"News, and Other Commodities" - a Thorough Look at Premium Sources
Jinfo Blog

By Anja Chemnitz Thygesen

Abstract

Series co-producer, Anja Thygesen, reviews content published recently in the FreePint Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" as well as what's upcoming. If you're interested in sources covering business, company, financial, industry and people research, find out more and register to ensure you receive regular Topic Series updates.

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Our Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" started earlier this month (register for free updates) and we already have some very interesting articles.

Private Company Data and News on the Move

FreePint's director of research, Robin Neidorf, released initial results from our research into private company data. We know researching private company data is a challenge, both in terms of finding information and in terms of ensuring the data is reliable. 

We've also published a very detailed product review of Factiva as well as a Q&A with Factiva where Catherine Pask interviews Brian Gelinas‎, general manager of Factiva, to find out how users are interacting with content and data via their mobile devices.

While in the Q&A with BvD, Dale Moore asks deputy CEO, Mark Schwerzel, how they continue to add value to company information, what customers are doing with BvD data, and finds out more about updates to global company database Orbis. 

Delving into a Premium News Product

Factiva is a key news product for many and ranked by the greatest number of respondents as their "preferred provider" for premium news content in our 2014 News Needs & Preferences Survey (2015 survey will be underway soon). We commissioned researcher Andrew Grave to carry out an in-depth review of Factiva following his previous review 12 months ago. 

The introduction highlights of some of the strengths of Factiva.  Among these are the comprehensive archive (Factiva has more than 1 billion documents from 32.000 sources, some dating back to 1951) and the copyright compliance, a subject that we regularly cover in our FreePint articles. Copyright expert Clare Painter recently examined how to get permission from rights holders in "How Much Will it Cost to Use Someone Else's Copyright Content". 

Andrew's review of Factiva looked at how the premium news source has focused on social media in recent years, and also added a lot of non-English sources. 

He also goes into detail on how your search results can be exported, analysed, converted into alerts and displayed on tailored pages or distributed in various ways. Competitors, development and pricing are also covered - unfortunately (in my view) Factiva continues to base the pricing on seats and no longer offer a Pay As You Go solution.

All in all the product review gives me, as a previous Factiva user, a good update on the recent development of the product and services – I'm even a bit tempted to become a subscriber again!

Register for Regular Series Updates

If you haven't already registered for the FreePint Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities", register now to receive free updates and a PDF report containing selected Subscription articles upon registration, as well as a copy of the index report at the end. 

Blogs and articles published since the last series update: 

• Q&A with BvD - Global Business Intelligence
• Product Review of Factiva 
• Product Review of Factiva (Competitors, Development & Pricing)
• Product Review of Factiva (Technology - Outputs & Alerts; Administration & Help)
• Product Review of Factiva (Technology - Search & User Interface)
• Product Review of Factiva (Sources - Content & Coverage)
• Product Review of Factiva (Introduction; Value; Contact Details)
• Learning to Trust Private Company Information

Articles and reviews coming soon in the series:

• Product Review of Alacra Premium 
• Insider Knowledge - Researching East Africa 
• Is Company Data Just Another Commodity?

Webinars and Communities of Practice: 

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