JWP allowed us to expose the video category [as a monetization model] better than before—especially through article matching.
The Challenge
Colombian newspaper El Espectador has been publishing local and global news & opinion since 1887 as Colombia’s oldest newspaper. Switching between daily and weekly print editions, the news publisher reaches 700,000+ readers every week. Similar to the challenges of other leading digital publishers, El Espectador monetizes through both digital subscriptions and advertising. Producing video content for the last 7 years, the publisher originally only covered news via their video channels, but has eventually expanded into creating evergreen video content to drive new, long-term video viewership.
Previously publishing their video content on YouTube, El Espectador lacked the customization and insight necessary to increase their reach and revenue. “We were using YouTube originally, but the video analytics, direct monetization, and levels of personalization were far away from our expectations,” Alvaro Alfonso Cuesta Arevalo, Chief Revenue Officer at El Espectador, said. In order to advance their business objective to increase revenue through video, El Espectador switched to JWP with a goal to scale up their video content production to noticeably improve their reach and revenue 3x more than previous levels.
The Solution
JWP’s full online video platform enabled El Espectador to easily scale their video strategy. Because the news publication’s revenue model depends on articles for more than 80% of its revenue, video content hadn’t previously been prioritized for monetization beyond branded video content partnerships. JWP’s easy-to-use dashboard and workflows enabled El Espectador’s editors to increase video production. After switching to JWP, there was a 40x increase in video plays across El Espectador’s website. Using JWP’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities, the publisher monitors retention rate, views, ad fill rate, and CPMs—more audience insight than they were able to get from their previous video platforms such as YouTube.
With an all-in-one video platform, El Espectador, was also able to enable engagement strategies such as JWP’s Article Matching which algorithmically matches video with on-page content, increasing video views for a more engaged audience.
40
x increase in video plays when switching to JWP
148
% increase in pre-roll ad revenue when switching to JWP
The Results
El Espectador increased video plays on its site by 40x once switching to JWP by enabling engagement features such as a recommendations playlist and article matching. Detailed analytics and audience insight via JWP’s all-in-one video platform also provide the necessary metrics for optimizing El Espectador’s revenue via video. In fact, when switching from using YouTube to JW Player, El Espectador saw a 148% increase in ad revenue from their pre-roll ads (even when accounting for platform costs).