HOW SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ARE REACHING AND GROWING THEIR AUDIENCE
Gehad Essam Abdel Razek, MA
Producer | Award Winning Filmmaker | Journalist | Field Reporter | TV Presenter | Storyteller | TV & Digital Journalism MA | Passionate Media Person who shifted career from Clinical Pharmacy
Recent Success Stories Examples & Strategies
In a fast changing world with great dynamics, media outlets have become constantly on their seat edge to cope and adapt with such powerful activities. News is becoming in the hands of everyone and also everyone has become able not just to consume news but also to produce them, so consequently trust thresholds are weakened. News consumption behaviours have changed across different kinds of audiences, different age groups and generations.
In 2019, the?Digital News Report?looked at how young people get their news, to find it obvious how those young generations are causing an absolute shift in the way they consume news and accordingly, an evident alteration to media and news industry. Observations showed a greater reliance on digital and social media and a weaker affinity to news brands compared with older groups. Three years later, we see how consumers' habits and attitudes have changed especially after a significant period of a pandemic and rising concerns about news distrust and avoidance. Also the growth of newer platforms such as TikTok, and an increased interest in various digital platforms like Instagram, considering the spent period of total lockdown and absolute social isolation across the world.
All those factors and circumstances pushed news outlets and media experts to keep up with the happening switch, not just to attract more audience but also to retain the existing ones, making sure they are well informed and entertained. This brings us to news media consumer needs which I believe are well defined by BBC when they proudly and courageously fulfill their audience needs by delivering content through the six content strategies: (Update me, Amuse me, Keep me on Trend, Inspire me, Educate me, Give me Perspective). And because news updates are no longer enough, BBC became the leading news entity in following such an approach
Moving back to the fact of the rising digital era; we found that news outlets not just needed to fulfill all six audience needs but also to decide on more interactive formats and be available on the emerging digital channels such as Instagram and Tiktok which are highly consumed amongst young generations (18-24) and (24-35) because of its dynamic, diversified and more personalized nature than any other outlet such as radio or TV.
Consequently several international media not just coped with the change but also achieved success stories in reaching more audience, growing their audience base and engaging more of their audience.
The BBC for instance is one of the leading news agencies in fulfilling audience needs, reaching broader number of people across the world and outside the UK and accomplishing new success stories everyday. The most recent success story currently on the surface is that BBC news audience are hitting 500m this year?which was a target put ahead. According to Jennie Baird, who joined?BBC?from News Corp in January, said BBC News “currently reaches 456m people outside the UK each week and we are on track for that figure to hit half a billion this year”. BBC revealed that their coverage of the Ukraine war is likely a major contributor to its audience reach this year. The BBC’s Ukraine live page recorded 396m page views between 24 February and 13 March and the Ukrainecast podcast has attracted more than 1m listens since its launch on 24 February.
On a digital note BBC has built a more engaged audience on Instagram. In less than 18 months, BBC News’ Instagram account went from 4.4 million to 10 million followers, making it one of the world’s largest breaking news accounts on Instagram. All this was achieved by tailoring their content according to their audience needs and without the need of any extra resources. Revisiting their data analytics was a key contributor in testing their content efficiency according to followers feedback and behavior. They ensured accomplishing the instagram success factors such as;
This has resulted in a tremendous surge of followers reaching approximately new 10k every day.
Another significant success story that is worth sharing is the New York Times hitting its goal of 10 million subscriptions with the addition of the Athletic. Acquiring a new sports website helped the company reach that goal a couple of years early ahead of schedule. The ambitious news entity keeps on growing its audience base and increasing its target despite of the previously achieved victories. We remember also how the Times performed during the Covid-19 crisis, catering well to its audience and fulfilling their needs not just by keeping them updated, but also by amusing and entertaining and playing a great role in lightening the burden of the lockdown on its people. The New York Times launched gaming and cooking tools for subscribers to engage in during that tough time of isolation which increased the number of subscribes and made up for the decreased advertising revenue at that time.
For both success stories of the BBC and the New York Times, they both set a SMART objective and were able to achieve it ahead of schedule because it was based on evidence and consistent thorough investigation of their own resources and data analytics which allowed for a clear vision and a SMART objective to be successfully achieved.
And when we talk digital product we must know that it consists of four pillars, one of which is Business in addition to the other three; Journalism, User Experience and Technology & Data; those of which are discussed in terms of media content and channels. But when it gets to numbers, we must ensure that the fourth pillar which is Business is considered and planned well, because if you don't generate money out of those increased followers or fail to retain your subscribers, then you won't sustain your revenue nor your development as a news organization.
So lately and as of COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically reduced advertising revenue, news companies have altered their approach to growing digital subscription revenues. And out of all the different business approaches, there were five valuable tips that proved success in handling the situation and achieving results;
A strategy that Hearst News paper has followed, making it on track by exceeding 300,000 digital subscriptions by the end of 2021, which is three times the number of subscriptions the company had in 2019. The company grew its number of weekly starts through an increase in promotions, paywall optimizations, and a few other tactics.
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One thing they did to optimize the paywall was extending the duration of its introductory offer from 99 cents for 4 weeks to 99 cents for 12 weeks. this showed a two fold increase of starts per day, according to Kelli Dakake, vice president of digital acquisition for Hearst newspapers.
2. Subscriber-only emails help retain readers:
subscriber-only emails, which are emails sent out once a month from the editor of the newsroom. They include more background on a new initiative or topic, as well as a behind-the-scenes “meet the team” spotlight.
A strategy done by ?Star Tribune in Minnesota which contributed to a 4.4 percent improvement in retention across print and digital.
3. Create a #factsarentfree team.
An initiative done by Record-Journal in Meriden
This was simply a team formed in the company that made everyone focus on digital. This team worked across departments to make growing digital subscriptions a little bit of everyone’s job. The newspaper has seen a 57% growth year-over-year in digital subscriptions.
4. Communicating the value of a subscription to your readers.?
An approach that is followed by The Buffalo News?
They had their 140-year anniversary in 2020 and took this as an advantage to connect to their readers and subscribers, talking to them about their subscription value and seeking their feedback by asking questions like “are you making the most out of your subscription?” and “are you taking advantage of our E-Edition?” In that sense digital subscriber revenue is up 147% year over year, according to Brian Connolly, the vice president of business development for the Buffalo News.
5. Make the checkout experience as seamless as possible.
And I believe this contributes mainly to the user experience so for instance The Seattle Times, they made the paywall as the landing page for subscription offers, and is identical on desktop and mobile.
Also The Times has focused in the last year on reviewing the checkout flow experience to reduce the number of steps and make it as simple as possible
In a nutshell, reaching more audience, making them engaged and retaining them will only be achievable when following the formula of a digital product. A successful digital product will always be based on good journalism that fulfills your readers'/consumers'/users' needs through a diversified and interactive content, across the different digital channels, tailored to the users' convenience and satisfaction, planned according to SMART objectives and business plans.
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