Hearst Unveils Buzzing@Hearst Trend-Detecting Capability for Advertisers

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Hearst today announced that its industry-leading trend detector, Buzzing@Hearst, is now open to advertisers, allowing them to programmatically target top-performing content across Hearst's media properties. Born out of years of research and development, Buzzing@Hearst analyzes data-driven signals to constantly monitor trending articles, enabling marketers to uniquely marry their message to what's hot in real-time.

Buzzing@Hearst is an extension of MediaOS, Hearst's proprietary analytics-driven content distribution platform. Buzzing monitors thousands of active articles across Hearst's digital ecosystem, including newspapers, magazines and television channels, and provides information about trending articles that editors can curate for their sites. Marketers are then able to serve up ads on pages that are receiving the most audience engagement.

Linked directly to DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), Buzzing allows for a direct data connection between Hearst's editors and digital sales teams, offering an opportunity for premium programmatic ad sales on trending pages. Advertisers' content can then be served alongside Hearst's editorial content that is demonstrating the highest levels of engagement at any given moment.

"Harnessing the power of data science to recognize and instantly integrate trending stories with targeted ads signifies a groundbreaking solution for Hearst and our brand partners," said Phil Wiser, chief technology officer, Hearst. "Buzzing@Hearst demonstrates a new model for publishers and advertisers looking to deliver a user experience that keeps readers and customers engaged and coming back."

Buzzing@Hearst looks at hundreds of signals, refreshed every 90 seconds, to create a "Buzzing Score" of 1-20, a rating assigned to every article to determine its popularity and interest among Hearst's 350 million unique visitors. Buzzing scores are reflective of a variety of factors, giving advertisers an opportunity to advertise on pages based on everything from audience engagement to social engagement, in addition to other metrics.

By integrating Buzzing@Hearst on every editor's dashboard, Hearst is able to constantly monitor for trending articles with the highest Buzzing Scores and curate content relevant to their publication. It also allows editors to receive instant feedback from readers and develop content more likely to resonate with audiences. Recently, for example, a piece that appeared on ELLE UK about Kate Middleton breaking the Queen's dress code received a high Buzzing Score and, as a result, was curated to also appear on U.S.-based Hearst sites. Armed with these insights, advertisers now have a window into the best performing channels and can use this feedback to target the right audiences with the right message.

"We are thrilled to offer a dynamic means for marketers to tap into hundreds of real-time signals we receive through Buzzing," said Julie Clark, vice president of sales and strategy, Hearst Core Audience. "From social signals to time spent on site and understanding current trends -- we give clients a front row seat to what's hot right now. The marriage of data driven marketing with premium content is a reality at Hearst."

About Hearst
Hearst is one of the nation's largest diversified media, information and services companies with more than 360 businesses. Its major interests include ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; majority ownership of global ratings agency Fitch Group; Hearst Health, a group of medical information and services businesses; 30 television stations such as WCVB-TV in Boston and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, Calif., which reach a combined 19 percent of U.S. viewers; newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Albany Times Union, more than 300 magazines around the world including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper's BAZAAR and Car and Driver; digital services businesses such as iCrossing and KUBRA; and investments in emerging digital and video companies such as Complex, BuzzFeed, VICE and AwesomenessTV. Follow us on Twitter @HearstCorp and subscribe to Hearstlink.