Pinterest to roll-out article pins for media sites and publishers

Pinterest entice publishers to create news and media boards with article pins

Pinterest is to create news driven boards in the form of article pins for media sites and publishers.  

The site claims more than 5 million articles are pinned every day will start introducing the new feature for the web and its mobile versions today. Recently, Pinterest announced it will begin testing promoted pins in search results and category feeds as it seeks create advertising revenue shortly.

Users turn to the site to find, curate and share content from numerous sites, including news resources.  With the new look to help, Pinterest users can pin and locate things more easily as Jon Parise, software engineer at Pinterest explains in his blog post, ?Articles will now have more information - including the headline, author, story description and link - right on the pin. So, when you find articles about things you?re passionate about, such as science, travel, parenting or health, they?re easier to save and organize on Pinterest.?

Bloggers, journalists, publishers and users have always been able to add articles, along with a description and hyperlink. However, the new functionality will present articles in a different way, with the aim to make them more useful.  ?These new pins are similar to the updated recipe, movie and product pins we introduced in May. We?re always looking for ways to make pins more useful so that when you discover and pin something great, it?s easy to act on it, whether that?s cooking a dish, watching a movie, buying a new gadget or reading an article,? adds Parise.

The post highlights numerous publications and media sites that pin across various industries including The New York Times, Fortune, The Guardian, Le Monde, Telegraph TIME, Rolling Stone, Word and Film, Fast Company, French Web, Mashable and Wired, Travel + Leisure and Fodors.com, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, US Weekly, Esquire, GQ and Vogue Paris, Babble, iVillage, Wall Street Journal, Everyday eBook, Biographile, The New Yorker, Men?s Journal, Food + Wine. 

Pinterest also points to Arianna Huffington, Dr. Oz, Queen Latifah and Alyssa Milano as interesting people that pin news and what they curate. The blog also highlights reporters and journalists Peter Greenberg, Jed Gray and Tim Devaney as media professionals that have boards in the publishing space.


Given Pinterest?s push to encourage publishers to tap into the benefits of its site, it?s another reminder for content creators, reporters, journalists and publishers that when generating content they need relevant and captivating imagery to accompany articles and blog posts.   In addition to have great eye candy, they need to ensure they are using good meta tags (title, descriptions and keywords) ultimately how articles are posted may have an influence in the way they are shared.

Article pins is more of a publishing move putting Pinterest squarely in the same space as services such as Flipboard, Paper.il and Pulse as it makes moves to generate revenue whilst staying on the good side of users. With addition of hashtags to the site not so long ago, its not hard to see other features akin to social networks and other social sites could be beneficial to brands and publishers as the traditional publishing industry evolves. 

As users curate and share content Pinterest could create data around what people like to read and share, so it could tune in ads or promotions to introduce what may be more relevant to them. With designs on ecommerce, price alerts and personalisation, Pinterest could start to reach the potential that the founders wish to strive for, but how its audience reacts will tell us more.


Got a good news story? Tell us at SMP contact.