Engagement Labs Identifies Why Social Media is More Important for News Outlets than Ever

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 7, 2015) - Technology and data company, Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE:EL), creator of the eValue™ score, today released data rankings of the top traditional newspapers and the top exclusively online digital news publications based on their social media performance on Facebook and Twitter.

The results indicate that news is more important than ever, whether looking at traditional outlets or new players in the digital vertical, the amplification of news content through social media channels is only increasing access and distribution of news and information.

According to eValue data, the top ten rankings on Facebook and Twitter for the combined U.S. traditional print newspapers and exclusively online digital news publications are:

With the advent of the Internet, news consumption patterns have changed. Traditional newspaper outlets have adapted their practices to adopt digital mediums and are now competing for eyeballs with more niche players.

"News is no longer a one stop shop. Digitalization of the media is allowing niche news markets to become real contenders in the online news space. Digital native outlets like The Verge and BuzzFeed are at the top of the rankings with long-time big hitters like USA Today and New York Daily News," said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. "This also shows that even traditional newspaper outlets have become digitally savvy and are able to compete in the digital space."

According to the eValue data, the top ten traditional print newspapers in the U.S. on Facebook and Twitter are:

According to the eValue data, the top ten exclusively online digital news publications in the U.S. on Facebook and Twitter are:

A unique finding in the data is that Facebook has a higher eValue score group average than Twitter for both print and digital. The print publications on Facebook have a 9.5% higher group average score than Twitter; and for the digital publications, Facebook has a 16% higher group average score than Twitter.

"For news publications, social media is not just a marketing channel; it is part of their business model," noted Segal. "The media disseminates articles through these channels to keep their readers updated on relevant news in real-time and to drive traffic to their site. Digitalization of the media is allowing journalists and news outlets to expand the reach of their content on a global scale."

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs' eValue™ Score is the global benchmark for social media scoring. eValue Analytics Pro, an enterprise-grade social media analytics platform, scores brands between 0-100. eValue measures brands' social media and digital marketing efforts. It's composed of a series of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), including Engagement, Responsiveness and Impact, which is benchmarked against 75,000+ handpicked and verified brands.

The eValue score is composed of Engagement, Impact and Responsiveness metrics. Engagement is the level of interaction content receives on a specific social network, Impact is the unique reach content receives on a specific social network, and Responsiveness measures how much, how fast and how well a brand responds to actual conversations amongst its users.

Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE:EL) offers intelligent social data, analytics and insights for organizations that are actively engaging on social networks. Offered as a SaaS or through an API, the eValue™ analytics platform allows brands to measure and maximize the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns, as well as measure that of their competitors across major social networks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Engagement Labs maintains offices in Montreal, Toronto, Paris and New York. www.engagementlabs.com / www.evaluesuite.com