LinkedIn has made another step toward being a serious player in the online media space with the revamping of its news section.
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The refreshed look on LinkedIn Today sees it take on more of a magazine feel and comes with the introduction of channels, which allow people to follow broader topic areas that cross multiple industries and professional sectors.
The sectors covered by the new channels include Your Career, Economy, Social Impact, Big Ideas and Innovation, and Higher Education. Once you follow a channel, says LinkedIn, you will automatically see updates from that channel directly in your homepage stream.
The professional social network is also offering new ways of sorting the content you see in the section. So you can, for instance, see you own customisable news feed, a quick overview of the top influencer posts of the day, all of LinkedIn’s top influencers and a list of all the new channels.
“By following channels,” says LinkedIn associate project manager Kevin Gu, “you will have access to timely and relevant professional news and insights that can help you stay one step ahead and be in the know on what’s trending in your professional network. Channels represent a more comprehensive way to discover, share, and engage with high-quality Influencer posts, top news sources, and SlideShare content — all in one place.”
It’s the new layout that’s causing the most interest however. Together with the other additions, it turns LinkedIn Today into a Flipboard-style news aggregator. That’s not exactly shocking, given that it recently bought out Flipoboard competitor Pulse.
As PaidContent notes, LinkedIn has a serious advantage when it comes to publishing. It understands the average user’s “interest graph” really well, meaning that it can target content more effectively than most.
It might not be building a media empire just yet, but it’s clearly following through on its commitment to play in the space in a meaningful way and with serious business players like Richard Branson on board, it stands a better chance than most.
