DailyMe launches: interview with founder Eduardo Hauser

 
If you’re not aware of the personalized news concept, these sites generally aggregate news content from a variety of sources and enable users to select which type of content they would like to receive according to general criteria (for example: Sports and Business). Usually, these sites also let users play around with the design of their page, by dragging content windows where they are most useful.
 
In the case of newspapers, a few have started offering personalized news to registered users. The New York Times recently opened its MyTimes page to the public, with the functionality described above. In most cases, newspapers don’t link externally, but this practice is starting to emerge too (USA Today now displays links to other newspapers on its homepage). In the UK, both The Sun and The Telegraph websites have been very successful since they launched personalized pages.

The DailyMe essentially lets users do the same, by choosing the type of content they’re interested in, as well as their page design. Among its nice perks: a free email or newsprint option, which delivers the day’s news, at a time chosen by the user, to either the inbox or the printer (the print version is still basic and text-only, but pictures should be implemented soon enough).

Hauser’s motivation to set up DailyMe came “primarily from a personal need to improve the ways I get news.”

In light of the “tremendous gap” in online news between newspapers, which are very editorially structured and formatted, and the search for online news, which is extremely fragmented across the Web, DailyMe aims to offer a combination, a middle way, between both extremes.

It took about a year to develop DailyMe, the algorithms and search function work taking up most of the time – not the website design.

On a day-to-day basis, Daily Me processes anywhere between 120,000 and 150,000 news items. But the average user accesses only about 10 to 15 items per day.

So between input into DailyMe’s system and output to users, the website set up an intricate filter system. Each article is categorized and searchable according to newspaper-like sections, according to its original source, according to keywords, and even length (a long article might not be printable for the paper version of DailyMe).

Many of the categories offered resemble those of newspapers, such as Sports and National News. “We believe the newspaper product is very good” for certain kinds of readers, says Hauser, in reference to these categories. At the same time, DailyMe proposes quite untraditional sections (see below).

On the other hand “people have grown used to using keywords” and online search, which is why DailyMe also offers searches by keyword and source – granted, this is the case for newspapers too. But as Hauser points out, few people bother to run a daily search on 10 keywords of interest on their paper’s website, whereas the process is automated with DailyMe.

But doesn’t the increase in tailored and personalized news risk leading to the narrowing down of news interest and knowledge, rather than the promotion of news?

“Internet as a whole and newspapers are great for discovery” of new information, admits Hauser, in contrast with personalized news, which could tend to restrict a user’s media exposure to his or her only interests. “That’s the element of serendipity in newspapers.”

That said, DailyMe has implemented a few features for users who are interested in “discovery.”

Hauser and his team created random – but valid – demographic categories including the Computerists, 20somethings, 50ish, Stricly Sport, Chic Moms, Tabloid Addicts and more, which aggregate content more or less related to that audience. So a curious user can potentially sign up for one of these “DailyMe Picks,” even in a category that doesn’t match his or her interests.

Another interesting option to promote diverse news interests is the “Member Picks.” Registered users can look at the personalized feeds of other users (when allowed) and subscribe to the same ones.

Of course, one can also choose to subscribe to a general news feed to keep in touch with a variety of subjects – but this would counter the point of having personalized news…

DailyMe positions itself on two fronts in the news market. Hauser doesn’t expect regular newspaper readers to drop their paper for DailyMe, and instead sees the site as “more of a utilitarian complement to newspapers.” But DailyMe does expect to become a primary news source for online news consumers, and readers who aren’t in the habit of buying the print product.

To their advantage, “newspapers have a tremendous brand name” and content production power, since they remain the ones to that produce original content (consider this: of DailyMe’s 1500-1600 sources, about 10-15% are newspapers, but these produce nearly 85% of the site’s aggregated content).

In fact, Hauser envisions DailyMe as being in more of a partnership situation with newspapers, rather than competing against them. The site currently has agreements with many mainstream content providers including Gannett and McClatchy papers, as well as the Associated Press (not The New York Times!).

As personalized news continues to grow, will newspapers turn to DailyMe-like forms, or will both personalized news sites and general news outlets continue to live side by side?

Our guess: newspapers will do what they can to offer tailored news, because they too have recognized that it was a strategic focus. Increasingly, newspapers will themselves turn into multiple source aggregators, while still producing a maximum of their own content. Perhaps they will simply buy out some of the more successful personalized news sites.

“Newspapers are a terrific product as long as people have time and space,” says Hauser. This is an age in which people increasingly have less of each.

Source: Eduardo Hauser, publisher DailyMe