This August, we packed our bags and flew across the pond to Philadelphia for the Online News Association’s annual conference, ONA23. The three day event was jam-packed with discussions and presentations from industry experts, exhibition spaces, exciting networking sessions, and – it goes without saying – Philly cheesesteaks.
This wasn’t our first rodeo at an ONA conference, except this year we headlined as Gold Sponsors. We had an absolute blast meeting everyone, presenting our newest research, and chewing ears off about what we know best: AI and automation in the newsroom. A lot happened in the space of a few days, so we’ve recapped the big numbers.
1800+
The total number of attendees at ONA23. Each and every single member had a lanyard with Echobox’s logo displayed front and center. We couldn’t be prouder to celebrate our 10th anniversary with such a bang!
600
The number of cupcakes from Philadelphia’s famed Tiffany’s Bakery we served at our booth. Iced in our trademark Echobox blue and topped with glitter, they were as delicious as they were beautiful. If you ever have a chance to pass through the City of Brotherly Love, we couldn’t recommend this bakery more.
-50%
The decline in Facebook referral traffic experienced by media organizations across the globe, as tracked by our Social Media Index. It’s no secret that falling Facebook traffic has been a problem for a little while now (although some publishers are faring better than others). While this doesn’t sound like good news for publishers, it is a much-needed reminder that editors can’t be too reliant on Facebook for content dissemination.
How can publishers mitigate these losses? Our VP of Product, Simran Cashyap, gave an insightful talk into the strategies publishers can adopt: finding social media traffic elsewhere; focusing on engagement; and moving to owned channels.
If you’re interested in learning more and discussing these strategies further, don’t hesitate to drop us a line.
+52%
The increase in email clicks our customers have experienced with per-subscriber newsletter content personalization. Antoine Amann, co-founder and CEO of Echobox, presented brand new research alongside Chartbeat to discuss the current trends and the future of engagement online. Needless to say, this was one of the conference’s hottest topics, and we were thrilled to see so many of you engaged and interested.
If social media has not been kind to publishers this year, newsletters have proved to be fruitful for editors who have invested in their email channels. Looking at the numbers from our database of Echobox customers, open rates and click rates have been on the rise since the beginning of 2023. This is especially true for those who use AI to personalize the content order and the send times according to their subscriber’s habits and preferences.
If you’re interested in learning what kind of ROI publishers get out of AI-powered newsletters, we encourage you to check out our latest white papers on the subject.
We hope to see you again in person soon! In the meantime, if you wish to learn more about Echobox’s artificial intelligence and see our company updates, you can sign up to our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
