The evolving science of content management is opening up new revenue opportunities for many digital publishers. One emerging technology that is changing the way publishers package and distribute content is text mining or text analysis.
Text mining uses semantic analysis to determine patterns and relevancy within a publisher’s content assets. The analysis spits out metadata that helps editors categorize and package content, based on a shared taxonomy or ontology (which extends the taxonomy concept by describing information and defining relationships among items).
The ability to dynamically group and link content enables editors to repurpose assets more efficiently and, theoretically at least, increase the reach and impact of a site’s content. At Canadian publisher Gesca, that’s precisely what’s happening. The company uses Nstein Technologies’ Text Mining Engine (TME) and Web Content Management (WCM) software to power its web properties, which include cyberpresse.ca, monvolant.ca, and technaute.com.
After installing the Nstein software, page views to Cyberpresse – the company’s main information portal – increased by about 30% in the first year, according to Chief Technology Officer Matthieu Delorme. The site generates about 2.8 million unique visitors and 80 million page views a month, with users averaging about 30 minutes a month on the portal.
Delorme attributes part of the site’s growth to the intelligence in the TME that enables editors to quickly assemble sections of related articles and generate links – two key traffic drivers. Search engine optimization also has improved, based on the way the WCM software creates pages, Delorme said.
Even the editors are starting to come around to the software – though they weren’t sold at first. “For the editors, TME initially was more of a pain than a help,” said Delorme. “They thought it would do their job instead of helping them do their job.” But after seeing the results – more traffic without an additional burden on their workloads – the edit staff is starting to appreciate the effectiveness of the tools, he added.
Publishers such as Gesca are realizing that advanced CMS functionality such as text mining and digital asset management – while not cheap to implement – can help publishers quickly develop new revenue opportunities for their content archives, which otherwise would be gathering virtual dust.
“Digital assets that are centralized in a single repository can be repackaged, syndicated, or turned into sponsored microsites,” said David Crouy, marketing director at Nstein. “It’s a way to try new things and move on quickly if they don’t work.”
Gesca, which has more than 10 million assets in its archives, is working with Nstein on new semantic search technology to improve the accuracy of search results. “Those assets can be hard to fine,” said Delorme. “Semantic site search will offer a lot better user experience – and more page views.”
