What is pushing news brands to diversify their businesses?

New Delhi: For centuries, the news game was simple: journalists spun stories, the sales crew wooed the audience and brands who clamoured for attention. Fast forward a bit and news platforms branched out into radio, production services, OTT, events, and more.

In between, as brands increased ad spending on digital, news platforms also bolstered their digital strategies to boost ad and subscription revenue, but it came along with its own set of challenges.

Now, news platforms are launching e-commerce platforms, diving into gaming, levelling up their tech and diversifying into different content genres beyond the news.

For example, ABP Network recently ventured into casual online gaming with the launch of GamesLIVE under ABP LIVE. Meanwhile, Jagran New Media has rolled out its own e-commerce platform, Khojle.com. Not to be outdone, Times Network acquired Digit, which includes Digit Squad, a network of tech influencers, and the SKOAR College Gaming Club (SCGC), a college gaming community.

What is causing news brands to diversify?

While advertisers are pouring more money into digital advertising, it's being spread more thinly, with most of the growth going to Google and Facebook. Digital news media platforms are already in a battle with tech giant Google, advocating for a fair share of ad revenue and proper content monetisation.

Then, the frequent algorithm changes by these tech platforms led to lower ad CPMs for news publishers, forcing them to rely more on direct deals. Compounding their challenges are e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, which are securing a significant portion of the Indian digital advertising expenditure (adex).

HT Digital CEO Puneet Jain said, "In India, the digital ad landscape is heavily dominated by big tech. In the digital news space, big tech plays a crucial role on both the supply and demand sides, squeezing monetisation opportunities. For instance, HT boasts 250 million monthly active users, which means nearly one in three internet users in India visits our sites. Despite this large user base, our revenues, although they have tripled over the last 3 years, do not correspond to the increasing user base with the same effect. This unique challenge affects the entire news industry, making diversification an essential strategy we can no longer ignore."

Similarly, while advertising and subscription revenue are growing for print news platforms, they continue to face challenges such as rising newsprint costs, GST, customs duties, and the lack of third-party measurement on circulation numbers. In the realm of TV news, despite an increase in viewership, the growing prominence of digital and CTV means advertisers are becoming less willing to spend big bucks on linear TV.

Supporting the need for diversification is also a McKinsey & Company study, which states that diversified companies in emerging economies outperformed their focused counterparts, delivering 3.6% excess returns compared to the -2.7% excess returns of non-diversified companies.

A look at how India’s top news companies are diversifying into new business realms

Eyeing a share in the growing e-retail advertising pie and content-to-commerce opportunities, Jagran New Media, the digital arm of Jagran Prakashan, joined forces with the ONDC Network to launch Khojle.com, its own e-commerce platform.

While Jagran New Media is the first Indian publisher to venture into the e-commerce space in the world, ONDC is in talks with more publishers to ride the e-commerce wave, expanding beyond typical advertising and subscription income streams.

Mentioning the motive behind Jagran’s decision to add one more product to the already overflowing bucket of e-commerce websites, a Jagran spokesperson said, “We saw an opportunity in the MSME sector, which contributes to over 30% of GDP, but their inclusion in e-retail is currently limited. Through disruptive initiatives like ONDC, we seek to amplify MSME voices by way of content to commerce and contribute to India's ambitious growth targets ($5.7 trillion economy).”

In one of the previous interviews with BestMediaInfo.com, Bharat Gupta, CEO of Jagran New Media, said that in addition to earning commissions from e-commerce transactions, the larger opportunity lies in developing alternative revenue streams through content creation, advertising production, and brand activations on Khojle.com.

The Indian gaming industry is poised to record a 20% growth to reach Rs 23,100 crore by FY25, As per the Grant Thornton Bharat and E-Gaming Federation report, citing industry estimates, the number of online gamers in India has touched 442 million, surpassing China.

Strengthening its footprints in technology and gaming, Times Network acquired Digit.in from 9.9 Group. This acquisition will help Times Network tap into a younger gaming audience.

An industry expert opined on Times Network’s acquisition of Digit and said, “Probably, Times Network lacked a tech and gaming publishing platform, so acquiring Digit was ideal for them. What sets Digit apart in gaming is its strong overlap between tech and gaming enthusiasts."

The expert elaborated, "Acquiring Digit gives Times Network access to a large tech and gaming community, a demographic different from the usual news audience. Allowing the platform to introduce brands like Times Now and ET Now to younger consumers, particularly college students entering the workforce.”

The expert compared this strategy to cross-pollination, stating, "By engaging with the young gaming community early on, Times can introduce them to news brands. Likewise, tech and gaming enthusiasts exposed to Times Network’s news brands may become interested in news.”

Similarly, looking at the growth of gaming in India, ABP Network entered the world of casual online gaming with the launch of GamesLIVE, under the flagship of ABP LIVE. This platform offers a free online gaming experience, featuring a vast library of over 600 HTML5 games.

On the launch of GamesLIVE, an ABP Network spokesperson said, "As we look to the future, we constantly strive to expand our offerings to our stakeholders and provide them with an unparalleled experience. Our reputation as a trusted network is well-established, and we aim to achieve the same level of excellence with this gaming platform.”

HT Media’s diversified offerings include OTTPlay, an OTT app aggregation platform; CrickIt, a platform for cricket enthusiasts; and Slurrp, a food recommendation and recipe app.

Commenting on the inevitability of diversification, Puneet Jain, CEO of HT Digital Streams, said, “Diversification is a multi-year phenomenon. The way HT has approached diversification, we have invested in innovation in both the core news business and have also incubated new products through a separate entity called HT Labs. Our new platform CrickIt clocked 100 million users during the recent Cricket World Cup. It’s high time news platforms make use of the incredible amount of consumer data they have.”

Jain revealed HT’s plans to build a comprehensive tech platform. “We plan to build out the entire user engagement stack, offering users a personalised experience that rivals the best out there. With this move, we aim to use existing data to drive user loyalty first and then move on to diversification efforts and increase user loyalty, ensuring they find the content they are interested in. This will help us shift from relying solely on digital ads to other revenue streams.”

As news platforms diversify into other sectors, questions about journalistic integrity arise. Will news platforms start curating content to attract users to their new segments?

Taking a strong stance on journalistic integrity, Jain said, “Diversification will not impact our news ethics or how we report. What diversification does is create new opportunities to solve user problems? We are simply finding new ways to engage users and extend their lifecycle, increasing average revenue per user and achieving more business stability.”

While diversification into new business verticals is inevitable, it doesn’t mean they are focusing less on the news business, which is their bread and butter. News publishers are strengthening their subscription models to support their news content businesses. In 2023, online news generated Rs 200 crore from subscriptions, and this is expected to grow to Rs 390 crore by 2026, according to recent EY estimates.

No doubt about it, the media industry's got its hands full trying to monetise brands on traditional business models.

But here's the twist: the forces disrupting the news business are also opening doors for news brands to evolve and thrive. Publishers who catch on to this will crush it in the new media landscape.