Media owners’ journey from print to digital detailed at FIPP Asia-Pacific conference
“We’ve been on our digital journey for about two years, and crossed some significant milestones,” he said. “Digital gives us the opportunity to drive scale, and we now have 25 million monthly unique users and are in 65 cities and 35 countries,” he added.
The business model of Time Out has changed significantly, and now the company sees 43 per cent of its web traffic coming from mobile devices. “We had an established print model, and if you can grow your audience and get engagement you’re in a good position to drive digital forward. Print is still a vital tool in our armoury,” said Woodley, “but we’re now a real-time cross-platform media business.”
Woodley spoke of Time Out’s decision to build its own proprietary platform online, which integrates its portfolio of products and services. “One CMS has the ability to manage all products and services across the whole business,” he said. “We are now made for mobile, and our digital business model is effective. We now have 35 million fans, and that’s set to double over the next two years.”
4. International franchising
In the future, Woodley said Time Out will focus on a global bloggers network, user generated content and an ecommerce platform.
Celia Pan, managing director of new media division, Condé Nast China, then spoke of how changes to the media industry, specifically where technology is concerned, is changing the way Condé Nast China does business.
Pan said that social apps are “gaining momentum” in the international community, and specifically mentioned the likes if WeChat in China. “Video content is expensive to produce but can much better express the band,” said Pan. “It’s a great platform for our brands to convey our messages, but requires special skills. In the US, we invested US$50m in video,” she added.
