Content aggregation or “current awareness” platforms are tools that restrict the flood of digital news and information, honing in on the content determined to matter the most. With the overwhelming amount of content being published, the need for condensing information is surpassing the desire for aggregating it. It’s not just “more” that people want; it’s more relevance.
LAC Group explored five products in this space a few years ago and published a report, Nothing but the relevant content. Our intention was to support your own evaluation process. It’s also helpful if you’re not aware of current awareness and media monitoring. Staying with the same five vendors, we’ve updated the report to note platform changes this year.
Five current awareness / media monitoring platforms
The 2021 version covers five solutions that our clients and electronic information resource experts have identified as key players and leaders in this market:
- InfoNgen
- Manzama
- Meltwater
- Nexis Newsdesk
- Vable
These vendors are not the only options, but they are market leaders. All of them allow you to monitor a vast range of multimedia coverage on any topic or person of interest and, in this case, multimedia means multiple media outlets, everything from major newspapers to blogs to social media. In addition to bringing information together with various filters and ways to control the flow, all provide the ability to compile and distribute your customized findings via newsletters, alerts and other methods.
What “Nothing but the relevant content” contains
Keeping with our theme, we focused on making this report relevant and easy. While we did gather vendor input, we wanted to minimize their influence in order to remain unbiased, relying heavily on our own research and knowledge.
In this report, you will get an executive overview of each platform along with the following:
- Needs and utilization explaining how and why these platforms are used.
- Content and features overview.
- Evaluation considerations and caveats.
- Two appendices—platform comparison chart and vendor information.
What’s new this year
We found three major changes in this report update:
- Enhanced filtering and search capabilities to improve user experience and control.
- Greater focus on global coverage and further expansion into various industries.
- Inclusion of different media types as content sources.
In addition, another option to current awareness tools is included to cover information and insights produced and delivered by research analysts. We called this section “Human Intelligence”.
Information overload isn’t going away, but with the right people and tools, it’s becoming more manageable and meaningful. Some recommendations to guide you in that regard:
- Download a copy of Nothing but the relevant content. It’s a free decision-support aid that will help you understand the value of current awareness and media monitoring. You’ll be able to answer questions like “Should I invest in this EIR category?” or “Which platform works best for my organization?”
- As for possible investment, the report doesn’t reveal specific pricing since pricing is unique to each situation. However, you can seek the advice of eResource management experts like our own, who have guided LAC clients toward their best information options while ensuring they don’t overspend.
- Consider our analyst-led approach for current awareness or social media monitoring. Content aggregators add value by limiting some of the content that comes through at the top of the funnel and by allowing users to filter and view content based on relevant criteria. Yet human time, skill, perspective and intervention are still a necessity.
