Data-Driven Content, Risky Investments, Tablet vs. Mobile

The Strategist picks the day’s most interesting stories for the content aficionados who love the backstory and reading between the lines. Here are the gems you need to kickstart your Friday:

Recommendation Engine Outbrain Acquires Editorial Data Startup Visual Revenue (All Things D)
Outbrain has added a data-driven dimension to content marketing with its most recently startup buy. Visual Revenue creates predictions of how well certain types of placements will perform in certain layout designs.

The platform even has functionality to A/B test headlines in real time. Here’s a hint of trends to come — content and data are becoming even more inseparable. From newsrooms to large online media companies, data will inform your core operations and strategy.

8 Experimental Tools to Change Media for the Better (Fast Company)
The Knight Foundation is venturing where few investors have gone before in funding projects that are still too early stage to scale. These ‘risky’ investments are changing the way people communicate — they’re more than just journalism tools.

This week, eight new projects were announced, including a mobile app that helps people report street harassment to cities and a crime watch platform that provides users with up-to-the moment data.

Tablets Surpass Smartphones in Driving Global Web Traffic (cnet)
You read that right. Even though tablets entered the market a modest three years ago, they’re already generating 8 percent of all online traffic.

Even in countries with slow adoption, tablet traffic doubled. On average, tablet users view 70 percent more pages in comparison to smartphones. Imagine how the data’s going to look next year.