Flipboard Is Giving Publishers With Faster Load Times More Tools to Reach a Larger Audience

Flipboard's new tools released today will encourage publishers to get their hands dirty on the content aggregation app. With the platform's new standards for publishers, content producers are poised to see more traffic and mobile referrals through the app; plus they can deliver a curated experience for readers. Previously, many publications weren't aware of Flipboard's uses and rarely updated their feeds. Starting today, any publisher around the world can apply to Flipboard's new publisher program, which will facilitate an easier and cleaner experience using tools like Google AMP. Publishers will be able to curate and organize their content as much or as little as they want on the app. "The process was much more manual before," said Marci McCue, Flipboard's CMO. "Not every publisher regularly updated their channels because Flipboard didn't easily connect to their feed. Today, this transforms that." "The mobile web has advanced quite a bit in the last seven years," Flipboard CEO Mike McCue added. "Because we wanted to help every publisher get onto our platform, we had to wait until we could really scale it." Digital publishers that meet Flipboard's new set of fast-loading and mobile-friendly standards will be able to achieve more visibility on the platform much faster than ever before. Users will see a red lightning bolt next to articles that load quickly, which will deliver higher traffic to publishers as Flipboard's 100 million monthly readers can more easily find and load articles. The new system is called Reader Enhanced Display, and any publisher can apply to connect their websites feed, or a specific channel's feed, into Flipboard's platform. Publishers can just set up an automated feed on Flipboard or make more customized curated packages surrounding one topic, much like Twitter Moments. Time, for instance, recently launched a new health brand; with Flipboard, the publication was able to further narrow its audience by creating specific "magazines" for breast cancer awareness and add articles across the brand into relevant categories. [kickout id="1"] "Publishers are excited by Flipboard's tools and the amount of traffic we can bring," said Sarah Gallagher, Flipboard's head of publisher partnerships. "We're respectful of every publisher's unique goals and can help them achieve it." "Mashable’s referral traffic from Flipboard has increased ten-fold in recent months," said Jenni Ryall, Mashable’s vp of content strategy. "It’s proving to be one of our top four drivers for traffic, outperforming many other more traditional platforms." Flipboard's goal is to increase the amount of mobile traffic to publishers while delivering ads in a relevant, safe environment. According to parse.ly, a traffic measurement platform, Flipboard is frequently one of the top four most common referrer sites for mobile traffic, right behind Twitter. Most of Flipboard's ad sales come from working with premium publishers and brands, which can create polished "magazines" on the platform full of their own, relevant content and additional aggregation surrounding the topic. Rolex, for example, is an advertiser on the platform that also chooses to aggregate content for subscribers. With newly opened standards to publishers around the world, Flipboard is poised to help deliver higher traffic rates and mobile referrals for publishers plus a curated experience for readers. "We want people to leave Flipboard feeling good," said McCue. "This is our biggest update since the platform launched, and we're excited to see how publishers around the world use our platform."