Applying traditional retail product concepts to news content could accelerate data driven publishing. Publishers do not predict customer demand for content, nor do they perform traditional market research like Nike would for a new pair of sneakers. You’ve probably never heard of a publisher applying six sigma strategies to how it produces content. And when publishers promote their content, it’s rarely with the same rigor and aggression as MARS fighting for shelf space at Wal-Mart.

Why not ?

/ Dennis (@dennismortensen)

At the beginning of 2012 we officially launched the Front Page Arrangement History report. We invested in this because we believe it’s more than just a nice to have. A publisher who sits still and doesn’t innovate in this day and age is setting themselves up for a fall. Every publisher we work with is continually tuning and tweaking their homepage or section front pages but many lack the necessary tools to help them answer questions such as:

- What if I relocate this module?
- What’s the impact of the deploying a full width Doomsday module?
- If I move this ad unit down, how are the surrounding positions affected?
- I use multiple templates which one performs better on a Monday?

The list is almost endless…and the question is to what end? How are these tweaks affecting content engagement?

The above contains sample data only 

There are plenty of tools out there that take snapshots (screenshots) of specific pages on a site and whilst this is useful, without data it’s really just a collection of images – remember the WayBackMachine! We took a slightly more advanced approach with our solution and combined both snapshots and data.

- We take full length snapshots of every front page under management
- Snapshots are taken every time you update a given front page – every time!
- Alongside each snapshot, we store a matrix view sorted by position
- Article position data and its performance during each snapshot period
- Data on the best/worst performing arrangements; current, day, week, month
- ALL snapshots and position data for the lifetime of the account are stored
- Use our API or UI to pull either the snapshots or data directly

Snapshots are eye candy on their own, but when coupled with the corresponding historical position, arrangement and performance data they become unbelievably insightful and set the stage for in-depth analysis. The arrangement history provides a meaningful backdrop for internal publisher discussions; from editorial to audience development and advertising to design, all publisher stakeholders can benefit from this level of detail.

CH

“We are ruined by our own biases. When making decisions, we see what we want, ignore probabilities, and minimize risks that uproot our hopes.”

That is a very succinct phrase, that quite beautifully captures something we witness quite too often in Online Publishing. I don’t think you would be unfamiliar to an environment, where the news team celebrates a story winner, which they promoted prominently on the homepage – A self-fulfilling prophecy, where we want it to be the winner, because we chose it! Unbiased decision support for Editors is hard to come by, and machine driven input might just be what we need to see truly unemotional programming suggestions.

/ Dennis
@dennismortensen

Today, we are hiring the following really smart people and would love to speak to you if you want to participate in this exciting chapter for the media industry, whether that be as a customer or an employee:

• 2 x Front End Engineers
• 2 x Back End Engineers
• 1 x Lead UX/UI Designer
• 1 x Customer Engagement Manager
• 1 x Business Development Manager

I am extremely proud of what our team has achieved over the last two years and am beyond excited about the task ahead of us, and who wouldn’t be – placing a predictive terminal for editors in every newsroom!

Cheers :-)

Dennis
CEO and Founder
@dennismortensen

Investment to Expand Team and Continue Drive to Become the ‘Bloomberg Terminal of the Newsroom.’

New York, NY, January 26th 2012 - Visual Revenue Inc., the market leader in predictive analytics for online publishers, today announced that it has secured $1.7M in funding led by IA Ventures and Softbank and joined by our current shareholders. This investment will primarily be used for aggressively expanding the existing team.

Visual Revenue is currently looking for smart folks to fill the following positions: Front End Engineers, Back End Engineers, Lead UX/UI Designer, Customer Engagement Manager, Business Development Manager. Apply now.

Visual Revenue offers media companies a unique Front Page Decision Support System for online Editors. The solution can predict the performance of a piece of content about 15 minutes into the future and provides editors with real-time recommendations on what content to place in which position on a Front Page and for how long. Taking these recommendations results in a dramatic increase in visitor engagement, content relevancy and revenue while simultaneously providing a cost saving opportunity.

“Visual Revenue sits at the intersection of real-time data, semantic analysis and web optimization, and seamlessly delivers this ROI-based solution to publishers both large and small,” said Roger Ehrenberg, Managing Partner at IA Ventures. “Dennis and the Visual Revenue team are executing on an ambitious and exciting business plan, arming publishers with the tools to best monetize their inventory while delivering a top quality product to their readers.”

“Visual Revenue’s continued success is a testament to our excellent team and the progressive newsrooms that we serve,” said Dennis R. Mortensen, CEO and Founder of Visual Revenue Inc. “Given our success and momentum, we have the luxury of selecting the very best investors to help us fulfill our vision of a data driven newsroom.

About Visual Revenue

Visual Revenue Inc. provides a predictive analytics solution that helps online media organizations set a better front page. Headquartered in New York, Visual Revenue helps media organizations across the globe better arrange their current content throughout their online publication. Visual Revenue’s Front Page Decision Platform currently provides more than 45 online publishers with real-time recommendations. Our partners include Forbes.com, NYDailyNews.com, NBC’s iVillage.com, TheBlaze.com, Telegraaf.nl and OneIndia.in.

Visual Revenue was founded by former IndexTools (now Yahoo! Web Analytics) COO Dennis R. Mortensen and officially launched in January 2011. The founding team are industry veterans from the web analytics, big data and predictive modeling world.

For more details on Visual Revenue, Inc. visit the corporate website at visualrevenue.com or call +1 (212) 506-6700 or email hello@visualrevenue.com.

PRWeb Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9132496.htm

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9080127.htm

Visual Revenue, Inc. today announced that Kauppalehti.fi have subscribed to its Homepage Decision Support Platform.

The Visual Revenue Platform delivers Editorial teams real-time recommendations on what content to place where on their homepage (and section front pages) and for how long. An intuitive solution designed specifically with Editors in mind, the collaborative online environment takes editorial discussions to the next level ensuring content placement decisions can be taken faster, more accurately and with a greater level of confidence.

Kauppalehti.fi is the leading Business and Financial News destination in Finland and deployed the Visual Revenue Platform to help increase the website’s overall audience engagement. The Platform provides recommendations based on the value, engagement and trajectory of an item of content ensuring that the most relevant and valuable stories are correctly promoted for the right period of time.

“Kauppalehti produces over a 150 pieces of content on a daily basis, each deserving promotion to one degree or another,” said Arno Ahosniemi, Editor in Chief at Kauppalehti.” Visual Revenue helps us quickly understand which articles are resonating with our readership, where to expose them on our homepage and for how long. This ensures we get the best possible return on investment for each article we write.”

“Kauppalehti.fi are a great fit for us and we’re extremely pleased to partner with them,” said Charlie Holbech, VP Operations and Co-Founder of Visual Revenue, Inc. “Managing the promotion of content has never been more important and we’re very excited to see The Platform integrated into the digital newsroom processes at Kauppalehti.”

About Visual Revenue
Visual Revenue Inc. provides a predictive analytics solution that helps online media organizations set a better front page. Headquartered in New York, Visual Revenue is helping media organizations across the globe better place their current content throughout their online publication. Visual Revenue’s Front Page Decision Platform currently provides more than 45 online publishers with real-time recommendations. These include Forbes.com, NYDailyNews.com, NBC’s iVillage.com, Telegraaf.nl, Borsen.dk and OneIndia.in.

Visual Revenue was founded by former IndexTools (now Yahoo! Web Analytics) COO Dennis R. Mortensen and officially launched in January 2011. The founding team are industry veterans from the web analytics, big data and predictive modeling world.
For more details on Visual Revenue, Inc. visit the corporate website at visualrevenue.com or call +1 (212) 506-6700 or email hello@visualrevenue.com.

Institutions reduce the choices available to their members. (This is Ronald Coase’s famous argument about transaction costs.) This reduction allows better focus on the remaining choices they face.

The editors meet every afternoon to discuss the front page. They have to decide whether to put the Mayor’s gaffe there or in Metro, whether to run the picture of the accused murderer or the kids running in the fountain, whether to put the Biker Grandma story above or below the fold. Here are some choices they don’t have to make at that meeting: Whether to have headlines. Whether to be a tabloid or a broadsheet. Whether to replace the entire front page with a single ad. Whether to drop the whole news-coverage thing and start selling ice cream.

Every such meeting, in other words, involves a thousand choices, but not a billion, because most of the big choices have already been made. These frozen choices are what gives institutions their vitality — they are in fact what make them institutions. Freed of the twin dangers of navel-gazing and random walks, an institution can concentrate its efforts on some persistent, medium-sized, and tractable problem, working at a scale and longevity unavailable to its individual participants.

All fair arguments (emphasis is mine) and very much in line with our thinking at Visual Revenue. Institutions reducing choice materializes in such procedures as Editors agreeing upfront about some articles not being eligible for front page exposure. This could be as simple as the publisher deciding that Articles older than 4 hours cannot be shown in the Hero Spot, that only 2 sports articles can be above the fold at any point in time, or that 60% of the Articles must be from the region of their primary constituents. This type of choice reduction is realized by having us ask Editor’s to outline their Editorial Tone as a set of Persistent Editorial Instructions.

However, the state of affairs is still one of astronomical choice, where the initial limitation of choices, in the online news media industry, still leave you with an inhumanely amount of possible front page layouts. Unfortunately not thousands of choices, as Mr. Shirky so kindly suggest.

In conclusion;
Modern newsrooms either need to reduce choices so dramatically that a human editor can easily and timely decide how to program the front page, or the organization must deploy technology that help reduce choice and calculate best performing outcomes within an editorial framework. This is all we do at Visual Revenue!

Cheers :-)
/ Dennis (@dennismortensen)

We’ll ask any new employee to sign the usual lawyer-ish documents that doesn’t really do much else than state $AMOUNT and #OPTIONS. We need those docs, of course, but what we really need is a pledge to a VR ethos! Therefore every new employee will be requested to SIGN the below pledge – it is the most important part of our agreement and we want new team members to truly commit to it.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me.
I know there’s no such thing as a status quo.

I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers.
I understand that our customers drive our product, that simplicity and ease of use is paramount.
I’ll help deliver exceptional customer service at all times.

I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything.
I am more motivated by making an impact than anything else. I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of our team. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time and determination, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.

I am committed to making Visual Revenue the “Bloomberg terminal” of the News Room!

I really do care!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Thanks to Charlie for coming up with the initial comments around our ethos – and thanks much to Automattic for inspiration to go ahead and do this in the first place!

NOW! (If you agree with the above Pledge) go have a look at some of the Exciting Job Openings.

Cheers :-)
/ Dennis (@dennismortensen)

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/12/prweb9033304.htm

Visual Revenue, Inc. today announced that Borsen.dk have deployed the Visual Revenue Decision Support Platform in the Børsen digital newsroom.

The Visual Revenue Platform delivers Editorial teams real-time recommendations on what content to place where on their homepage (and section front pages) and for how long. Visual Revenue industry average benchmarks see 49% of all article views being attributed back to a homepage or section front channel on a daily basis. The Visual Revenue Platform focuses on these channels by providing editors with real-time feedback on the performance of the front page and how to better optimize the current story distribution & placement.

Borsen.dk is the leading Financial News destination in Denmark and deployed the Visual Revenue Platform to help their editorial team take faster more informed decisions. Given the pace of Financial news and in turn the dozens of homepage updates they perform on a day-to-day basis, Visual Revenue’s Platform helps add further agility to the Børsen newsroom.

“Visual Revenue has developed a powerful online tool that secures more traffic to our site and at the same time keeps the editorial power in the hands of the news desk,” said Jørgen Andresen, Executive Managing Editor at Børsen Digital. “For any media house finding the balance between traffic and relevance is a delicate matter; I believe we have found that balance in Visual Revenue”.

“We’re very happy to be partnering with Borsen” said Charlie Holbech, VP Operations and Co-Founder of Visual Revenue, Inc. “Being Denmark’s leader in Financial news distribution it’s extremely important for Jørgen and his team to know exactly what is and isn’t resonating with their audience. With Visual Revenue providing Borsen real-time recommendations, we aim to help them find those stories that really make that reader connect.”

About Visual Revenue
Visual Revenue Inc. provides a predictive analytics solution that helps online media organizations set a better front page. Headquartered in New York, Visual Revenue is helping media organizations across the globe better place their current content throughout their online publication. Visual Revenue’s Front Page Decision Platform currently provides more than 45 online publishers with real-time recommendations. These include Forbes.com, NYDailyNews.com, Telegraaf.nl and OneIndia.in.

Visual Revenue was founded by former IndexTools (now Yahoo! Web Analytics) COO Dennis R. Mortensen and officially launched in January 2011. The founding team are industry veterans from the web analytics, big data and predictive modeling world.

For more details on Visual Revenue, Inc. visit the corporate website at visualrevenue.com or call +1 (212) 506-6700 or email hello@visualrevenue.com.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/12/prweb9016672.htm

Visual Revenue, Inc., the leading provider of online publisher tools for real-time homepage editing, today announced the addition of NewsOK to its portfolio of online news publishers.

The real-time recommendation capabilities of Visual Revenue’s Decision Support Platform are helping NewsOK determine what content should be placed where on the Homepage (and Section Front pages) of NewsOK.com and for how long. The platform takes a host of signals into consideration when providing content placement recommendations; from Editorial Instructions set by NewsOK, to how they value an item of content, how it’s performing given it’s current exposure, semantic analysis and a plethora of other signals.

“NewsOK is using Visual Revenue for recommendations for our lead stories on several pages throughout the site” said Alan Herzberger, Digital Managing Editor for NewsOK. “Our editors have found the tool to be a welcome complement to our news judgment, allowing for predictive analysis to be mixed in with the knowledge we already have about our audience’s interests and trends. In short, Visual Revenue’s recommendations serve as another set of analytical eyes on our deep content for every minute of the day.”

“We’re extremely excited to partner with NewsOK” said Charlie Holbech, VP Operations and Co-Founder of Visual Revenue, Inc. “Their progressive online approach coupled with our platform will help them increase front page performance and drive downstream content engagement – or put another way, provide their audience with the best possible reader experience each and every time they visit NewsOK.com.”

About Visual Revenue
Visual Revenue Inc. provides a predictive analytics solution that helps online media organizations set a better front page. Headquartered in New York, Visual Revenue is helping media organizations across the globe better place their current content throughout their online publication. Visual Revenue’s Front Page Decision Platform currently provides more than 45 online publishers with real-time recommendations. These include Forbes.com, NYDailyNews.com, Telegraaf.nl and OneIndia.in.

Visual Revenue was founded by former IndexTools (now Yahoo! Web Analytics) COO Dennis R. Mortensen and officially launched in January 2011. The founding team are industry veterans from the web analytics, big data and predictive modeling world.

For more details on Visual Revenue, Inc. visit the corporate website at visualrevenue.com or call +1 (212) 506-6700 or email hello@visualrevenue.com.