You shouldn't work in media if you're not comfortable - excited, even - with change.
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And ACM, like all media companies in Australia and around the world, has experienced yet another whirlwind year of transformation.
As Australia's largest independent publisher, our news brands sprawl across the nation, catering to highly engaged but diverse audiences, making it tricky to implement synchronised strategies.
Enter video. Over the past 12 months, video has been a huge focus for us - with results that tell that story.
As I write this, our homepages are ablaze with videos showcasing diverse media consumption habits.
There's a moving memorial for the bombed World Central Kitchen aid workers. A compilation of anti-violence against women marches, most of them in our communities, affecting people we know.
Bonza Airlines - a boon for regional travellers - has gone bust. And former One Generation boy bander Niall Horan does his first "shoey" in Brisbane.
Our data shows that our audiences will not consume just one of these videos and then go about their day-they want more.
They want to be informed, inspired, entertained, distracted.
One of the best things about video in media is its ability to capture, compel and captivate audiences in a way that text or static images may not. Video is immediate, and immediately impactful.
And it's so much easier now. Gone are the days where the designated news video team sat on a faraway floor, tasked with "special projects" that were often complex and production heavy. Our 400-plus journalists working across 85 mastheads are all videographers.
In 2023, ACM shook up its video strategy. With sharing platform partner Dailymotion, we embedded videos in every story and made it much easier to search - for journalists in the backend of the content management system and audiences online.
We expanded the team, updated the phones and tech, launched and drove video on social media platforms and extended our education and capacity to livestream events such as press conferences, conduct compelling pieces to camera, and quickly report breaking news from the scene.
But most of all, we made it a priority. Every editorial meeting and data dashboard talks about video performance.
Video storytelling is not an add-on or afterthought, it leads the conversation.
Time on page grew hugely across the business, for every story. We saw record on-site performance across mastheads and our engagement and subscribers on social platforms like TikTok and YouTube increased sharply.
Some of the numbers: 39 million video views on Dailymotion across 2023, which was up 56 per cent from 2022. 17 million views on ACM sites across 2023, up 77 per cent from 2022. And 25 million-plus views on TikTok. In 2024, numbers are even higher; March has just been another record-breaking month, with 11.4 million views-a 587 per cent increase on March 2023.
We will continue to invest because this is how audiences want to consume news. While the Digital News Report: Australia 2024 sensibly calls out short videos as the high performers in online news consumption, we will be rolling out a longer-form video strategy, harnessing the high engagement of our subscribers.
Covering breaking news is still the main game, and this report indicates international news, national politics and crime are the top performers.
But we also plan on growing and enriching our feelgood content, such as random acts of kindness, animal stories and explainers.
Although the report found Australians have a lower than global average consumption of "fun news", we'd like to see that dial move.
In terms of other trends, men are more avid consumers of online news videos, not dissimilar to article consumption for us, and - again, no surprises - younger generations are more inclined towards bite-sized news videos.
Higher education and income levels correlate with increased consumption of online news videos, which is great news for companies such as ACM, with educated, engaged audiences.
In more good news, given Meta's decision to withdraw financial support for trusted Australian news content, the report says that news websites and apps are the primary sources for online news videos-followed by social media platforms.
Trust in news sources correlates with higher consumption and those who pay for online news are more likely to access videos on news websites/apps. Months before the Voice to Parliament referendum, ACM asked its readers living in rural and regional communities all over Australia: Will you vote yes or no, and why? With almost 10,000 responding, the result was the first sign the referendum would be lost in Australia's biggest regional cities.
Sending journalists out into the communities with their phones to record video revealed more. Many local readers were troubled by the bureaucratic wording, felt the money could be spent elsewhere or thought the referendum was overly divisive.
Through intimate interviews with local residents in the regions, we unearthed sentiments that reverberated across Australia, signalling a shift in public opinion.
Seeing real people speaking on camera about their concerns hit politicians in their corporate offices-the regions have influence.
Video is a powerful storytelling medium. It can bring stories to life and create a stronger emotional connection with the audience, fostering greater empathy and understanding.
With widespread availability of smartphones and high-speed internet, video is much more accessible to people across the globe, allowing for greater reach and connection with diverse audiences.
In a world filled with uncertainty, video enables us to not just accurately report the news, but craft narratives that resonate, inspire and unite.
- Kate Cox is ACM head of national content. This commentary was originally published in the University of Canberra News and Media Research Centre's 2024 Digital News Report: Australia.