Top Tools for News And Media Publishers to Identify New Trends

In the world of journalism, staying ahead of the competition requires you to be quick at identifying news trends. This not only benefits you as a publisher but also your audience. By being the first to accurately report on breaking news, your website gains credibility and trust. When publishers become consistent at this they become the go-to place for readers.

Where Should One Begin to Look for Trends?

For news publishers, trend discovery involves searching keywords on Google, tracking X (formerly Twitter) hashtags, exploring relevant Reddit subreddits, and utilizing media monitoring tools such as BuzzSumo. Additionally, staying informed through industry reports, press releases, and expert insights can provide valuable perspectives for news coverage.

While these are available to every publisher how can you be one step ahead in spotting trends? In this guide, we’ll cover tools (both free and paid) to spot growing trends, create content, and grow your readership organically.

Best Free & Paid Tools for Media Publishers to Spot Trends

1. Google Trends 

Google Trends is a valuable tool for uncovering current trends and popular searches across diverse categories. With this tool, you can dive into trending topics in specific regions or explore recently surging searches. What sets Google Trends apart is its real-time search data, making it ideal for generating content that naturally attracts organic traffic.

Google Trends features:

• Google Trends shows you the most popular topics being searched for on Google, based on a variety of factors, including location, time, and language.
• Interest over time in a particular topic to trace its trajectory. 
• Related topics to get a better understanding of a trend.
• Google Trends allows you to compare the popularity of multiple topics.
• Get notifications when a topic you are interested in starts to trend. 
• Data export: Google Trends allows you to export data on trends, so you can analyze it further.
• Demographics-related information such as age, gender, and interests about different trends. 

Pricing

Google Trends is a free tool that is available for everyone.

2. X (Twitter) 

X (Twitter Trending) is a powerful tool that helps media publishers stay up-to-date on the most popular topics and hashtags on X. This feature provides publishers with a real-time view of what millions of people are talking about, giving them a direct link to the pulse of online conversations.

By using X Trending, media publishers can gain a distinct advantage in covering breaking news and trending discussions as they unfold. This tool offers an immediate and unfiltered view of the latest conversations, providing insights into the interests, opinions, and concerns of users in the X community.

News Publishers Should use X (Twitter) to:

• Identify trending topics and hashtags
• Find breaking news
• Track influencers and thought leaders

Pricing

(X) Twitter is a social media platform that can be freely accessed.

3. Glimpse

Glimpse's primary tool is a Chrome extension that enhances the data available from Google Trends. When you visit Google Trends and search for a topic, Glimpse offers additional insights beyond the standard information provided by Google.

Glimpse Features:

• Access exact search volume data alongside trend data from Google Trends.
• Explore related trending topics.
• Identify platforms discussing the topic (e.g. TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.).
• Discover "People Also Search For" topics.
• Navigate through a topic map for better understanding.

Pricing

Glimpse is a free extension for the Chrome browser.

4. Google News 

Google News is a news aggregator which gathers and organizes news articles from sources around the world. It organizes news across a variety of topics, regions, and languages. Google News uses algorithms to rank these news articles to highlight the most relevant and interesting stories.

News Publishers can leverage Google News by using:

• The "Top Stories" section
• The "Trending Searches" section
• The "Related Topics" section

Pricing

Free for everyone.

Also Read: Publisher's Guide to Optimize for Google News

5. TrendWatchers

Video consumption has increased drastically around the world. Reports suggest people spend an average of 17 hours a week watching videos. Publishers creating video content can use TrendWatchers to discover popular TikTok and YouTube trends. 

YouTube and TikTok trending searches can be used to identify popular topics and find inspiration for articles and blog posts.

TrendWatchers features:

•  Trending topics data on TikTok and YouTube.
• Rising trends, New Trend Alerts in your niche.
• Suggests ideas to create content around these trends. 
• Provides data about keywords with low competition.

Pricing

6. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is a freemium tool that helps publishers discover trending topics before they become mainstream. The tool uses AI and human analysis to identify emerging trends in dozens of categories, including tech, business, finance, entertainment, and more. 

Exploding Topics is a tool that uses a spotting algorithm to analyze millions of searches and conversations on the web and through social networks. It is endorsed by many major brands and agencies and is constantly being updated.

Exploding Topics Features:

• Exploding Topics provides insights into the most popular keywords related to each trending topic, along with the well as the sentiment of those keywords.
• Access information in multiple formats including infographics and news articles.
• Receive alerts for new trending topics or when there’s a significant change in a topic sentiment.
• Exploding Topics allows you to export data on trending topics.
• Topic Maps show how different trending topics are related to each other in order to understand the broader context.
• Trend History feature to understand the trajectory of a trend.

Pricing
This tool offers both free and paid plans. The free plan provides limited access while the paid plan unlocks all features and more.

• Entrepreneur: $39/month
• Investor: $99/month
• Business: $249/month

7. TrendHunter

Trend Hunter is a website that offers a database of trends. Search for trends by topic, such as fashion, tech, culture, or design. 

Trend Hunter determines whether or not a topic is a trend by using AI to scrape the web and find new topics. The team then curates topics and adds them to the database.

After a topic is added to the database, it is assigned three scores: Popularity, Activity, and Freshness.

Trend Hunter Features:

• Trend Hunter's Trend scouting team scours the web for emerging trends and publishes trend reports that provide in-depth analysis of emerging trends, trend history, the factors driving it, and the implications for publishers.
• Trend Hunter sends out-trend alerts to subscribers when they identify a new trend. This allows subscribers to be the first to capitalize on new trends.
• They also have a comprehensive database of trends that can be searched by keyword or category. 
• Trend Hunter has a community of users who can share ideas, discuss trends, and collaborate on projects. 

Pricing:

• Free: Access to trend database, trend reports, trend alerts, and trend analytics. This plan is great for bloggers who want to stay up-to-date on trends.
• Pro: The Pro plan costs $199 per month and gives you access to unlimited users, customized trend reports, and priority customer support. 

8. Buzzsumo 

Image source

BuzzSumo is a cloud-based platform that helps you find trending topics and well-performing content on social media. It is used by SEO and content marketing professionals to find new ideas for content, track the performance of their content, and monitor competitors.

BuzzSumo Features:

• Trending topics feature that scans social networks and aggregates the most popular posts published in the last 24 hours.
• Create custom feeds based on a combination of general topics, domains, and/or countries.
• Trend Score ranks trending topics based on social shares over time.
• Total engagement across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit.
• The ability to discover new keywords, trending stories, customer questions, and content success.

Pricing

BuzzSumo offers a free plan and four paid plans: Basic, Content Creation, PR & Comms, and Suite.

9. SparkToro Trending

SparkToro Trending is a research tool that tracks trending tweets and delivers an organized list of the most shared content by active web marketers on Twitter. It is designed to be the "Front Page of The Web Marketing World."

How SparkToro Trending Works:

• Publishers can connect with SparkToro which tracks tweeted URLs from connected accounts.
• Each URL receives points for the number of accounts that tweeted that link. The points are also weighted based on the quality of the link, which is determined by a variety of factors, such as the domain authority of the link and the number of social shares it has received.
• The algorithm decays the Tweet over time unless it continues to earn new engagement.

SparkToro Trending is also a valuable tool for publishers who want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in web marketing and find new content ideas.

News Publishers should use SparkToro to:

• Find trending topics
• Track the competition
• Community building
• Get in-depth insights about their target audience
• Improve their content marketing strategy

Pricing

Sparktoro offers a free plan with access to 20 searches per month. For businesses, the best plan starts at $112 per month, depending on the requirements. Their most premium plan for larger agencies comes at ₹225 per month with unlimited searches.

10. SEMrush Trends

SEMrush Trends is a tool that provides insights into the latest trends in search engine marketing (SEM). It tracks data from over 100 million keywords and can help you analyze the content marketing strategies of your competitors. News publishers can also use Semrush Trends to identify the rising popularity of video content and create content around it.                  

Semrush Trends Features:

• Traffic Analytics: Get a full overview of any company's online performance, including traffic sources, engagement metrics, and social media performance.
• Market Explorer: Analyze both industry-based and organic competitors, so you can see how you stack up against them.
• EyeOn: This feature automatically tracks your rivals' moves, so you can stay up-to-date on their latest content, promotions, and other activities.
• One2Target: This feature offers unique insights related to the various audience characteristics, such as demographics, socioeconomics, behaviors, and audience overlap.

To get access to all these features, publishers will have to buy the complete SEMrush subscription which offers a 7-day free trial. 

Premium features of Semrush Trends

There are other ways to identify trends besides using tools mentioned above. Social media platforms such as YouTube and Reddit can be a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, as they are both very timely and have a large user base.

With over 2 billion and 430 million active users on YouTube and Reddit respectively, these platforms have a large pool of people who are actively consuming content.

Wrapping Up

You can choose one or more tools to analyze trends accurately. Here are a few additional tips for identifying news trends:

• Monitor social media: Social media is a great way to see what people are talking about. Pay attention to the hashtags and keywords that are trending.
• News aggregators can help you stay up-to-date on the latest news.
• Subscribe to industry publications: Industry publications can provide insights into the latest trends in your field.

By following these tips, you can stay ahead of your competition by creating relevant content and attracting more readers.