ENGLISH

Diversifying sources of revenue is vital now for news channels

June 4, 2021

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Webinar PRODU Transformación Digital Canales Informativos

Juan Muñoz, director of Digital and Social Networks at CNN en Español; Maryorin Méndez, Digital Director of NTN24.com, and Sarah Mimouni, Distribution Manager Latin America & Out of Home of Euronews met at PRODU Webinar to talk about the digital transformation of news channels, where they highlighted that diversifying income is vital in a context in which the news companies are moving today.

Muñoz said that to do good journalism it must be profitable. “There is content that we produce that allows us to finance others that does not attract advertisers, but that is important for the audience,” he said. There are different avenues for income: traditional advertising in the form of banners or advertisements; video advertising that generates revenue by volume of views; branded content with non-journalistic content, but produced with quality by a team that is not part of the newsroom; and sponsored content, which is sponsored journalistic content. The latter is usually content with travel information, technologies, or ecology. They are also exploring other business models such as subscriptions, the creation of podcasts or products that go directly to the consumer.

“Today there are many avenues to diversify income, which is important to avoid being vulnerable to possible drops,” he said, noting that cable subscription is their main source of income.

Méndez said that we must not forget that the public is smart and values quality journalism. “Definitely, the media are also companies, there are topics that can be boring, and it takes creativity from most of the team to make it attractive. We have alliances that allow us to reward ourselves with certain companies for this investment that we use to investigate.”

Mimouni commented that Euronews has the advantage of being its own content producer, which allows them to be flexible. “Ad insertion is what we use the most,” she explained, but she noted that there are many different ways to monetize. Being a cable channel is also their main source of income.

Watch video here