I recently heard that Charie Villa will be handling ABS-CBN’s online news website as well as their mobile starting February 1. I’ve been closely monitoring ABS-CBN’s website and there are actually times now that I go to them first before I visit Inquirer.Net. Let me just take this opportunity to offer some unsolicited advice to the new team because I strongly believe that they have the resources to match and eventually trump other news sites.
It’s all about content and you have tons of it
I don’t know what’s the set-up is in terms of the news gathering but there should be more seamless integration with TV, Radio, and Online. A good idea that’s worth exploring is that reporters have the option (or are required to) submit articles of their stories as well to the online portal. Of course they should get compensated for this since this entails more work for them.
In terms of content strategy, ABS-CBN can easily leverage their multimedia capabilities. One of the reasons that made me regularly visit them is their Youtube Channel. This is one of the best moves that they’ve done so far and I applaud them for going to Youtube instead of the traditional clunky and slow custom uploaders like what GMA is using in their site. However they have to upload stuff more regularly. They also need to grow the viewership of their channel so that they can eventually package it for advertising.
Another thing they can explore is exclusive online content that’s available only on the website. This can be in the form of longer interviews. One of the problems of TV is that you only have 2-3 minutes to explain a story. But in online you have the freedom of putting up the entire interview. You have to edit it a bit though so that it’s not too messy for public consumption.
For radio they can live stream and have on demand versions of their popular shows and content. A good model for this one would be Magic 89.9FM. In my honest opinon they’re at the forefront of online marketing in terms of the radio industry.
One of my main problems with the ABS-CBN portal is that they’re a bit delayed when it comes to releasing content. However there are instances where they actually beat Inquirer.Net to the punch. This means that they CAN do it, they just have to keep on doing it consistently.
Fragmented market means fragmented sites
Once they’ve established the ABS-CBN news portal, a good strategy later on is to build other sites that cater to specific niches. This can be in the form of full blown sites or they can also make blogs inside the ABS-CBN portal. Inquirer.Net has a blogging channel but it rarely gets updated. I used to submit articles for Inquirer but I stopped because it took forever for them to reply or upload after Erwin Oliva left for Yahoo. You don’t even have to spend too much on this! Just get existing bloggers to write. Some will even do it for free because they want the traffic that they get to their original blogs by being writers for your portal. Another idea is that you get 2-3 celebrities on retainer to regularly give blog updates.
Why is it important to segregate content?
Because not everyone cares that Kim Chiu has cleavage. I cannot understand why that article would be on a news site. It kinda damages the brand and the experience of being a formal news site don’t you think?
Learn the ropes of internet marketing
Another important thing is that the ABS-CBN new media team should be internet marketing experts. Attend training seminars, conferences, and read books about the said topic. There are a lot of people who claim to be experts in this field but not all of them have the credentials and experience to back it up. Since it’s still a new industry, the next best thing to experience is knowledge so better make damn sure that you have a lot of it.
Expand beyond your portal. Tap social media. ANC has been doing a spectacular job with leveraging social media. They’re very active on Twitter and they’ve even put up a Facebook fan profile that’s actually active. Maybe there’s a way to auto update the profile with breaking news from the ABS-CBN site? It wouldn’t cost too much to make that app. That way the profile is literally ANC 24/7 news. 
Making Money out of it
I’m sure that the revenue you get out of Google Ads isn’t that great. Strongly suggest you scrap that. Why? Because advertisers pay Google instead of you to advertise on your site. After taking out Google come up with prime spots for online ads. Note that the industry standards are 300×250, 728×90, and 160×600. You might also want to explore selling Rich Media ads like what PEP and Inquirer are doing.
Given your traffic and your growth potential, ABS-CBN can easily turn into a goldmine. In fact with the right strat you can use it to build an OFW community which we all know has a premium when it comes to advertising.
Maria Ressa was correct when she said that online is the next frontier for journalism and I’m happy to see that ABS-CBN is taking steps to be more aggressive with building their online presence. Given the right strategy, people, and efforts I’m sure they can be one of the best news sites in the country.
… or they can hire you as a consultant
Seriously, media people aren’t the best internet professionals. They may need outside help from actual internet practitioners.
Haha, thanks for the vote of confidence bro. Media people can be good internet marketers as long as they get trained.
I agree that content is king and that ABS-CBN has tons of it; but is it the kind of content that drives traffic to their site.
Carlo, you are right in everything you’ve pointed out. ABS-CBN should consider what they put into their “content”; and how they can turn their vast resources into a media weapon. It’s not just about content, content, and more content; it’s about the right content.
I try to “self-SEO” some of my sites and, as I’m sure you know, it is a battle! One day you’re in the top 3 and the next day you’re on page 2.
And I also like your suggestion to professionalize what they put in the site. Good call!
Keep it up Carlo!
As more bloggers and internet marketers emerge, SEO will be harder to come by for independent sites. That’s a brutal and sad fact that we will have to face someday, lol.
By the way, I’m working on getting a new keyword for this site in the first page of google. Hopefully it works lol.
Hello Carlo!
Thank you for your advice! i”m keeping your note on my desktop to help us build a better and more engaging news site.
Don’t be surprised if i call you one of these days!
)
@chariev
Hi Ms. Charie!
Thanks for dropping by the blog and leaving a comment. I was actually surprised to hear from Mich that you were able to read this post, haha!
Hope to see you soon!
I was among the select few who helped put up the then abs-cbnnews.com portal, and I’ve got to say that if they are still using some of the old systems to maintain ABS-CBN News Online, then they’ve got a lot of problems.
Back in the late 90s, we used the old news sharing system of the Regional Network Group on which radio and television reporters were, as far as I could recall, required to jot down their stories.
Now, you have to realize that radio and television reporters and correspondents aren’t as well versed as those who work for print media, primarily because of the insertion of sound bytes and video clips that do some of the storytelling.
What makes the situation a lot worse is most sound bytes and video clips are not available to the online team. (Although they may have already—and hopefully—changed this policy.)
This is where the problem in content lies. It’s hard to rehash stories from radio and TV scripts/spiels into readable content that’s accurate and chock-full of information.
So, yes, your suggestion for their content is good. The only thing they need there is dish out a few more incentives to their powerful news gathering force to come up with worthy articles for the site.
Yo Joel man long time no hear. It’s great to see you leavin’ a comment.
Agree with you that their news gathering force has the potential to become powerful even online.
Hi Joel,
Good advice, but I have to disagree that it’s all about content. It’s not.
User Experience plays a great role too, and if ABS-CBN News New media can revolutionize the News Reading Experience, it will be a lot more amazing News site.
As you mentioned, putting videos on Youtube.com is a great move, and I completely agree. It makes videos to load much faster, much easier to access, and easier to share. But this is a move to change the way the users experience the content.
Will you watch Avatar on your iPhone!? Well, that’s great content! But the what made Avatar a big hit is the experience in watching it on a big screen in 3D. I bet you won’t like it as much even if you watch it on a 3D TV at home.
I guess what I’m saying is, ABS-CBN News already has content. While there is room for more, adding to is has to more strategic or else ABS-CBN News will lose it’s core value, which is telling great News. So right now, the right move is really to enhance the user experience. The challenge is how can they make News reading much more pleasant and much more engaging.
A lot more things can be changed in the their news site, but it’s not leaning on content much. I’m seeing that the change must be in the way user will find it easier to browse related content (internal and external to the site), the way they will be able read their news from Desktop – Mobile – Back to TV, the way they can interact with the social sphere around the content they’re consuming, etc. There are lot’s of possiblities yet unexplored.
To sum it all up, the change must be in the Total User Experience. And in User Experience, content is just a small part of it.
Ah, I missed UI in my post. Thanks for bringing it up man and yes I totally and 110% agree with you. They can definitely improve the current UI that they have.
One thing they can do is to do user acceptance tests for each version of the site that they do and not just rely on what their tech or developer says.
A website is just like any product, it shouldn’t be dictated upon by what the engineers, marketers, or IT department say – it should be dependent on what the consumers say because they are the end users.
I agree.
Or they can just “listen-in” in the social web and see how people are actually using it,what their complaints are, their suggestions, etc.
Or they can create a beta community where they can test out changes to these people and get their take on it.
Actually, this here is the first step. They are listening. And that’s a great step at that.
Oh and I’m not even just talking about UI. UI is just part of the User Experience. What I’m talking about are engaging features, intuitive UI, efficient use of visuals, effective creatives, blazing fast page loading, integrated social tools, etc….
The change can’t just come in one aspect.
Yep, user experience insights is something you get form the user acceptance test.
Sorry, my comment above was for Carlo and not Joel!
My Bad!