Instagram Twitter Feud, Brand Content Bests Editorial, Building Paywalls

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Instagram and Twitter

Instagram photos can no longer be viewed on Twitter because the two companies are in a feud, reports ReadWrite.

“The real problem is not that the people running these companies are greedy, selfish and childish (though they are),” according to Jon Mitchell. “The real problem is that they are behaving in a completely rational way given the Web 2.0 business model, which ultimately makes this kind of exploitation inevitable.”

Mitchell writes, “We actual Web-using humans do not care about this fight. We don’t care about companies fighting. We want our things to work well and be fun. In a less cynical world, we could have a better experience for sharing photos of our lives with each other.”

Branded Content Beats Editorial 

Digiday’s Lydia Leavitt writes that some branded content is beating out editorial in terms of engagement and shares.

She highlights Pulse, an RSS-aggregation app, which claims that users are 25 percent more likely to pass along branded content over traditional news stories. The content on Pulse is alongside news from The New Yorker and Time and there is nothing on it that says it’s sponsored.

“When a piece of (good) branded content is given the chance to go head-to-head with regular reported stories, there’s a much stronger chance people will click on it and actually give it a read,” says Leavitt.

More and More Paywalls

Paid Content’s Laura Hazard Owen reports that in 2013, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News will be launching paywalls.

In April, the papers were bought out, for the fifth time in six years, by Interstate General Media. The paywalls will appear on new websites and Philly.com will still be free.

Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports Collaborating Online

According to the New York Times, Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports will be linking to each other’s stories online and collaborating on web videos to raise “visibility for each other with minimal investment.”

The two sites are doing it for traffic in the hopes of collectively becoming the number one sports destination online in America. Yahoo will be able to showcase writers on NBC Sports shows and have access to personalities such as Bob Costas. Finances of the collaboration were not revealed.

Content Marketing Trends in 2012

Heidi Cohen of Content Marketing Institute discusses the five biggest trends in content marketing in 2012. At this point, nine out of 10 businesses are on social media, and a whopping 90 percent of people’s media interactions are screen based.

This year, photos were huge— Instagram was purchased by Facebook and grew exponentially in size. Content marketing has greatly influenced shopping, whether it’s in the form of deals or coupons, product information, comments or reviews, or how to videos.

Mobile Readers Want Relevant Content

James Dohnert of ClickZ cites a study that found that “67 percent of U.S. consumers will pay more attention to an ad if it’s relevant to the news item they are reading” on their mobile devices.

Nineteen percent of the respondents said that humor was an important factor in advertising, while 24 percent said they receive their primary news on tablets or smartphones.

Print Version of Wine Advocate Closing Down

Wine Advocate, the 34-year-old newsletter, will be phased out, according to the Wall Street Journal. Robert M. Parker will step down as editor in chief and the newsletter will start accepting ads.

Headquarters will be moved to Singapore and investors from the country will be taking over financial decisions. It has nearly 50,000 subscribers who pay $75 a year for six issues.