LAKANA Partners With Fresco News to Add New Capabilities to Digital Publishing Platform, Bringing Over 200 Local Television Newsrooms User-Generated Content
St. Paul, MN and New York, NY (PRWEB) May 02, 2016 -- LAKANA LLC and Fresco News announced today a strategic partnership that will leverage the technology of both companies to improve the quality, breadth, timeliness and cost effectiveness of local news coverage by connecting citizen journalists with their local newsrooms. Over 250 local broadcast sites utilize LAKANA’s enterprise-class SaaS technology and content management solutions to power their digital media properties. Integrating Fresco News into LAKANA’s digital publishing platform will enable LAKANA platform users to easily assign and publish on air and online videos and photographs curated with Fresco Dispatch, an Uber-like on-demand assignment app.
Fresco News is an app that connects people on the street to TV newsrooms. Available for iOS and soon on Android, app users receive location-based assignments from newsrooms. With the Fresco app, local citizens and aspiring journalists can submit photos or videos, which are then reviewed and curated in real-time by producers at television stations and by Fresco’s 24/7 content team. Fresco ensures the sourcing of the highest quality, broadcast-ready content created by a growing number of citizen journalists who are paid $50.00 for videos and $20.00 for photos used on-air or online by its local broadcast television partners.
Elizabeth Osder, LAKANA’s Head of Revenue stated, “Our goal is to enable local media publishers to successfully operate profitable, secure and innovative businesses. LAKANA’s platform now reaches 75% of the DMAs and 180 million unique users per month. Our strategic partnership with Fresco News will bring high quality, cost-efficient, UGC content streams directly into a station’s digital news platform driving audience reach and engagement while generating average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.”
“Fresco News is not only changing the market for citizen journalists but also giving customers an on-demand content relationship with their viewers,” said John H. Meyer, CEO of Fresco News. “We’re thrilled to partner with LAKANA and are looking forward to providing their customers with access to fresh, local content from citizens in their community.”
Fresco News is the latest innovative technology to be included in LAKANA’s portfolio of products and services that use machine learning, automation and data driven platform optimizations to grow audience and engagement for digital publishers. In October 2015, LAKANA acquired Kixer, a mobile monetization and machine learning platform that taps, app-download dollars, a new and fast growing source of revenue for local media.
Osder added, “Speed and efficiency during breaking news situations are critical for our clients in today’s hyper-competitive local media space. Our platform integration with Fresco will allow newsrooms to gather and publish content faster than ever before.”
LAKANA customers are currently being introduced to Fresco, piloting it in their newsrooms and will be actively collaborating on the strategic integration of Fresco’s capabilities into LAKANA’s core platform and next generation workflows.
About LAKANA
LAKANA (http://www.LAKANA.com) LLC is an enterprise-class technology company that provides solutions for media publishers. LAKANA delivers business-ready SaaS content management, engagement and monetization platforms which seamlessly integrate with a comprehensive suite of products, partners and services that together enable media publishers to successfully operate profitable, secure and innovative businesses. LAKANA is headquartered in St. Paul, MN, with additional offices and development centers in Los Angeles, Austin, Shanghai and Taipei.
About Fresco News
By providing a citizen-driven platform for breaking news content, Fresco News aims to empower everyone to be their own reporter and increase the transparency of global events. The company was founded in 2014 by John H. Meyer, a 2015 Thiel Fellow. Web: http://www.fresconews.com | Twitter:@fresconews | Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fresconews
For more information, please contact:
LAKANA
Lindsey Williams
lwilliams(at)lakana(dot)com
Fresco News
Ashley Seashore
ashley(at)arrow-pr(dot)com
Ashley Seashore, Arrow PR, +1 5102070402, [email protected]
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