German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has been a Dataminr customer for over two years. Journalists and social media strategists use Dataminr’s real-time alerting solution, Dataminr for News, to break news faster and stay up to date on events as they evolve over minutes, hours and days.
About Deutsche Welle
- Editorial services available in 32 languages
- 200+ social media channels
- 4 television channels (English, German, Arabic, Spanish)
- Broad variety of digital properties
DW chose Dataminr because, like many other newsrooms, it was faced with increased competition for share of voice and social media real estate. And with an ever-growing number of news stories occurring around the world, it needed a better way to detect breaking news in as close to real time as possible.
We sat down with Sebastian Katthöver, DW Head of Audience Development, to discuss how Dataminr for News has made a difference for the media organization.
Move quickly from trial user to customer
DW kicked off its Dataminr relationship with a trial run. The value of Dataminr for News became clear immediately. Trial users experienced what it was like to access information beyond their existing, limited content discovery platform and manually scanning social media.
They began receiving Dataminr’s real-time alerts, which were pulled from hundreds of thousands of public information sources including social media platforms, blogs, IoT sensor data, audio transmissions, the deep and dark web and more. The alerts were delivered in real time, often within seconds or minutes of an occurrence.
“Our trial was a big success and everybody who was a trial user said, ‘I want more of this.’ We were breaking stories first or faster than our competition and consequently there was more traffic from search engines, which was something we liked,” said Katthöver.
Customize alerts for better news coverage
Being able to customize the real-time information Dataminr for News delivers is a crucial capability for DW journalists and editorial teams. All have specific coverage areas around the world for which they are responsible. With the Dataminr for News customization feature, they can receive the real-time alerts that are most relevant to them via their preferred channel: desktop, email, mobile or Slack.
Alerts can be customized by geographic area—global, regional or hyperlocal—news beat, priority level and topics. Topics are wide-ranging, including geopolitical events, elections, sports, weather, cyber hacks and threats and more.
“We utilize tailored lists to target the story and region our journalists and editorial teams are focusing on. It’s very easy to set up and everyone can have an individual setup based on their interests,” said Katthöver.
In addition, thanks to Dataminr for News’ alerts, generated from its vast and diverse pool of public information sources, DW editors no longer need to manually scan social media platforms for news stories.
“The teams who are using it love it and don’t want to use our social media management platform anymore because it’s [Dataminr for News] quite convenient for them,” said Katthöver.
Increase digital growth and ensure legitimacy of news
With Dataminr for News real-time alerts, DW is able to break news on the company website as soon as it occurs. The faster the news is reported on the site, the more likely it is to be shared and amplified on social media platforms.
“For some stories, Dataminr has given us a 45-minute head start,” said Katthöver.
This is a huge advantage for DW, making it more competitive and allowing it to increase advertising revenue and audience engagement. Just as important is the ability to ensure the validity of stories before they’re published.
DW journalists and editorial teams must confirm a minimum of two sources for each news story and any anonymous tips must be corroborated. Dataminr for News gives them the advance notice needed to write and validate each piece of news.
“When we have the second source, we hit publish. The 45 minutes [Dataminr for News] gives us is the advance we need to produce a story that lives up to the quality standards that we have for our content,” said Katthöver.
Being able to break news earlier also gives DW a better position on Google search and more time to focus on their SEO strategy. This is vital as expanding digital reach through SEO is a business priority for the company.
“While tracking a story, we want to see if it keeps a good position on Google. If not, we consider what we need to change around in the article, or which keywords need updating,” said Katthöver. “By utilizing Dataminr for News and implementing this SEO tactic, we saw roughly a 70% increase in search traffic for one of our services.”
The final result? DW now has a streamlined process for breaking news as soon as possible without sacrificing the quality of its news. This, along with its digital strategy and growth, has helped the broadcaster not only stay competitive in the news industry but keep pace with an ever-evolving media landscape.
Learn more
See why newsrooms worldwide rely on Dataminr for News.
