5 things you need to know

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BuzzFeed wants to be the leader in breaking news on mobile globally, and it's hoping its newly upgraded international news app will get it to the top.

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Last month Axel Springer released some fairly enviable financial results for a 70-year-old media company with roots in print: 70 percent of its revenue came from digital. The secret to Axel Springer's success? Diversification.

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E-commerce retailers are great at collecting mountains of big data, but very few of them are actually using it to give consumers a better shopping experience. Here are five charts that break down the landscape now.

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We asked publishers to write down their biggest digital challenges and granted them anonymity. From platforms to viewability to profitability, these were their biggest frustrations.

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When creative are actually creative, they create some pretty wonderful things outside of their agency walls. Here are five of our favorite recent agency side hustles.

The secret to Axel Springer's success: A diverse digital portfolio

Lucinda Southern

Seventy percent of Axel Springer's revenues come from digital activities. This includes a healthy classifieds business and investment in paid content models. Early-stage investment has been the sweet spot, according to Axel Springer president U.S.A. Jens M?ffelmann, who said that Springer has invested in 90 early-stage investments in the last two years, spending more than EUR100 million. Targeting the U.S. is another focus point for the publisher in its strategy to diversify revenues streams.

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5 charts that break down the e-commerce landscape today

Tanya Dua

With the rise of e-commerce comes its associated challenges: Retailers must not only increase customer engagement but also drive sales in a highly competitive online environment. For starters, they must prioritize returning customers, emphasize giving a good mobile app experience as well as offer speed, easier navigation and enhanced security to their customers. "Execution is what differentiates the top e-commerce retailers from others,” said Jason Goldberg, svp of commerce strategy at Razorfish.

Platforms, viewability and profitability: Publishers confess their biggest challenges

Sahil Patel

Publishers are facing a lot of challenges in today's media environment. We got a few to anonymously share their biggest frustrations. For starters, platforms promise huge audiences, but make it difficult to measure and monetize. Then there are agencies like GroupM, putting pressure around viewability standards. Finally, it’s tough competing with media unicorns that raise huge amounts of money at high valuations, but no clear path to profitability.

Facebook drives up to 7 times more traffic than Twitter. Get to know your social audience

Chartbeat

Social media, once considered the side door to a publisher’s site, is rapidly becoming the primary entry point for new readers. These readers move in and out of content differently than traditional web site visitors. Social visitors are new, they're likely to stay that way, and even if they return, they will likely come via the same social channels. Social traffic is dramatically more mobile-based than all other traffic. The rise of distributed platforms like Facebook Instant Articles and Google AMP will only accelerate the rise of the social reader. Sponsored content by Chartbeat.

From olive oil to an online zoo: Agency executives' passion projects that we love

Yuyu Chen

Agencies executives have expanded their creative thinking to their passion projects. Michelle Cardinal, CEO and co-founder of R2C Group, oversees her family's olive oil business; Chris Orris, account executive for Oxyen PR, developed a mobile video game to pitch reporters; and Dorota Pankowska, art director for Ogilvy & Mather Paris, made business cards with crayons. You can find more interesting side-gigs in our roundup.

Seven things you didn't know about in-image ads

GumGum

The challenges to online advertising -- think ad blocking, banner blindness, tiny mobile screens -- only seem to increase, while the costs of producing quality content remain stubbornly pricey. The publishers today are scrambling to find ways to boost (or, heck, simply maintain) revenue but may be overlooking the modest income stream offered by in-image advertising. Isn’t it time you found out more about the potential it holds for your profit margin? Sponsored content by GumGum.

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