The future of the media industry is projected to grow brightly, but there is a possibility that local media companies will not thoroughly enjoy this growth. The world’s technology giants will eventually control the media business model that relies on advertising. So, what will happen to the media business in the future?
When the world becomes more democratic due to technological developments that allow anyone to share their opinions, the role of the media becomes even more challenging. On the one hand, mass media content has to contend with so much content spreading on the internet. Sometimes quality gets overlooked in matters of quantity. But on the other hand, the media have thick journalism principles with honesty and credibility as their strengths.
As a legendary media company in Indonesia, KG Media Indonesia has succeeded in keeping up with the various changes that have taken place in this industry. Under Dian Gemiano as Chief Marketing Officer KG Media has successfully pioneered and maintained its existence among mass media competitions in Indonesia. Of course, by staying relevant to the test of times.
So, what is Gemi’s view of the current media industry landscape, and what strategies has he prepared for the future of the media? To find out more, see the conversation between Gemi and Annisa Bella Syana.S. from Marketeers below.
The media industry gets livened up by the emergence of various players who use social media platforms to establish media independently. Their positioning strategies also vary. How do you see this?
In the media industry, there are two things that we must understand. We must distinguish between journalistic and non-journalistic products.
Mainstream media such as Kompas.com are journalistic products. Apart from that, they are not journalistic products. We must differentiate and educate people to distinguish them too because, in this increasingly democratic era, we can no longer prohibit people from creating content. Everyone can be a publisher, but not everyone can be a journalist.
Journalists have ethics and principles that must be followed and a legal basis that must be obeyed. That is what distinguishes mainstream media like us from content creators on various platforms. Even though they produce news, they do not necessarily adopt the principles of journalism.
How do you respond to the increasing number of content creators?
On the one hand, we see it not as a competitor since they can enrich content on the internet. Our concern is whether the content can be accounted for or not? Mainly for entertainment content. Unfortunately, Indonesia does not yet have a legal basis that regulates content on social media, in contrast to the United States and European countries.
So, what differentiation does KG Media offer to its audience?
Since the beginning, Kompas has a brand legacy from Harian Kompas, which always keeping trust and credibility. Our tagline may change. Now our tagline is “To See The World in a Clear Way.” However, trust and credibility are the brand attribution that we measure every year (November). Trust and credibility have always been our main benchmarks in seeing how our readers perceive us.
Today’s media, especially online media, are troubled with a dilemma between quality and quantity. Where does KG Media stand?
To quote one of our senior journalists, “truth takes time.” KG Media has never prioritized speed because there are journalism principles that must be passed. We have to prioritize credibility (52+1H, validation), which must be fulfilled before being published. This is the reason why our news is not as fast as other media peers.
So, quality or quantity?
At this time, both of them became important. Unfortunately, the existing online model of the media business is dominated by digital advertising. Unluckily, the currency of advertising is the volume (page view). Nowadays, we can catch up with our competitors who prioritize quantity and speed. More than 80% of our revenue comes from advertising, which is currently dominated by programmatic (page view).
KG Media is currently trying to find a balance between quality and quantity. Balance is very difficult to maintain, there are many arguments, especially from journalistic principles, but there is one of the principles taught by our shareholder, Liliek Oetama, “to be independent, we have to financially independent.”
Quality is very important, but quantity must also be encouraged without eliminating the principles of journalism. So, in my opinion, it is possible that the two of them could go hand in hand as long as we are being data-driven and have a good organizational structure between editorial and business staff, as well as supporting resources.
Does Kompas.com justify clickbait?
In 2017 we made A/B testing for clickbait. Within one month, we made news with the clickbait version and the normal version. Those who click on the bait have better performance, but from the engagement point of view, it’s not too good. The reading depth decreases, so does the engagement. On the other hand, the traffic increase, but engagement is disrupted.
We then search for balance so that the headline attracts people to read, but it is not clickbait. We did various exercises and got lots of conflicts. I think Kompas.com has found a fairly balanced formula between interesting headlines but not clickbait. We also started using tech to optimize the headlines so that we practice not too focused on the clickbait but more on what headlines we can re-sell to the public.
We have a much different delivery polarization. Tribun is very data-driven. Every day, Tribun reporter focuses on one screen containing the page view of each article he writes. If he sees his real-time page view started to drop, then the reporter posts the news with the rising headline, then he will do the same thing again.
Tribun is a subsidiary of KG Media which is quite close to the impression of clickbait. Well, recently, it seems that Tribun has begun to re-branding. What is your response? What do you plan for Tribun?
Tribun is our fighting brand. Tribun has a character like a startup, so when they do a growth hack, they will do anything, and they will be very data-driven. It is the same with startups when they do a growth hack. Anything that can drive growth will be explored and tested.
Today, Tribun has become number one in the last two to three years. From the evaluation we have done, it can be seen that Tribun is the largest in volume. As a result, the next task is to increase the value of the content we offer. When it comes to that point, the only thing that can increase value is brand equity.
This can be done through branding improvement efforts. As to say, Tribun’s branding must be improved so that its value can go up. When Tribun does branding efforts to improve brand quality, of course, the products must be improved too, that is by developing the quality of the content itself.
That’s Interesting. Do you think that currently, a media should enter all social media platforms, or the media only need to choose social media that fits their DNA?
The principle is customer-centric. Wherever the customer is, you have to be there. If the question is whether a media must have all social media? Yes, if your audience is there.
We must be able to reach the audience with whatever platform they are comfortable interacting with. Because discovery and engagement matter wherever the touchpoint is. If we don’t follow their shifting for touchpoint information, then we will also fall behind.
Last question, what will happen to the future of the media industry in your opinion?
For digital media, it is still very positive compared to 2020, which fell because the economy was also down. However, once the vaccine is successful, then we can bounce back and run faster.
The key is the economy because our business model is advertising, and based on the BCG report, the movement of the advertising industry follows economic growth. If the economy is in decline, advertising is the first to fall. The reason is, when the economy goes down, the most cut will go to the marketing budget. Conversely, when the economy rises, then the media will experience the first increase in growth because the marketing budget will be allocated there.
The challenge is the media slowly lose its control. There is a big threat behind this optimism that a business model that we have been leaning on (advertising) is not controlled by publishers but by giant tech companies, such as Facebook and Google. So, maybe the growth will be big, but there is a possibility that the growth will not be enjoyed by the local media.