Who are your reaching with your news and information? Are you reaching who you want to reach? How can you convey this important data effectively to advertisers and funders? These are crucial questions for any for-profit or nonprofit publisher, large or small—especially community and niche media outlets.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation recently announced an investment in Umbel, a startup which aims to provide real-time audience information enhanced with data visualization…

According to Knight, Umbel “marries traditional research and big data analysis of social sources to give publishers real-time intelligence about the audiences that engage with them. With this information in hand, Umbel empowers publishers to convey their audience’s true value and brand preferences more effectively to advertisers and sponsors.”

Knight invested an undisclosed amount in Umbel’s $3.7 million Series A round of venture financing. This was done through the Knight Foundation Enterprise Fund—a new, early-stage venture fund dedicated to advancing media innovation.

Of course, one problem with using audience data as a sales tool is that it’s often boring and ugly—packaged in tables, bar charts, spreadsheets, or bullet points almost guaranteed to put an advertiser or funder to sleep. Also, only looking at the numbers can sometimes obscure the nuanced patterns of how audiences engage with publishers.

So far Umbel’s system is available only in private beta testing, so there aren’t many details on it. However, Umbel’s about page explains the key role data visualization plays in its system, and also shows an example graphic:

“In 1995 the first living organism’s genome was sequenced… The ability to identify and measure the traits of a genome provides insights to better understand organisms and powers the invention of new solutions that benefit us all. In 2011, Umbel sequenced the first Digital Genome. Measuring and identifying the traits of a digital organism will prove valuable for digital consumers, brands and publishers who want to understand and improve digital lives.”

Understanding patterns in media consumption and audience engagement is getting increasingly complex—especially as mobile devices are starting to take over as the most common way that people access the internet.

One especially thorny issue is recognizing how users shift their experience of your content across multiple devices over the course of a day or a week. A given user may tend to use a smartphone at certain times, a tablet at others, and a laptop or desktop computer at others.

Also, beyond merely consuming content, audience members can share it with their networks, add commentary or context, or directly engage with publishers about the content.

Understanding these and other patterns can help publishers craft strategies that keep pace with the needs and preferences of their digital (and increasingly mobile and multi-device) audiences—and craft advertising and sponsorship options that demonstrably complement how your audience engages with your content.

It’s unclear at this point how much Umbel might be taking mobile media or multi-device users into account. Gathering such data poses special technical challenges, compared to gathering data from how people access websites via computer. However, if Umbel’s data visualizations serve to more clearly illuminate important usage patterns, that would be a significant improvement upon the output of most audience metrics currently available.

The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

By Amy Gahran, 06/05/12 at 3:49 pm