The Ultimate Guide to Efficient Content Aggregation for Publishers

In today’s fast-paced, content-rich world, publishers rely heavily on technology to help them locate content on a particular topic. Disciplined content lifecycle management helps publishers reuse and syndicate the content they already own, while content aggregation tools deftly navigate a sea of pertinent information, bringing together media from diverse sources into a portal or feed where editorial teams can quickly assess their options. This is important for both print and digital publications, both of which need to provide their audience with relevant and engaging content in order to keep their titles in the foreground. 

In the digital realm, however, the necessity to publish fresh content before the competition raises the stakes, often coming down to a matter of minutes. In order to establish and maintain a reputation for timely and relevant news, publishers must identify, source, and publish a surfacing story in near real-time, before it appears on 20 other sources. Considering the massive volume of news, entertainment, events, and sports data—over 400 million terabytes created each day—this type of dynamic content generation is a feat that is simply impossible without the aid of a robust content aggregation tool. 

This article outlines how highly organized content lifecycle management accompanied by content aggregation tools that are optimized for speed and ease of use can simplify workflow for publishers.

Content aggregation focuses on automatically gathering content such as illustrations, photos, and videos from external sources and internal sources. From the consolidated content, publishers can then curate the items that will be most relevant and valuable to their audience for publication. Content aggregation tools can be set up to source content from a variety of suppliers and then categorize it for simple search by topic or visual matches and similarities. PictureDesk™ by FADEL even monitors and notifies users of new celebrity content.

Content aggregation streamlines content sourcing by automating the collection and curation of information from multiple media outlets. Instead of performing redundant searches for relevant media on various supplier portals and returning redundant results, content aggregation tools automatically connect to media sources that publishers regularly pull from. Users simply input specific criteria and the tool compiles matching content without duplication. PictureDesk will even use AI to cluster visually similar content.  This gives publishers access to curated content from various outlets quickly, making it easier to stay updated on the latest news or developments across different areas of interest and arm them for pitch and editorial meetings.

Consumer demand for video is ever-increasing, leading to growing file sizes. If these are stored on on-premises systems, they may be bursting at the seams with duplicate and irrelevant content that has accumulated over the years or older content may have been archived, causing project-impeding lag times. Systems like PictureDesk that offer cloud-based storage are highly scalable and nimbly searchable, enabling more effective content lifecycle management as asset libraries grow. They also remove the dependency of editorial staff on IT teams, allowing them to access assets on their own without having to ask for assistance.

Content aggregation tools improve content organization by categorizing and sorting high volumes of content into a single, accessible platform, as well as subdividing it into relevant groups based on predefined parameters, such as topics, keywords, or themes. This systematized approach condenses and collates the presentation of content, making it easier for content creators to quickly access the information they are looking for. Users can filter content based on their preferences, ensuring they see only the most relevant content for their needs. 

Leading content aggregation tools update in near real-time. As media is gathered, it is automatically placed into the appropriate category or feed, keeping the content current and organized. This is particularly beneficial for dynamic topics like news or trending subjects, where timely access to relevant content is essential. Organized feeds also help publishers maintain a consistent flow of content that matches audience expectations and keeps them engaged.

PictureDesk also allows you to bring into the mix internal content, including owned content as well as published articles and entire issues This empowers reuse and syndication, making your ideation process and sales process more comprehensive. 

Advanced filtering and tagging systems further improve the organization of content. Tags, labels, and metadata can be used to categorize media based on specific attributes, allowing for more refined searches. And PictureDesk leverages AI for visual searches. This organization helps editorial teams plan content calendars, identify popular topics, and find and repurpose content for future use.

Freed from the time-consuming task of constantly monitoring multiple platforms, editorial teams can focus on scaling quality content volume to meet consumer demand. Content aggregation allows for faster turnaround time and requires fewer resources, increasing production while decreasing costs. Advanced filtering and search capabilities also help publishers discover and reuse or syndicate the content they already own, providing further cost savings and opening up additional revenue opportunities. 

Cloud-based content aggregation platforms also reduce infrastructure costs. On-premises systems rely heavily on IT resources for connections to FTP servers as well as maintenance, including updates, system monitoring, security patching, data backups, and performance optimization. In addition, hardware storage is costly, and upgrading capacity for legacy systems—if that’s even possible—requires both expense and resources.

Publishers can use aggregated content to identify trends, popular topics, or gaps in their own content strategy, helping them make informed decisions based on what is resonating with their target audience. By leveraging aggregation tools, publishers can quickly filter out irrelevant content and focus only on the most pertinent or high-quality material, allowing them to streamline the process of selecting content that aligns with their audience’s needs and interests.

Content aggregation tools also enable publishers to meet audience demand for timely and relevant information. “Live” feeds from specific events, for example awards ceremonies or fashion shows, keep audiences engaged with comprehensive, up-to-date content. Visual search functionality can also help publishers purge their systems of low-quality and redundant content by searching for similarities. This helps maintain a consistent standard of content quality moving forward.

PictureDesk provides access to up-to-the-minute content from your media sources of choice, along with centralized, cloud-based storage and AI-powered visual searches that allow editors to surface the content they are looking for in seconds. PictureDesk goes beyond the functionality of a content aggregation tool or a digital asset management (DAM) platform to provide an all-in-one solution for media companies and magazine and newspaper publishers, complete with purpose-built workflows. 

These PictureDesk capabilities reduce repetitive, manual tasks by 20% or more:

Automated content ingestion allows publishers to connect to their media sources of choice and PictureDesk will provide live feeds of content in the subject areas specified by the user. 

Consolidated content means that editorial staff need only go to PictureDesk to find content, whether it is up-to-the-minute media or owned and licensed images for reuse or syndication. 

Advanced search and filtering options are supported by AI clustering and AI-driven visual searches, allowing editorial staff to narrow in on specific content based on subject matter or visual similarity.

Rights management ensures compliance with content usage rights, displayed visually with red/green borders to indicate availability. This protects publishers from the legal risks associated with unauthorized content use. 

Workflows support content lifecycle management and improve productivity by sharing and transferring editorial content between teams from planning and pre-production through distribution using lightboxes, auto-generated contact sheets, and automatic billing markups for invoices.

Alerts notify publishers of new content that fits specific criteria. PictureDesk’s StarTracker™ functionality monitors and notifies editorial teams of new celebrity content.

Universal access ensures content is always safe, accessible, and backed up. PictureDesk’s cloud-native platform protects brands against unforeseeable situations like COVID-19, geopolitical unrest, and natural disasters with 24/7 remote access and disaster recovery. 

An e-commerce web store allows publishers to unlock new revenue streams through syndication. Customer self-service facilitates the sale of commercial and editorial licenses, packages assets for immediate use, and processes payment directly from your website.

Are Media leveraged various systems in their IT stack to facilitate moving content from inception to creation. They were using two legacy digital asset management (DAM) systems to house all of Are’s assets, including photos, print-ready PDFs, InDesign files, articles, and release forms. One system was used for syndication and the other for Are Media’s digital and print teams. Both were antiquated, inefficient and, for the internal teams, too slow to hit deadlines.

Are Media began by interviewing business users to identify their frustrations around their current systems and what they wanted from a new one. Their top wish list items were:

• A single, cloud-based source of truth where they could store all digital assets, easily search for specific content, and download the latest and highest-quality assets for online publishing
• An easy-to-use, non-technical system with an intuitive user experience for easy adoption
• A smooth transition from the DAM to print layouts, where assets can be placed, edited, pre-pressed, and transferred back to the DAM seamlessly
• Quick adoption into the workflow, including integration with Are Media’s finance processes

“PictureDesk quickly rose to the top from the very beginning. Even in our staging library, PictureDesk was faster than anything we had running.” – Angus Chisholm, Senior Business Analyst of Content Systems

Are Media centralized more than 13 million digital assets into PictureDesk’s high-speed, cloud-based platform and organized them into familiar categories to make them easily accessible to all stakeholders. PictureDesk became the storage system for finished editorials along with source files, allowing for endless possibilities for reuse and syndication. Tangible results include:

• 97% faster response time to upload, display, and download content
• Reduced storage by 30% by consolidating two archaic DAMs into a highly intuitive, searchable system
• Final content can be sold through a public-facing web front end, opening up new revenue streams
• Ability to organize, store, and search published content and source files for easier reuse and syndication
• Can enrich assets with rights information to ensure compliance and reduce exposure for the company
• Streamlined the monthly processes into weekly processes and gained reporting to optimize operations and finance

“Search and content reuse has improved by consolidating into one system and there is clear visibility into the rights. Content that isn’t available is just hidden from view. Plus, PictureDesk has madesyndication much easier– companies featured in our photo shoots purchase our images for use in their marketing efforts, which has created a lucrative revenue stream.  We have also right-sized our storage so we’re not paying for more than we need,  which has provided significant cost savings.” – Angus Chisholm, Senior Business Analyst of Content Systems

Contact FADEL for a demo of PictureDesk to find out how content aggregation and content lifecycle management can keep your publications fresh and compliant while saving time and money.