Tech Stack 2022: what is under the hood of news web sites

An online news site is a toolbox. There are tools to manage cookies or serve content to subscribers, to publish newsletters, to track visitors, to produce maps or infographics, to send alerts on phones, to ensure that podcasts are listened to or videos viewed, etc. These resources used by the editorial, technical and marketing teams have an impact on the production of information and the scope of its distribution. Two Sciences Po schools (journalism and executive education) have therefore studied the most important ones. The result of this work is the Teck Stack 2022 study presented at the conference #NPDJ.

The use of an English word to name the package says that it is a spontaneous addition of tools picked-up in order to respond to the evolution of technology and public uses. Usually, a newspaper publisher keeps its stack secret, like a cook who does not share the recipe of a dish. But for this survey, publishers responded individually to a questionnaire so that their answers, grouped together and therefore anonymous, reveal the overall composition of the Tech Stacks used in France by the major sites. Thirty tools are cited, noted and commented. Together, they form an unprecedented description of the context of information production.

We see the power and even more the extent of Google technologies cited in twelve categories of tools that cover all areas: editorial, marketing and technical. On the other hand, publishers are seeking to control their resources, since in-house solutions, known as proprietary, exist in twenty-four tool categories.

However, this option is most widely used in only five of them. At a time when a large part of the online press claims to want to recruit subscribers, we also discover that the tools receiving the lowest average score, according to the publishers themselves, are those that manage subscriptions.

In addition to this handicap, there are two others: a still limited equipment to store the data essential to the implementation of artificial intelligence and even, beyond that, a difficulty to produce the traffic and behavioral data of Internet users for the recruitment of advertisers and subscribers. For their part, editorial offices are totally dependent on external solutions to distribute their newsletters, and for most of their notifications to phones. The production of maps, infographics and publications on social networks is also largely handled with expensive tools that are often the same for everyone.

Last but not least, the confrontation between technological solutions and regulation changes: the digital press struggles to have the data necessary to recruit subscribers and advertisers while the implementation of data storage rules is changing.

The Tech Stack 2022 sheds light on areas that are often kept in the dark: the resources available to journalists, the too short ability of managers to seduce the public and advertisers, the protection of personal data promised by legislation, and the dependencies on technologies that are not always accessible.

Download the survey (in French) here