News in the digital now

The start of the year saw the launch of multiple e-magazines in the region. Page by page, newspapers are thinning out their dailies and opting for online reporting to keep pace with readers’ preference of convenient content.The mitigation of traditional newspapers into the digital space is still in its trial and error stage, especially since print still commands a level of profit from advertisers. However, this underlying concern has no place in the social media realm.BBC has proven this by launching a digital news experiment on Instagram, aimed at attracting the mobile and tablet crowds.Instafax is an experiment. According to The Guardian, within the one month testing platform, three news reels will be posted everyday. The first video was uploaded on 16 January with footage covering an array of topics, such as the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri and heat wave in Australia.The Guardian reported that viewers rate on Instafax overtook desktop news readers for the first time in late 2013, which prompted the news media to expand its social media presence.BBC is not the only one to expand its news offerings into social media. On 12 January, NBCUniversal News announced it has taken a minority stake in NowThis News, an online video news portal that incorporates social media content from Vine, Facebook and Snapchat.Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairman of NBCUniversal News said that news consumption among younger audiences continues to grow, “but in order to reach that audience, we need to continue to create video for the platforms they use most.”