India’s digital media leaders on bridging print and digital: ‘We are guardians of trust as much as our print colleagues are’

While many in the news industry used to see print and digital publishing in opposition with each other, today the two formats have largely distinct and complementary roles in serving different readers' news consumption habits.

A discussion at WAN-IFRA's recent Indian Printers Summit provided further evidence that publishers have moved beyond the print-versus-digital debate that has characterised many similar industry conversations in the past.

"Print stands for authority, credibility, depth and habit," said Puneet Gupt, COO of Times Internet, while "digital delivers speed, reach, and personalization."

Where a loyal print reader may still start their day by scanning the front page of the newspaper, many digital readers will "come for a particular story" instead - a story they have more likely than not discovered through algorithms.

Similarly, scale used to be a key part of most publishers' digital playbook, with monthly active users mattering more than loyalty. But that era is fading fast, and the new goal is to maximise retention, Gupt said.

"You need to be able to get them back on your products faster and better. The way print does it," he said.

"The difference between an 'existing' user and an 'exiting' user is the 's' in between. That 's' stands for 'service.' What is the quality of service that we are able to give to our users?"

"Can we create the kind of content, in the kind of format that the user wants to read?"

Building loyalty against algorithm swings

In the context of unpredictable or even shrinking traffic, publishers are increasingly turning to metrics that focus on improving the profitability through their existing customers.

Responding to a question about Lifetime Value (LTV), Puneet Jain, CEO of HT Digital, HT Media, said "Our LTVs are going up."

The reason for this is "we are creating subscription products on digital, which are high ARPU (average revenue per user), and hence increasing the loyalty and the LTV of our customers."

Yet publishers are largely dependent on platforms whose algorithms have huge influence on which stories reach which users.

Moreover, Gupt explained that the platforms' primary goal is "not to serve us or our journalism." Consequently, as they adjust their algorithms, the volume of traffic directed towards publishers' websites can see drastic changes.

"I don't see algorithm changes as a penalty. I see algorithm changes as the product manager of Google or Facebook or Twitter deciding one day that they want to showcase different content," he said.

"That's the job of a product manager in those companies. And it's the job of the product manager of my company to anticipate what's happening and to build towards that."

"If I convert more and more of my users to loyal users, to newsletter subscribers, to people who have opted into push notifications, then this fear of traffic dropping will go away."

'Velocity journalism' with accuracy

If more readers become loyal users of your content, many of them will be more likely to take up different subscription products. The challenge lies in adopting a reader revenue strategy that doesn't sacrifice reach while persuading readers accustomed to free content that quality journalism deserves payment.

Jaideep Karnik, Head of Digital at Amar Ujala, described his company's dual-track strategy for this, where paying users get premium bundles, while casual readers have ad-supported access.

"To compensate for [declining ad rates] we have subscription packages where you get the ad-free experience and the e-paper," he said.

HT Digital's Jain said that his newsroom has embraced what they call "velocity journalism," which for them means embracing the speed of digital without losing accuracy: "We intentionally go slow on some stories where we will wait for a confirmation to come."

"We know we are guardians of trust as much as our print colleagues are," he said.

Times Internet also takes accuracy incredibly seriously, and digital actually has an advantage in this area, Gupt argued.

"Given the volume of content digital produces, there may be errors once in a while, but on digital there's also the advantage of correcting them very quickly."

What matters is that "there are protocols, culture, and processes being defined and that they are consistent across print and digital newsroom," he said.

Mastering AI - so it doesn't overpower you

As for the rise of artificial intelligence, "we are not worried by AI," said Gupt.

"And we don't believe AI creates news stories. We believe AI creates content copies."

At Times Internet, AI is used to automate fact-checking, ad personalisation and to translate stories across eight languages. The publisher has also introduced an AI-powered newsreader.

The key is transparency about AI's use: "We have seen that we are not getting lower views because we have declared it. We are not getting lower ad yields because we have declared it," Gupt said.

At Amar Ujala, the focus is on fully mastering the new tools. "Technology comes as a helper, as a solver, if you use it in the right way and you master the technology, rather than technology trying to master you or overpower you," said Karnik.

Perhaps the biggest risk related to AI is not related to business models or job losses, Gupt suggested, but instead to the public's media diet and ultimately their worldview. If AI tools provide answers directly, instead of a list of possible choices, "it hides all the other possible options that I could have got" and thus reduces the diversity of the viewpoints and information people are exposed to.

Teemu Henriksson

Research Editor

[email protected]