Ditch the clickbait: How prioritizing content excellence pays off

There is a reason why you became a publisher, an editor, or a reporter. You want to publish quality content and take pride in creating the best possible articles about your specific subject. You are committed to producing quality content, and this is why we are in this business.

Over the years, I have seen first-hand the potential and possibilities of online publishing. However, the struggle for profitability and growth can lead to bad journalism - journalism with only one source, with zero sources, or journalism that is under attack from social media, fake news, and synthetic content. I call it disposable journalism. But there are ways to combat this and ensure that you produce quality content that stands out in the crowded online space.

You don't need traffic peaks; you can commercialize them. Sales cannot sell on peaks; they sell predictable ad inventory. Peaks don't retain paid users either. You might convert a few, but they won't stay with you if you baited them in.

At a recent INMA Subscription event in Stockholm, former Chief Economist of Spotify, Will Page, warned publishers against only looking at their own metrics when they optimize their websites. Young people spend most of their time watching videos on their social media, not reading your publication. Your metrics don't know what they see on their mobile, and you don't even know what they read at your competitors. If you optimize for what you already have, you might miss the largest opportunities that you haven't gotten yet.

Firstly, award quality instead of clicks. Traffic will come from direct, social, and search. Instead of focusing solely on clicks, produce quality content that offers real value to your readers. This will not only increase reader loyalty but also attract new readers. Teach your reporters to produce at lower frequencies but better.

Secondly, employ responsible leadership. Keep your eyes on the noble cause of providing quality journalism from your publication. Help reporters, data scientists, and your developers to solve the real problems, how to increase the retention of free and paid users by delivering surprisingly good content. Hold your employees accountable for delivering better. Your readers rely on you to do that.

Thirdly, trust your niche. Your language, geographic location, subject, and expertise have high value for your readers. Embrace it. By focusing on your niche, you can manifest your role as an expert and build a loyal following.

Fourthly, remember that your site is a playlist, not an album. You sell single stories, and people end up on your page from Google or Facebook. They are snacking on your content. Make sure your production quality is visible in a single story. This will ensure that readers know what they can expect from your publication.

Finally, get rid of your 2017 tech stack. In 2023, newspapers and magazines are hosted from the cloud, and the paywall isn't home-built anymore. It's delivered by professionals. That applies to your data tracking, personalization, newsletter, video players, and content management systems as well. We don't build everything in-house anymore, not even in large media groups. What we build is the stuff on top. The shiny stuff that differentiates you from your competitors. That is unique to you.

In Labrador CMS, we spent 13 years fine-tuning our CMS together with hundreds of clients. The basic stuff in publishing is rather complicated and expensive. Our goal is to help editorial publishers gain core functionality quickly, enabling them to grow faster than their competitors. We call it beyond headless.

Jan Thoresen will be speaking at the Indian Magazine Congress. IMC is all set for a comeback as the flagship event of the Association of Indian Magazines. It is slated to be organised on March 24th at the Oberoi, New Delhi.