Why should News publishers employ a diversified content strategy?
According to Wichayasak Suwannatat, assistant editor-in-chief for digital content of Khaosod a Thai language newspaper, it pays and continues to be a reliable revenue source. The long-running daily has achieved 3 billion views and a 165% increase in revenue since deploying a content diversification strategy. The new approach has delivered a long tail of news content that continues to monetise, even months after publishing.
Evergreen content – content that continues to monetise over time – will vary among different audiences, but in general, it’s content with a long shelf life. This content spans the gamut of news, including cultural moments, health, beauty, travel, celebrity and more.“We believe that news organizations shouldn’t only report hard news, but a diverse range of stories, showing that they’re adapting to the digital age.” said Wichayasak.
“Soft news content can be consumed at any time, unlike hard news content which is time-restricted. ”At Khaosod the team has achieved a steady revenue stream by diversifying its content approach and ramping up production of news content that explores beauty, horoscopes, food, lifestyle, and entertainment.
In the 5 months from February to end June, the daily saw significant increase in revenue, audience engagement, watchtime, as well as follower growth on Facebook. This period saw the newspaper implement its content diversification strategy.
Expanding into new revenue streams was a key driver for the content diversification plan. The team identified that monetisation opportunities for political and breaking news content were finite – these are, mainly, time-sensitive stories that become less relevant (viewed) over time, making the monetisation opportunity limited. This understanding inspired Khaosod’s expansion into publishing different types of stories on Facebook. This is a strategy that has paid off.
To understand the monetisation opportunities of different types of stories, the daily began tagging and labeling video content using the custom label function in Creator Studio. Custom labeling allowed it to see which type of stories were trending with their audience and informed decisions about increasing those types of stories for their audience.
The new, diversified content approach had three main thrusts which all publishers can apply: Increase production of soft news content, engage audiences and drive new content and create soft new content to maximise revenue.
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