Journalism is not dead to younger generations - it is being reborn. Media publications are reinventing themselves as the rise of alternative, youth-oriented news outlets like Vice and BuzzFeed has shown a growing demand for news in a form altogether different from what traditional print publishers are used to producing.
In Taiwan, the rising popularity of the country’s top independent news medium (and Brightcove customer), The News Lens, exemplifies just exactly how the consumption of news is shifting. In the span of just two years, The News Lens has grown its web audience to five million unique visitors every month - a significant number, considering that Taiwan has more than 2,000 competing news publishers in the country alone.
The News Lens stands out because of its focus on video. Not only are original news video clips distributed and screened in malls, taxis, buses and convenience stores throughout Taiwan and Hong Kong, but its website and apps feature the uniquely popular 77-second daily digests, which are bite-sized video summaries of the daily world news. These digests are packaged to appeal to millennials; the content is easy to consume on-the-go, and are instantly shareable on social networks.
Given the flood of information all of us face every day, a quick sense for the details of the story, the key facts and a bit of background is sometimes all we need. As consumers shift away from TV to social media to get their daily news, punchy and well-produced short-form videos are the new kind of storytelling that has its place alongside in-depth coverage of current events - even if that short, punchy video may not earn anyone a Pulitzer prize.
Video is a key focus for the company as it continues to grow its audience and increase engagement levels. As it stands, video content accounts for around 10% of The News Lens’ website traffic. However, News Lens considers that number just the beginning. The company plans to grow video to 30% - and their ability to build video content to engage audiences on the platforms where they naturally find their news is critical to remain top-of-mind and relevant in a crowded media landscape. Equally important is a scalable and adaptable video platform to support their growth in video publishing and distribution necessary to achieve these goals, and we are excited to partner with The News Lens on this exciting initiative.
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