A content aggregator involves gathering of web content from different online portals for reuse or resale. It consists of two kinds of content aggregator they are as follows -

1. Those who gather data from other platforms for their own websites

2. Those who gather and distribute content to satisfy their customers needs

The latter process is called syndication.

A common problem every digital news publisher will come across is working with content aggregators.

History Of Content Aggregator

In 2015 was the time when the whole world witnessed the rise of content aggregators because it acts as a sin to many publishers. They all ignored aggregators instead of it.

They chose google news and other news channels because no one wants to dip into their budget, so instead, they created free news searches for the Huffington Post.

The audience sizes of these aggregators were small, but they were seen to be having the capacity to grow rapidly. Their common goal is to accomplish their objective, which is ‘being everywhere your readers are’.

Many publishers started to rely on these aggregators completely; instead of finding a better solution to reach out to the audience, they started giving their content to the free aggregators.

In return, they want a huge number of views on their content but not much return on their investment.

When it comes to revenue generations, which is a big challenge for digital publishers, the only left up option with content aggregators is to bet on the subscription models and nothing else, which is not a win-win situation for digital news publishers.

The friction between content aggregators and news publishers

After giving your content for free and still getting eaten up by the content, aggregators are not good for any publisher.

The new era, which is the social media era, is upto a point responsible for further adding a desire for ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ over an authentic subscriber base.

Regardless of this, a lot of publishers have become a bit lazy and are not focusing on finding new ways to reach their subscribers. They’ve kind of accepted the state of things as they are.

Imagine if they partnered with others in the industry to create a socially engaging ‘network for news’ or the same as to share the wealth. Instead, a lot of them are giving their content to Facebook for free.

Pros and cons of content aggregators -

Beyond all the negative implication around the content aggregators, they also have some advantages with working with them there are some major pros and cons:

Pros:

1. Some trusted aggregators add personalization to your content before distributing it. This usually helps your audience connect better with your content.

2. Some of the aggregators are masters of content distribution and are have a good knowledge of how to maximize the reach of your content to your potential audience

3. Some of the aggregators reduce the need for manual content syndication at a publisher level that helps you save a lot of time and resources.

4. Some content aggregators sites help you to improve your seo efforts by helping in building backlink for your website

Cons:

1. When your audience is reading content on a content aggregator site, it can result in effecting the subscriber base for your website

2. As a news publisher, you are left with little or no authority and control over the content.

3. When the content is not being distributed or consumed on your own website, your brand visibility starts diminishing.

4. Content aggregators promote their own brand, not yours.

Wrapping up

There will be questions around content aggregation and content sharing best practices as long as there are no set rules for news to follow, content curators, and digital news publishers.

Still, as a general, i believe in the rule of thumb, choose the legitimate ones only, who respect the fine line between curating and copying before anything else, do not forget to take your customers’ needs and behaviors into consideration.

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