or Dow Jones.
The market for business content is huge. Outsell Inc., an information industry research and advisory firm, estimates that the 1999 worldwide market for business-to-business news reached nearly $92 billion. Of that amount, Outsell estimates that news aggregators and infomediaries--a category that includes syndicators such as Comtex News Network, iSyndicate, NewsEdge, and ScreamingMedia--accounted for only $279 million, or less than half of 1%.
Companies typically buy information for three reasons: for in-house use, such as competitive analysis; for an intranet or an extranet, where information is available to employees and trading partners; and to publish on the Web. Content syndicators have targeted the last group. "Syndicators make it easy for a Web site to acquire content and for publishers to distribute it," says David Curle, director and lead analyst at Outsell.
Getting access to a lot of content quickly and easily was the reason OneSource Inc. senior VP James Becker signed on with Comtex News Network. OneSource provides global business information by subscription to business users and gets about 30 news feeds from Comtex. "We don't have to go to disparate sources of news feeds in China, Africa, South America, and negotiate individual licenses," Becker says.
OneSource's customers are primarily business-to-business sales representatives selling big-ticket services and products, often in the high-tech industry. These reps--who use OneSource to prospect for new leads, prepare for sales calls, and manage relationships--have diverse information needs, everything from local legislation to business news from halfway around the world.
Comtex puts all the feeds into a standard format that easily drops into OneSource's Business Browser Web interface. "We save time plus the programming effort," Becker says.
And through the Comtex deal, OneSource is able to give its customers the right kind of information at the right time. Calico Commerce Inc., an E-commerce software vendor in San Jose, Calif., has used OneSource for three years. Sales directors use the company information in OneSource to profile sales territories and set quotas; the sales reps then use OneSource data for research. "The information ranges from Securities and Exchange Commission filings and articles in publications to investment analyst reports. It lets us go into the opportunity more educated," says Joe Schwartz, inside sales manager for Calico. He also receives breaking news, such as information about mergers and acquisitions.
Simplicity was a driving factor when AvidProNet Digital Exchange went with iSyndicate for content a year ago. AvidProNet, an online community run by software maker Avid Technologies Inc., brings together users of Avid products. AvidProNet, in Tewksbury, Mass., plans to implement an application service provider model to roll out applications to users' desktops, product manager Steven Koster says. Until then, AvidProNet is primarily a portal for Avid users, and maintaining the community is critical. That's where iSyndicate's content comes in.
"ISyndicate finds the information and does the deals," Koster says. "There's also a technical side, getting it in a form you can use." From iSyndicate's more than 4,700 feeds, AvidProNet gets entertainment industry news from sources such as The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone, as well as more traditional business-oriented content. "Using iSyndicate has certainly allowed us to provide a service we couldn't afford to offer ourselves," he says. "We're going for a full-service approach to our audience, not just an online magazine."
ISyndicate's delivery method helps ensure that visitors remain at the AvidProNet site. Clicking on a link to an article doesn't take a visitor to another site where the story resides, Koster says. "Maintaining our brand is important to us," he says.
To keep customers happy, content syndicators make sure their users get the content they want. For instance, Koster cites iSyndicate's willingness to pursue new sources as one of his favorite features. Content syndicators also score points for their attention to the other half of the picture: weeding out irrelevant content.
Manufacturing.net's Steinbrink says that working with the editorial staff at NewsEdge to sharply focus content has been an iterative process. "We have a fairly complex site, and our editors are picky," he says. "It takes both sides willing to be patient." They worked together three to four weeks to get the selection process working smoothly. "They're willing to understand our needs," he says, contrasting that with the temptation among service providers to say, "This is how we do it."
Content syndicators traditionally have competed for customers based on the content they offer and how easy it is for customers to integrate the content into their sites. But in the past few years, news has become a commodity, says Outsell's Curle. "There's the perception, if not the reality, that it's everywhere [on the Internet], and it's free."
As a result, new kinds of partnerships and markets that will help determine the future of content syndicators are emerging, Curle says. Syndicators are looking to supply content to corporate intranets and extranets. They're creating partnerships with vendors of enterprise information portal software, who in turn sell the content to their customers.
Also, as they broaden their scope, some syndicators are offering technology in addition to content. For example, YellowBrix Inc. hosts personalization software. In October, iSyndicate began selling the technology behind its content-syndication business as a separate product called the Private Syndication Network.
Although many content syndicators have successfully found ways to diversify their products, one large market may remain closed to them: the enterprise. "It's a tougher nut to crack," Curle says. The Web sites that have been syndicators' traditional customer base need current content. In contrast, many companies need archival content that spans years. Curle says large content providers such as Dow Jones, Hoover's, and Lexis-Nexis can supply this market effectively.
Still, Curle expects the market for syndicated content to keep growing. "The idea of syndication and syndication networks is here to stay. It won't fall off the map."
Photo by Bill Cramer
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