BackThe third wave of digital news
After Samachar.com and Afaqs.com, a new crop of niche sites are trying to make the most of the rise in online consumption of news
Premium(Web-only news sites are trying to differentiate themselves from the online ventures of traditional media through design and content to drive traffic.)
New Delhi: They’re a varied bunch of websites—mumbaiboss.com, theladiesfinger.com, even Firstpost.com and newslaundry.com. These niche media sites all have something to do with the news in some form or the other, and reflect a wider shift in consumption to the digital space.
Mahesh Murthy, founder of digital brand management company Pinstorm, calls this the third cycle of Web-only news sites.
“The advantage with online is that news is updated every moment, while the papers at best can do it once a day. TV has a different problem—it is linear, and only able to cover one story at a time. And there are fewer TV sets in India than users of the Internet," he said.
The number of Indian households with TVs is 154 million, which is expected to grow to 173 million by 2017, according to KPMG. Boston Consulting Group estimates that the number of Internet users in India will rise to 330 million by 2016 from 125 million in 2011.
With the attendant rise in online consumption of news and news-related content, the niche media websites mentioned above are among those that have come on stream in the past few years.
The sites have various business models based on acquisitions, ad revenue, grants and donations, while others don’t seem to have anything pinned down as yet. They are spread across a number of content categories, with most adding local or niche items to a basic news stream.
“It started with Samachar.com, which got sold for ₹ 500 crore a decade ago. Then came OneIndia.in and vertical news sites like Afaqs.com. They have done well in the market," said Murthy, referring to the previous two waves.
Not only that, this latest crop of websites tries their best to differentiate themselves from the online ventures of traditional media through design and content to drive traffic.
Firstpost.com, which is owned by Web18, part of the Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd group that also runs CNBC-TV18, Forbes India and moneycontrol.com, had 1.18 million unique visitors in April, according to figures compiled by comScore, the Internet analytics company.
“While digital has a long way to go, (the) early trend has been very good," said R. Jagannathan, editor, Firstpost.com, which was set up in 2011. “Our value add at this point is to add views to breaking stories. We bring views in addition to news and that is attractive to readers. The fact that we don’t have any specific ideology means that readers can be exposed to a wide variety of views."
Owing to the nature of digital platforms, feedback is instant, unlike in print. “If something works, we need to scale up and do so quickly," Jagannathan said.
Firstpost.com is similar in appearance to Huffingtonpost.com, a successful online news aggregator and blog. The US site, which has branched out globally, was acquired by AOL Inc. in 2011 for $315 million.
“We were inspired a lot by Huffingtonpost, but we do not see ourselves as ideological as they might be. We carry no specific ideology," said Jagannathan, who is also editor-in-chief of Network 18’s Web and publishing division. His mandate also includes overseeing Moneycontrol.com, Forbes India and Network18 Publishing.
“The social media buzz has also driven the popularity of the current crop of online news sites," said Murthy. Firstpost.com, for example, has close to 200,000 fans on Facebook.
Social media is critical to how Firstpost.com works.
“We follow important trends as and when they break on social media. Not every trend. A lot of news breaks on Twitter. For us it is as much a source of news...or a reporter," said Lakshmi Narasimhan, chief executive officer (CEO), Web18. “We launched two years ago. Our hypothesis was that independent newsroom-based product would work well in the market."
Firstpost.com has a business model that involves ad revenue besides acquisitions, a recent one having been that of spoof news site fakingnews.com.
“For us, all ways of monetizing the website are open. Currently, it is an advertising-driven site. We feel that (if the) user finds value in some other mechanism, we will follow it," Narasimhan said.
Newslaundry.com, started by veteran journalist Madhu Trehan in February last year, features video and text that aim to shine a light on the Indian media.
“Newslaundry was started with some idealism. Critiquing the media, critiquing anchors on television, questioning the source of stories, etc., is what Newslaundry does. It was the need of the hour, considering what was happening in journalism," said Trehan.
That’s a reference to phone taps of conversations between lobbyist Niira Radia and journalists that were leaked in two magazines. Trehan said some journalists were discomfited at the media attention and the questions that Newslaundry posed to them.
“Many anchorpersons are still not used to our format and get upset," she said. “But if you are in the public eye, it should be considered normal to be critiqued. It is a new space and will take some getting used to."
Newslaundry attempts to strike a balance between satire and conventional news.
“If there is a news story that is required (and we have the resources to), we would break it," said Abhinandan Sekhri, a founding partner of Newslaundry.com. “Gradually, people will be attracted to our content because we are not going to use the same predictable and boring devices and formats like mainstream news channels."
Its business model hasn’t crystallized yet.
“We see the digital space growing. But, for us, online advertising is the last option," said Sekhri.
He cited the model of American political news site politico.com, which has branched out into holding sponsored breakfasts and lunches with key political operatives, a trend that intensified in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential elections in the US.
“In the future, we envision linguistic spin-offs as well—more and more of our content will begin to come from regional languages," Sekhri said.
This isn’t Trehan’s first venture into the digital space; she set up WahIndia.com in 2000 that ran for about a year.
Newslaundry isn’t the first site on the media—thehoot.org and sans serif (wearethebest.wordpress.com) have been around for a few years.
The founder of hoot.org, Sevanti Ninan, who is also a Mint columnist, sees the website as a sustainable business rather than a profitable one. It works on grants and donations.
“Given that grants are short-term and intermittent and donations sporadic; sustainability is an issue. One is looking to change that, but I have not found a solution yet," she said. “Online advertising is not a big part of our revenue stream because the site has very few hands and no business or managerial staff to seek advertising."
The website pays ₹ 2,500-5,000 for contributions and is run by a registered not for profit.
The investment in ventures such as Firstpost.com by media houses is being driven by the expectation of increasing amounts of advertising moving online.
The Indian online advertising market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 32% to ₹ 7,400 crore in 2017 from ₹ 2,000 crore in 2012, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and KPMG.
The demographics point to the inevitable nature of this trend, Murthy said.
“The demographics are in favour of the digital audience. Today, if a brand wants to reach an urban, 15-to-35-year-old influential audience, it knows virtually nothing on the TV or print side of the fence does this with regularity or credibility. Brands believe the future will be digital and are simply moving where their most influential and valuable consumers are," said Murthy.
Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet, the digital venture of the Times of India group, echoed this sentiment.
“We are definitely evolving our content strategy heavier towards mobile, real time, and video," said Gajwani. “Those are the major advantages of the digital medium. The challenge is to find an idea that’s scalable enough to justify focusing resources and investment there."
Mumbaiboss.com’s business model is “a combination of things, partly driven by advertising", said founder Nayantara Kilachand.
The site is funded by independent investors and gets about 300,000 to 500,000 unique visitors a month, she said.
She, too, focused on the demand for independent voices.
“Perhaps because websites don’t have the baggage or limitations of traditional media houses, we’re able to respond to news quicker and, at times, be more honest about topics," she said. “I think there’s an increasing hunger for these types of independent sources especially as people begin to question the reliability of newspapers and other traditional sources of information."
Murthy is skeptical about alternative revenue models, such as pay per view, pointing out that there isn’t much uniqueness in the news media market.
Sekhri is confident though that the Newslaundry model will work online.
“In the long run, to make our enterprise economically viable we can look at a number of options ranging from viewers financing our stories to having people pay for our shows. We would also look at other formats such as possibly hosting debates and other outdoor events that would attract sponsors," Sekhri said.
Murthy said the answer may also revolve around long-term alliances with brands on digital platforms, given the current numbers.
“If you want a reasonable revenue base of, say, even ₹ 1 crore a month, you need to generate 7 crore or 70 million page views a month at a full-inventory situation and a more plausible 280 million page views a month level at a 25% fill level," he said. “This would mean every Internet user in India has to see two pages in a month on a news site for that site to generate a crore a month in revenue. This is an incredibly high number—and no one can really hit it."
The long-term alliances that he’s talking about should aim to “generate 10 to 20 times the yield of a performance-based model".
As Murthy indicated and by the very nature of being niche sites, except for Firstpost.com that occupies a broader space, the numbers aren’t too heartening.
Alexa, the Web traffic database, ranked Firstpost.com as the 189th most visited website in the country. Newslaundry.com came in at 8,742 and thehoot.org at 47,332.
As a digital evangelist of long standing, for Murthy the third wave is an idea whose time has come... or is coming.
“Traditional media is losing the battle of news to digital," he said.
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