The media is undergoing a series of far-reaching transformations, ranging from revenue and business models, operations and journalistic practices, as well as deeper challenges regarding press freedom, factors that impact the health and vitality of the sector.
This panel of high-level business leaders will analyze how they have transformed their businesses to face these challenges, delve into how and why major decisions are made, and answer what are the key factors for current and future success. They also will address a crucial issue for the media industry: the influence of international politics in Latin America, how they interpret its scope and what opportunities and threats they foresee.
Developing compelling and reliable products that deliver measurable business outcomes is a strategic priority in the industry. In fact, more than 80% of respondents to WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends Outlook 2024-2025 survey said it is an important area to invest in over the next year.
Newsrooms are strategic about adopting digital industry product practices. It allows them to connect their content with the business vision and develop new revenue streams. However, many journalists and product leaders still struggle to create ethical and sustainable digital business models.
This session will explore best practices, current challenges, and the opportunities and threats that exist in this process. Through practical examples and lessons learned, they will also focus on how these products can not only generate sustainable revenue, but also promote more quality without neglecting ethics.
Grupo Nación reveals how they optimized their content strategy to compete on Google Discover, combining their editorial expertise with data. From selecting topics with potential to optimizing distribution, this session explores how real-time and long-term data analysis allows them to detect performance patterns, adjust their distribution strategies and continuously improve their visibility on Discover. A case study on how to turn data into impactful decisions.
Creating formats, developing concepts, researching, creating, inaugurating verticals, moving the goalposts: In 2024, La Nación won two of the four main GDA awards, received an honorable mention in Economics, was a finalist in the ONA global category of Excellence in Digital Journalism alongside The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and also in excellence in social media with the world’s digital natives. It also earned first place as the best site in Latin America by WAN-IFRA and was the most awarded media outlet by the Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (ADEPA). This presentation will address the core strategies that La Nación has implemented to lead in this field, how it has overcome obstacles, and what lessons can be extrapolated to other publishers in the region.
The crisis in advertising revenue has forced media outlets to get creative. At Cenital, we work with a small but multidisciplinary and cross-functional team, with clear roles, to implement innovative processes that encourage audience participation, build loyalty, and contribute financially to sustain the journalism we produce.
Push notifications on websites and apps are key for publishers, allowing them to reach users in real time, increasing retention, and improving engagement. They are an essential tool for keeping audiences informed and engaged.
The media industry continues to operate in a period of significant transformation in revenues and business models as well. While print editions remain a significant source of funding for many, that dependence is declining, as digital revenues grow and now make up more than 31% of total revenue, according to WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends Outlook 2024-2025. That trend comes alongside the successful implementation of paywalls and digital subscriptions, monetization of products such as podcasts and newsletters, and the incursion of new business lines such as events and e-commerce. The following sessions will address the transformation and prospects of the advertising model and delve into how close the ceiling is for digital subscriptions.
After a strong surge during the pandemic, digital subscription growth has slowed. Publishers have already attracted many of their willing-to-pay readers and have converted some intermittent donors into regular subscribers or contributors. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, it is difficult to persuade a majority of the public. How much are readers willing to pay? Is this a model with a ceiling? What role do discounts play in acquiring digital subscribers and how can this model be managed to ensure its sustainability? What lessons can be learned from publishers that have already successfully monetized their digital subscriptions, and what mistakes should new players avoid?
While digital newspapers are trying to consolidate subscription models, young people continue to be a challenge for the industry: they grow up far from paid media and compare news with the immediacy and free nature of social networks. A new study, developed by the media consultancy Next Idea Media, in which a group of young people were offered a paid subscription to different digital media in exchange for completing daily forms with their impressions for several weeks, unravels the barriers and motivations that determine their decision to pay (or not) for information. The research was complemented with in-depth individual interviews and analysis of their consumption habits, allowing us to observe first-hand how initial expectations clash with the reality of the subscription experience.
What are they really looking for? What would make a paid media their first choice? Through unpublished findings, this session offers strategic keys to attract and retain an audience that, until now, the media have not managed to conquer.
At the Digital Media LATAM 2024 Conference, Ruder presented the key trends in traffic patterns that news publishers were experiencing globally and outlined an audience strategy focused on direct growth and audience engagement.
In this follow-up presentation, Ruder will share case studies on how news publishers implemented this strategy using editorial judgment, a focus on user experience, personalization, and messaging to achieve excellent results.
As pressure on current revenue margins increases, publishers globally are exploring new sources of funding. Alternative options such as events, e-commerce and subscriptions are gaining traction and, according to the latest edition of WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends Outlook 2024-2025, account for almost a quarter (23.8%) of total revenue. The following sessions will address some of the different alternative revenue sources.
How companies can leverage the potential of Retail Media as a revenue stream in an increasingly competitive market, the impact of big players and the opportunities opening up for small and medium-sized retailers. How much of this is applicable to the media industry and how to maximize the value of your data and monetize it. This is what the conference of Rodrigo Reyes Restrepo, founder and CEO of Supermark, a low-cost customer data platform, and 1st Consulting, a consultancy specialized in Retail Media, data monetization and digital asset optimization, will be about.
Games on news portals are a trend that seems to be here to stay. In addition to the fact that a good part of the main news sites have included them in recent years, more than a quarter of the industry plans to invest in them or launch them in the near future. What are the keys to this phenomenon? Is it a complementary strategy to subscriptions? How much profit are they generating? That will be discussed in the panel presented below.
Once again, the Digital Media Awards LATAM and the North American Digital Media Awards merge into one, expanding the competition for the best projects in North America, Central America and South America!
For more than a decade, WAN-IFRA has recognized the efforts of publishers who have developed unique and original initiatives in the field of digital media, with the help of new tools and formats, using the most advanced technology or driving innovation; from new approaches to digital subscriptions to the most impressive initiatives in digital storytelling or native advertising. The Digital Media Awards Americas are a reference for the sector at a regional and global level.
Discover the winners at our awards ceremony!
Video, on YouTube, TikTok and WhatsApp, has become a central source for news consumption, especially among the youngest. At the same time, audio, no longer just in podcasts but in applications and summaries on news portals, is becoming established as a trend. In the following sessions, experts, publishers and content creators will address how this consumption occurs, the challenges related to monetization and its possible link to the subscription strategy.
Young people get their news more from videos than from any other format, and they do so more on platforms than on news websites. Faced with this challenging reality, experts and publishers leading video strategy will address the main challenges to capturing audiences in this format, presenting success stories, lessons learned, and the challenges surrounding monetization and the keys to the future.
As audiences fracture and trust in the mainstream media continues to be challenged, video has emerged as the key way to attract new audiences and build credibility. The right video strategy is key to any newsroom’s growth plan in 2025. Not only can media brands use video to build engagement, on their own platforms, social media are also hungry for this content – and they’re willing to pay for it. Social media news agency Storyful is the expert in finding, verifying and monetizing the people-focused video that engages audiences and drives revenue growth for newsrooms, with the rights to do so. Find out the cutting-edge verification techniques and online trends that are reshaping how the news is told.
Audio is one of the main products that publishers will invest in, this year, according to WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends Outlook 2024-2025. This is leading to a growing number of ways to integrate audio into news portals, not only through podcasts but also through apps, news summaries and articles that can be listened to. Meanwhile, large media outlets such as The Economist have launched a subscription model for their audio content, The New York Times decided that its podcast archive would be only for those who pay a membership, and in the Nordic countries these products are included in their total income packages. What is behind these strategies? What are the latest trends? How much do they contribute to fostering subscriber loyalty? Are they a way of attracting young audiences? Is it a source of monetization with growth prospects?
We are navigating and adapting to change on several fronts, all while trying to stay true to our core mission. We believe it is important, as part of our partnership, to share our perspective on the changes we are experiencing and our approach to them. We will talk about how to meet consumer needs, how to adapt to the new web, how to seize the momentum of AI, and the latest on our work in Latin America.
The Colombia Media Evoluciona Program of Google News Initiative and the Colombian Media Association (AMI) seeks to boost the digital development of media by training editorial and commercial teams in their knowledge of audience, use of new technologies and monetization. Marktube’s Ezequiel Arbusti tells us about the program, as well as its scope and impact.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing elements of the media landscape at an unprecedented pace, driving innovation while prompting a re-evaluation of traditional models of news production, distribution and monetization. This presents both opportunities and challenges, which we will address in the following panels.
To what extent is artificial intelligence useful for content creation? Is it ethical to consider AI-generated content as journalism or should there be a clear distance between the two? How necessary is transparency in its use with the audience? What tools can help produce better quality journalism or in-depth investigations? How can we deal with the change of its incorporation in newsrooms? These are the central questions that experts in AI tools and editorial heads will answer in the following panel.
Incorporating generative AI into editorial workflows is not just a technological challenge. It is above all an opportunity to boost journalistic work through the automation of operational tasks, allowing editors to control the process to ensure editorial judgment, news ethics and engagement with the audience. This talk will address the technical aspects of this integration, its impact on content production and the challenges that these transformations must overcome.
Audiences are not unaware of content created by or involving artificial intelligence. In 28 countries where the Reuters Institute and Oxford University surveyed the topic, the majority of respondents expressed concern about the use of AI if articles or products are created without sufficient human oversight. They are more comfortable if AI is used for sports or entertainment content and more critical if it is applied to political or crime-related issues. However, there is less concern if the tool is used to summarize materials or transcribe interviews. What other issues does the public perceive? What are the latest trends in the use of AI? Below we present innovative data and cases.
In Peru, the presidential speech on July 28 is a key moment of accountability. In 2024, with the longest speech in history -more than five hours long- El Comercio combined artificial intelligence and journalistic judgment to analyze it in real time and compare it with the messages of five previous governments.
A case of editorial decisions in times of algorithms, which demonstrates how AI can be an ally -and not a threat- when used with human supervision, editorial purpose and commitment to the audience.
In the era of information overproduction, publishers have a hidden treasure: their own journalistic archives. This presentation explores how artificial intelligence can transform these archives into fluid, adaptable, and always relevant content. Using the ODÍN tool, developed by the Colombian publisher Cuestión Pública, we will demonstrate how the RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) methodology enhances and enables the reuse and enrichment of past research to generate new formats and narratives. This is an opportunity for publishers to maximize the value of their work, optimize their processes, and strengthen their impact on their audiences.
Eva is an AI-powered chatbot that allows viewers to chat with a woman detained for international drug trafficking in Paraguay, a country where 44.3% of incarcerated women are deprived of their liberty for violating the drug law. Journalists, conversational designers, and UX writers developed this chatbot so Eva can tell her story in the first person and without intermediaries. Through a gamified experience based on journalistic research, the project challenges the prejudices of the “war on drugs” by using non-fiction journalism to generate empathy with real stories.
Partnerships, technology, and networking between publishers, organizations, and fact-checkers are redefining the fight against disinformation. We’ll explore success stories from the region, key lessons learned, and opportunities for the future in a context where content moderation on social media faces growing challenges.
A complex advertising market, combined with rising costs and declining social media traffic, has put further pressure on companies’ balance sheets. Advertising still accounts for a large portion of media revenue, especially for major brands, but it’s increasingly becoming a riskier bet as a core business model. New technologies and digital platforms are reshaping the landscape, and new trends are redefining the relationship between brands and audiences.
One trend is AI-powered advertising, which encompasses everything from data analysis to real-time ad personalization, making it an exceptional tool for executing more comprehensive campaigns. In turn, it impacts the way advertising is bought in digital media and allows agencies to implement campaigns geared toward maximizing results for clients. What are the trends and latest innovations? What can we expect in the future? How much will this impact media finances? That’s what the next panel will cover.
