A content aggregator you can trust

What is a content aggregator?

A content aggregator is an entity that pulls together web content and/or applications from online sources, for reuse or resale. Essentially, it’s a means of content curation all in one place—a service where content is licensed, and royalties are paid to the publishers.

Materials collected by a content aggregator can include a variety of topics, but can take the form of:

• Blogs
• Newsletters
• Newspapers
• Magazine articles
• Social media posts

Manual content aggregation (and content aggregator websites) have become increasingly labour intensive for a number of reasons:

• The widespread commoditization of free information on the web
• Extracting information from numerous websites can pose difficulties in verifying source reliability
• Publishers often release different versions of the same copy, with many aggregator websites relying on agency copy rather than customised editorial

Types of content aggregators

A content aggregator tool can connect you with an extensive content archive, all from a single point of access. There are two types of content aggregators which exist for businesses to use.

News aggregator

A news aggregator (sometimes known as an RSS feed) gathers the latest news stories from various sources, creating a personalised news feed in one location. Generally, news aggregators take the form of a software, application or News API.

There are a number of news aggregators on the market; your goal should be to find the best news aggregator websites, apps or tools for the needs of your business. News aggregators most commonly take the form of either news aggregator websites, apps or tools.

News aggregator websites can benefit both the news aggregator and the original publisher. While the news aggregator websites generate traffic, the original publications can gain exposure, also resulting in traffic upticks.

Regardless of its format, the purpose of a news aggregator is the same—whether you’ve chosen to use news aggregator apps, websites, or tools. RSS feeds consolidate and publish news from other sites, in one easy-to-use interface.

News aggregators can save businesses time and resources, as they help business owners stay abreast of digital news outlets and breaking news stories.

This can be very convenient, helping you stay up-to-date with trends, industry developments and the activities of your competitors. Advanced machine learning capabilities (in a more advanced news aggregator) can provide valuable context and insight that you wouldn’t get from browsing the news alone; and intuitive grouping of topics and categories allows you to consider every possible perspective behind the news story, all in one navigable interface.

With news aggregators, businesses can remain at the forefront of their field as they power business critical decisions with current news and data. Save yourself the effort of combing through your news feed and various news websites, and access relevant company news at your fingertips.

News aggregator tools can connect RSS feeds with your existing applications through an API. This means you can stay up to date without a hitch, helping you pursue your business goals with greater confidence and intelligence.

Automated content aggregation

An automated content aggregator syndicates content, gathering and distributing material to suit the needs of customers. Of course, it’s still possible to manually aggregate content in today’s data-driven world, but automated content aggregation—with the help of software tools—is more common and practical.

This evolution reflects the changing role of the information professional, as they now focus their time on high value, specific tasks where they’re able to add greater levels of value to the business.

What is a content aggregator tool?

A content aggregator tool can connect you with an extensive content archive, all from a single point of access. Of course, it’s still possible to manually aggregate content in today’s data-driven world, but automated content aggregation—with the help of software tools—is more common and practical. This evolution reflects the changing role of the information professional, as they now focus their time on high value, specific tasks where they’re able to add greater levels of value to the business.

 

65% of professional researchers on our ‘Voice of the Information Professional’ panel believe they could conduct their role with the same efficiency and proficiency, if they lost their paid content aggregator tool. What makes an automated content aggregator so crucial?

Content aggregator tools have a number of benefits, as your business can: 

• Grow your marketing efforts as part of a content marketing strategy
• Power your business applications
• Drive your corporate intranet
• Add value to customers
• Stay updated on industry information

Save time and money

When asked whether a paid content aggregator saves time, 77% of the ‘Voice of the Information Professional’ panel said yes. Automated content aggregator tools are crucial for the following reasons:

Accessibility

A content aggregator tool utilises indexing, which guarantees precise and thorough search results. By connecting you with the information you need faster, you can access filtered, targeted, styled and formatted content with minimal processing.

Usability

Rather than sourcing content from multiple aggregator websites and managing a range of subscriptions, you can access a steady supply of information through a single point of access.

Timelines

Content aggregators update information daily with content feeds that may not be accessible on an aggregator website, with information stored behind a paywall.

Customer service

Content aggregators come with the added benefit of customer service and training. While the size and scale of our content library may feel overwhelming, our tools allow you to target content quickly and easily.

How a content aggregator tool works

While automated content aggregators are known for returning refined results quickly, they go through a number of steps to filter out the ‘noise’.

1. Select

First, content aggregators identify and select key titles, publishers and third party content distributors.

2. License

Extensive contracts are drawn up between the publishers and the content aggregators, detailing the legal and commercial terms of use. This saves the customer from needing to concern themselves with copyright.

3. Normalise

Content aggregators draw from thousands of sources, all in different data formats. Original content is reformatted and standardised to appear uniform.

4. Archive

Content is permanently stored, backed up and archived for the customer’s easy reference.

5. Index

Consistent and granular metadata is applied, helping you find the relevant content faster.

6. Productise

In this step, content aggregators build the content into a product or interface where search is intuitive for the user. Data extraction, functionality and delivery is one seamless process.

7. Service

The customer is able to resolve issues as soon as they arise; resources and training are on hand to empower users to find information faster.

8. Maintain

Aggregator website tools come with the benefit of continuous monitoring. If the publisher has an editorial update or amendment, content aggregation tools will implement those changes. This ensures the timeliness and accuracy of all content.

9. Secure

Content aggregation products and services have in-built security features, removing the risk for the user as they access content.

LexisNexis: a global content aggregator

LexisNexis has been aggregating content for more than four decades. We have not only one of the biggest news archives in the world, but also the taxonomy and search technology that makes it quick and easy to retrieve this cornucopia of information.

By taking advantage of our collection of information, you can in turn offer aggregated, curated and enhanced-attribute content using application programming interfaces (APIs). You’ll create smarter, more powerful business applications, and you’ll be able to deliver more value to your customers, both responsively and effectively.

LexisNexis provides access to a range of trusted sources, including:

• More than 17,000 licensed news and business sources
• Millions of daily news articles and social media feeds that span 75 languages and more than 100 countries
• More than 1.9 million company and 3.1 million decision-maker profiles
• More than 6,500 international news sources
• A comprehensive collection of patent data from more than 100 patent authorities
• Regulatory and  legal information that draws from 168 million federal and state court dockets and 7 million court documents
• More than 600 company and industry sources
• More than 200 executive and biographical sources

Nexis Data as a Service

Nexis Data as a Service (DaaS) is a critical tool in our content aggregation arsenal. It connects you to the right content at the right time. With Nexis DaaS, you have access to:

• News data, including national and international newspapers, radio and TV broadcast transcripts
• Company and industry data, such as company profiles, corporate hierarchies, financial reports, mergers-and-acquisitions activities
• Legal information, including global treatises and court dockets, risk-management and compliance data on politically exposed persons (PEPs), sanctions lists and watchlists
• Magazines and trade publications, which provide essential perspectives and business intelligence on industry drivers and company events
• Intellectual property (IP) and patents data from more than 80 data sources and patent authorities
• Newswires and press releases detailing the important news of the day

What’s more, Nexis DaaS adds more data to its collection every day.