AsiaNet 84106

TORONTO, May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The Globe and Mail's automation and predictive paywall engine, Sophi.io (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2809668-1&h=725530205&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsophi.io%2F&a=Sophi.io

), won WAN-IFRA's North American Digital Media Award in the category of Best

Digital News Start-Up.

Logo -

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1170889/The_Globe_and_Mail_Inc__The_Globe_and_Mail_s_Sophi_Wins_Best_Dig.jpg

"Very impressed with Sophi," the judges wrote in explaining their decision.

"The most important and attractive piece from the creation of this AI is that

editorial input was key to it. In many newsrooms, the business models undermine

the value of their key product, but from this presentation it's evident that it

was not the case for The Globe and Mail."

The awards honour news publishers from Canada and the U.S. that have created

unique and original digital media projects. Sophi also took second place in the

awards' Best Paid Content Strategy category, in recognition of Sophi for

Paywalls, its complex natural-language processing and user behaviour-based

predictive paywalling technology.

The artificial intelligence system is also a finalist in the International News

Media Association's Global Media Awards, rewarding innovation and excellence in

growing audience, brand, and revenue, in the Best New Technology or Digital

Product category. Additionally, Sophi is a finalist in the Digiday Media

Awards, recognizing companies working to modernize digital media, in two

categories: Best Digital Product Innovation and Best Revenue Diversification

Strategy.

Sophi was developed by The Globe and Mail to help the newsroom make important

strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of tools that includes Sophi

Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a newsroom

decision-support system.

Sophi Automation (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2809668-1&h=387074575&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3cBpfCN&a=Sophi+Automation

) autonomously places 99% of the content on all of The Globe and Mail's digital

pages, including its homepage and section pages. This lets the newsroom focus

on producing the finest journalism possible and has been so successful that it

is now being used for print laydown as well.

Sophi for Paywalls (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2809668-1&h=2261212227&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3bAmNv5&a=Sophi+for+Paywalls

) analyses both user and content propensity and determines which content should

automatically be put behind a hard-paywall, where the subscription revenue

opportunity is many times greater than the advertising revenue forgone. It has

uncovered millions of dollars in untapped revenue for The Globe and Mail.

Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, said: "It's an honour

for Sophi to be named the best digital media start-up. We are always looking to

innovate, and Sophi has brought us tremendously valuable insights over the

years, as well as freed up our journalists to do what only they can do. We are

pleased to share this powerful engine with other publishers and help transform

the industry with this tool."

As a North American award winner, Sophi is now a contender for the WAN-IFRA

World Digital Media Awards (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2809668-1&h=3820869108&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wan-ifra.org%2F&a=WAN-IFRA+World+Digital+Media+Awards

), where the winners from North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa,

India, and the Middle East compete.

About The Globe and Mail and Sophi.io

The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the

national conversation and effecting policy change through brave, independent

journalism since 1844. The Globe and Mail's award-winning coverage of

busi¬ness, politics and national affairs reaches 6 million readers every week

in print and online. The Globe believes the future of journalism lies in its

ability to bring readers the stories they both want and need to know. That's

why the company invested in innovative data science and hired data scientists

from leaders in the tech industry to develop Sophi.io – an artificial

intelligence system with predictive capabilities – and used it to automate

content curation and promotion.

SOURCE  The Globe and Mail Inc.

Jamie Rubenovitch, Head of Marketing, Sophi, The Globe and Mail, +1

416-585-3355, jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com