USA Today's answer for better reader engagement? More games

USA Today is best known as a source for news, but that’s not keeping the Gannett-owned publication from exploring new ways to engage its website's visitors. USA Today said today it is partnering with New York City-based social and mobile game developer Arkadium in order to ramp up the website’s game offerings, from seven to over 65 games, all free-to-play. The move shows how games might be used to drive user engagement on sites that aren’t strictly game-focused. A rep said Arkadium’s games have a cross-platform average play time of 27 minutes. Games will be available on USAToday.com’s Life section. John Geddes, who’s director of gaming, entertainment, and events at Gannett Digital said Arkadium is delivering a “custom portfolio” for the USA Today audience, with more games to be added in the future. USA Today is licensing Arkadium Arena, and the plan is to embed games into related news content as well as ad campaigns on desktop and mobile platforms.