Hong Kong (20 July 2022) – The relentless focus on growth strategies and how they are driving digital audience, advertising, and cultural development at Asia/Pacific media companies was the overarching theme of a two-day regional summit by the International News Media Association (INMA).

The INMA Asia/Pacific News Media Summit, held virtually from 14-15 July drew 446 delegates from 37 countries in only its second year. 

Supported by the Google News Initiative, Notix, Piano, and Protecmedia, the 14-15 July Asia/Pacific Summit featured case studies from the region’s top publishers – Australian Community Media, CommonWealth Magazine Group, Dong-A Ilbo, KG Media, Malaysiakini, Mediacorp, NZME, Philippine Daily Inquirer, South China Morning Post, and Tempo Digital. Karen Davila, news anchor for ABS-CBN in the Philippines, served as moderator. 

Key INMA summit takeaways included:

Winning strategies in subscriptions and engagement – INMA Readers First Initiative lead Greg Piechota explained how churn temporarily killed subscription growth of Asia/Pacific news publishers, even in the face of longer pandemic spikes than most of the world. CommonWealth Magazine Group in Taiwan shared four key steps that boosted their digital magazine subscriptions, and Australian Community Media explained how it increased article conversions by 64% while implementing a tool to help journalists see in real time how to improve their content.

Capability building for maximum resilience and growth – KG Media in Indonesia reluctantly raised subscription prices by 46% and found subscription sustainability with only a small decline in subscriptions. Philippine Daily Inquirer is focused on five priorities to reach a goal of 100,000 subscribers.

The changing role of the newsroom – INMA Newsroom Initiative lead Peter Bale stressed the power of creating high-value journalism and trust. For editorial to weave into the business of news, newsroom leaders need a place at every media company’s strategic table, he said. Malaysiakini listened to feedback from its editorial team and created new software to display relevant data in a simpler way for the newsroom. South China Morning Post created four teams that collaborate with each other and editorial – audience growth, data, product and tech, strategy, and special projects.

Different strategies for audience growth – The Dong-A Ilbo newsroom in South Korea embraced the media company’s goal to attract readers that too often found news via research engines. A task force of journalists helped draw more than 10,000 visitors to the web site’s content. Meanwhile, Mediacorp’s Today title in Singapore saw a 662% jump in content engagement when it invested in a TikTok strategy to reach younger readers.

Redefining digital advertising – NZME in New Zealand has seen a 120% improvement in CPMs by using data audience targeting and its in-house recommendation engine. Tempo Digital in Indonesia created a fact-checking method to filter out fake and misleading advertising content, seeing subscription growth as a result.

INMA added expertise and insights around subscription strategies, the state of the global news industry, and integrating newsrooms into the business of news with a keynote by the association’s global chief executive officer, Earl J Wilkinson.

“We’ve seen this summit become a big draw for Asia/Pacific news media companies, as INMA is able to bring global insights fused with regional best practices and case studies to the region,” said Madhavi Sekhri, producer of the INMA Asia/Pacific summit. “The focus on the business side of the news industry and a fresh focus on bringing newsrooms into the business really resonated with our attendees.” 

Registrants received access to the livestream, along with all recordings and presentations associated with the summit.

The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue. The INMA community consists of over 20,000 members at 900+ news media companies in 83 countries. INMA is the news media industry’s foremost ideas-sharing network with members connected via conferences, reports, Webinars, virtual meetings, an unparalleled archive of best practices, and strategic initiatives focused on digital subscriptions, smart data, product, advertising, and newsrooms. 

Coverage of the INMA Asia/Pacific News Media Summit may be found at INMA.org