India has about 900 million internet users today (roughly 65 percent of the population) driven largely by cheap mobile data. By 2030, that number is expected to rise sharply.

At the same time, India’s e-commerce market, currently estimated at $125 billion, is projected to double.

Puneet Jain, CEO at HT Digital, explained during a webinar, how the company is building content-to-commerce as a serious alternate revenue stream, and why he believes most publishers will have to follow.

Puneet Jain, CEO, HT Digital

Content-to-commerce explained

Content-to-commerce uses trusted, contextual content to move high-intent users toward purchase decisions, either online or offline.

Unlike traditional news, it focuses on specific verticals and aims for conversion, not just attention.

Jain broke content-to-commerce down into three ideas.

• Trusted and contextual content: Commerce content lives in specialised verticals, and trust is the publisher’s main asset.
• High-intent audiences: Beyond attracting readers, the goal is to engage users likely to make a purchase.
• Enabling real transactions: Unlike advertising, the aim is to drive actual purchases on the publisher’s platform or a partner’s.

“The ad-first model alone may not be sustainable. That’s why content-to-commerce becomes urgent, not optional,” Jain said.

‘More than 150,000 leads generated each month’

HT Media chose to focus on three e-commerce verticals:

• Auto, helping users decide on car and bike purchases (brand: HT Auto).
• Shopping and lifestyle, covering gadgets, appliances, and online marketplaces (brands: HT Tech, HT Shop Now).
• Personal finance, including loans, credit cards, and investments (brand: Mint Money).

These verticals are selected using a three-step process.

• Consider the size of the audiences and the market.
• Identify the digital penetration.
• What role content can play in the readers’ decision making.

The outcomes differ by category. In auto, HT delivers qualified leads to manufacturers and dealers. In shopping, it drives users to complete transactions on partner platforms.

Meanwhile, in personal finance, parts of the transaction such as loan applications happen directly on HT’s own properties. HT now generates more than 150,000 qualified auto leads every month.

“During the last festive quarter, the company facilitated transactions worth about Rs 100 crore [$10.9 million],” Jain said.

Two pillars behind the system

Jain described HT’s model as two units that move together.

The user unit acts as the demand engine. It acquires audiences through editorial content, native apps and sites, and signals across HT’s broader news ecosystem. High-intent users are identified and then expanded using “lookalike modelling,” a method that finds new users with similar behaviour, along with social distribution.

The transaction unit handles conversion. This includes partner integrations, APIs, data-led targeting, analytics, and closed-loop attribution.

Together, these units create a loop that improves both audience targeting and conversions.

What it takes to make content commerce work

Newsrooms require additional capabilities to make content commerce work.

• Content capabilities: Newsrooms need category experts — general news skills aren’t enough. Examples include structured reviews, scorecards, comparison tools, and deal widgets.
• Tech capabilities: Catalogue pipelines, price trackers, deep-links, API integrations, and checkout bridges for seamless commerce
• Data science: Conversion models, lookalike engines, intent graph modelling, and attribution analysis for precise targeting.
• Growth: SEO optimisation, social distribution, push notifications, re-engagement campaigns, audience expansion.
• Partnerships: Brand stories, merchant integrations, banking partnerships, affiliate networks and revenue-sharing models.

According to Jain, the way people consume information today is pushing media companies to rewire their business models.

“Monetisation is evolving beyond ads. Publishers who move quickly toward transaction-led models will be in a stronger position to sustain both their journalism and their audience relationships,” he said.

This webinar was part of our publisher engagement programme series. WAN-IFRA Members can exclusively access the full discussion on our Knowledge Hub.