'Back to content' is global media trend
Miki Toliver King, vice president of marketing at the Washington Post, speaks during her Reader Revenue session at the World News Media Congress in Estoril, Portugal, from June 6 to 8. Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young
Major media organizations say quality of content is key to profit-making
By Yun Suh-young
With lighter, lower-quality news infiltrating the online realm, the production and distribution of quality content is becoming ever more integral.
Leaders at news media companies worldwide seem to have a consensus on this ― that in an age of confusion where journalism is becoming more important, quality content is key to retaining readers and to achieving financial success.
"We live in pretty tough times, but I think it's about time we look at the positive trend in this business," said David Pemsel, CEO of the Guardian, during his keynote session at the 70th World News Media Congress in Estoril, Portugal.
"Editors will say probably now is the most important time in journalism. There is something very unique about this time. Journalism is absolutely important to make sure we have an even playing field," he said, implying the difficult political situations several countries are facing. Pemsel has headed the news organization since 2015.
Industry indicators show that news consumption habits are changing and that half of today's consumers use social media to consume news.
In times like this, when there's "a lot of noise in our newsfeeds," quality content is vital, according to Miki Toliver King, vice president of marketing at the Washington Post. It is what people will pay for ― contrary to the recent trend of "going viral" that many news media are tailing after that they believe will attract readers.
"Readers are sifting through the noise and defaulting to sources they trust. Consumers are paying for quality content," said King.
"What it is your publication known for? Where do readers find value? That's where you're going to draw in more subscribers."
The Washington Post drew on average 88 million unique visitors a month to its website this year, up 84 percent since January 2015.
Tobias Henning, general manager premium at Bild, the most widely read German news media brand, also said "most important is the content." Bild has a daily print circulation of 2 million copies and reaches in digital about 20 million unique users a month.
"We have to provide good, unique content that's different from all the free content available," he said. "To increase retention, you have to focus on the content. That's the core. We need to provide the content in a more sophisticated way."
Subscriptions penetrate Portugal
Martim Silva, executive editor-in-chief of Expresso, explains the concept of the weekly publication at the Impresa headquarters in Paco de Arcos, Portugal. Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young
During a separate visit to Impresa, one of the top three media companies in Portugal, Joao Paulo Luz, head of digital business, shared how his company's revenue model largely depended on premium content.
"We have a bigger return because the content is premium," he said.
"Revenue in print is reducing every year but still big enough to be profitable. We're aiming for 50:50 ratio of ad to subscription.
"People don't like to pay for something they can have for free. We're less aggressive on the entry-level customers and focus more on long-term subscription. This way we lose new subscribers but we need to wait for lower churn. We believe we should bet on loyalty."
Impresa Group owns the weekly magazine Expresso, their main print product, which draws in a mix of revenue from advertisements and subscriptions.
"Advertisements in newspapers have decreased due to the financial difficulties of car manufacturers that were our main advertisers,” said Martim Silva, executive editor-in-chief of Expresso. “We need good content to go viral. We need to find a revenue model from online."
Currently the weekly edition is priced at 3.8 euro. Readers also get a code to access free online content for that week. They have different tiers of service, from free online content and paid print content packaged with premium online content, to weekly newsletters that don't generate money but attract readers. They have been sending out newsletters for four years, alongside Portuguese media companies that have started adopting the global trend.
Their belief in the subscription model, in return for quality content, is largely boosted by subscription-based products such as Netflix and Spotify.
"Thanks to Netflix and Spotify, people are getting used to paid content,” said Luz. “People will read more quality content than the same content from everywhere else. That means the content has to be good but should (also) differentiate. If we have too much quality content for free, this is a big problem for our industry."
This article was written with the support of the Korea Press Foundation.