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Digital News Innovation Fund Impact Report Contents Digital News Innovation Fund Impact Report Contents Introduction 03 Report by numbers 04 Boosting Digital Revenues 08 Telling Local Stories 16 Battling Misinformation 19 Exploring New Technologies 21 DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 2 Introduction The only real, substantive guarantee It has laid the groundwork for the implementation of the independence of news media – of new business models and structures along the entire value chain – from content workflow which is critical for the well-being of processing, to digital distribution, to go-to- pluralist democracies – is their own market strategy for new news products and economic success, not government monetisation. Concepts such as user-generated subsidies or gifts from wealthy donors: content, audience development, real-time you never know when either one analytics, robot journalism and propensity-to- might run out. buy modelling have become part of everyday work in most media organisations. The DNI The offline news business, first print, then Fund was also able to stimulate networks the news wires, radio, then TV, had been a among publishers and tech companies. century-long success story. But over the past 20 years, many traditional news media have News will remain a tough business, but in suffered significant revenue and profit declines. Europe we are now well on our way to building Employment has become less plentiful, and business models which will be sustainable, sometimes precarious. hopefully facilitating the transformation of many revered legacy organisations – and also help a As a result, media companies are changing number of startups to develop their niches. how they do things. Which media company had research & development (R&D) units at the Thus, the DNI Fund has been time, effort, and beginning of this millennium, working on the $150 million well directed. It was an honour next big innovation? Which media companies for me to be part of, and then chair, the DNI had the skill sets in their organisations to Fund Council, which evaluated all of the larger manage rapid technological change and develop projects proposed. products and services fit for the evolving I would like to thank my colleagues on the consumer behaviour? The answer is too few. DNI Fund Council, the amazing project team In 2015, Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund and all others who made this journey possible (DNI Fund) was one of the initiatives which set and were part of it. out to help change that. The direct result of the And to the media companies of Europe: we need DNI Fund’s work is the realisation of numerous you to be successful. Godspeed. innovative projects – some of which you will read about in this report. But in my view, the biggest achievement of the DNI Fund goes beyond individual projects. Veit Valentin Dengler Its biggest achievement is to have helped to COO, Bauer Media Group kick-start the overdue development of an R&D Chairman of the DNI Fund Council culture in the European news ecosystem. Hamburg, October 2020 DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 3 Report by numbers DNI Fund €150M fund 662 projects 30 countries DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 4 Report by numbers Funding across Europe KEY PROJECTS FUNDING AUSTRIA FINLAND LITHUANIA SLOVAKIA 17 20 6 6 €3M €2.9M €910K €1.5M BELGIUM FRANCE LUXEMBOURG SLOVENIA 18 75 2 7 €5.3M €20.1M €770K €843K BULGARIA GERMANY MALTA SPAIN 6 93 1 47 €503K €21.5M €150K €12.1M CROATIA GREECE NETHERLANDS SWEDEN 3 11 32 15 €850K €2.3M €5.5M €2.8M CYPRUS HUNGARY NORWAY SWITZERLAND 1 18 21 15 €450K €2.6M €3.8M €3.4M CZECHIA IRELAND POLAND UNITED KINGDOM 12 10 33 78 €1.5M €1.9M €6.6M €14.9M DENMARK ITALY PORTUGAL 15 45 32 €2.5M €11.5M €7.8M 6% of the DNI Fund ESTONIA LATVIA ROMANIA went to knowledge 2 5 16 sharing, reporting €441K €250K €1.8M and overheads DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 5 Report by numbers Organisation types A breakdown of projects supported by organisational type 27.2% Regional & National Publishers 14.5% News Startups 14.2% News Agencies & Nonprofits 11.0% Local Publishers 10.4% Online Pure Players 6.5% Individuals & Sole Traders 4.8% Trade Associations 3.0% Academic Institutions 1.8% TV 1.8% Radio 1.7% B2B Publishers 1.7% Magazines 1.4% Publisher Collectives DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 6 Report by numbers Funding topics The DNI Fund has supported projects tackling four key industry challenges 12% Boosting Digital Revenues 15% Telling Local Stories 21% Battling Misinformation 52% Exploring New Technologies DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 7 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues LoVer | Spain | €896K Funding | Local Publisher Single login for Spanish local news network Henneo has developed LoVer, Inspired by other DNI-funded experiences, a single sign-on (SSO) system, to the Spanish publisher Henneo built a coalition be the foundation for a paywall and called LoVer (Local and Vertical) to generate a single login for the Spanish press. programmatic advertising for a network of Spanish local publishers. For users, this means high-quality, personalised content across a wider network The problem to solve sounded simple: how to of publishers. For publishers, the data collected allow small and medium publishers to challenge improves programmatic advertising and larger organisations in the competitive digital monetisation. It allows publishers to connect, environment. The solution was collaboration. share tools and campaigns, and learn from each other. In the future, LoVer will serve as the basis for paywall payments. Project Highlights “We know that cookies used to identify the registered user will disappear soon and we need to create 500K users an environment in which as many people as possible will be signed in, so we can still of the Spanish segment our users,” says Miguel Madrid, 91% market reached Chief Digital Officer at Henneo. He predicts the company will diversify ways to monetise websites, 14 Spanish publishers the aggregate data from LoVer. “We will also 60 now participating soon be selling new products, such as video streaming and native advertising.” The funds helped us to grow to 500,000 registered users and reach over 91% of the Spanish market. Miguel Madrid, Henneo Chief Digital Officer DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 8 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues Go Beyond Subscription | France | €400K Funding | National Publisher Smarter paywall optimises subscriber conversion Go Beyond Subscription, an initiative “We wanted to expand our subscribers, and by French newspaper Le Monde, drives reward their loyalty,” says Julien Laroche- and retains digital subscriptions. Its Joubert, Chief Digital Officer at Le Monde, three-tier system includes individual explaining the system’s development, “but also create opportunities to adapt the pricing of the logins and shared accounts. offer depending on the user’s needs.” Observing that subscribers often share logins led Le Monde to develop a smarter paywall system Project Highlights to prompt users registering simultaneous logins to upgrade to a shared account. of subscribers use couple 6.8% or group options As with many publishers, the company saw an increase in subscribers prompted by people subscriber growth looking for verifiable pandemic information 40% year-on-year, since 2020 from a trusted source, but that’s not the full story behind the improved metrics. The digital new subscribers in the subscribers increased from a 25%+ forecasted 14K paywall launch month gain to a 40% year-over-year gain due to both the new offers and the pandemic situation, to reach 335,000 in June 2020. “Creating those offers within a subscription management system was quite complex, but DNI funding allowed us to accelerate this project,” says Laroche-Joubert. The system has already proved a success – 6.8% of subscribers are now using couple or group plans, with the figure still trending upwards. The project helped to expand our subscribers, and reward their loyalty. Julien Laroche-Joubert, Le Monde Chief Digital Officer DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 9 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues NZZ Companion App | Switzerland | €670K Funding | National Publisher Giving people news the way they want it NZZ Companion App, from Switzerland’s news they want, when they want it, morning, noon oldest newspaper Neue Zürcher or night, especially during these unstable times.” Zeitung, is a digital companion that Launched in spring 2017, the NZZ personalises through-the-day news Companion App has built both trust and delivery, creating tailored news loyalty. The centrepiece is personalised based on each user’s profile, location reading recommendations, generated through and situation. feedback (online surveys, one-to-one meetings and idea platforms) from a beta community. Head of Technology at NZZ Andreas Bossecker Getting those high-quality recommendations explains, “Personalisation is at the core of what we allowed the company to incorporate do. Readers want to know they are receiving the personalisation across digital products. Delivering a mobile-first approach also led to organisational changes in the teams. Project Highlights Since the app launch, NZZ has seen a 20% increase in its subscriber base – a total of increase in subscriber base 195,000. “It’s more than we expected, and really for NZZ since launch 20% confirmed our mobile-first focus,” says Bossecker. Beyond NZZ, he says, “a number of publisher of total traffic partners use our technology stack, including on mobile 65% a bigger regional newspaper in Switzerland.” more visits from logged- The software is also distributed to other 125% in traffic than in 2018 publishers and retailers looking to increase website engagement. Readers want to know they are receiving the news they want, when they want it, especially during these unstable times. Andreas Bossecker, NZZ Head of Technology DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 10 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues Noteworthy | Ireland | €380K Funding | Online Pure Player Crowdfunding people’s investigations Noteworthy sees the public suggest Journal Media CEO Adrian Acosta – how to stories, and fund the cost of finance stories that aren’t sustainable with an investigating them to deliver stories advertising model, but impact people’s lives.
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