Since 2017, 130-year-old Canadian writer La Presse has been digital solely, a shift that’s led to a deal with rising on-line audiences. The writer has grown from 4 million month-to-month distinctive guests in 2019 to over 4.6 million as of July 2023, in line with knowledge by Comscore, which solely has knowledge from the final 5 years.
The funding in its first-party knowledge has helped spur a 9% enhance in whole advert income in 2022, in contrast with the yr prior, the writer mentioned. La Presse reported a internet revenue of $11 million for the finished monetary yr, including $12 million to its 2022-established reserve fund of $25 million within the present yr, in line with its monetary assertion.
The writer has secured renewals from strategic promoting companions, elevated pricing inside its advert product portfolio, and tapped into new advert companions throughout verticals, together with banks, insurance coverage firms, and journey manufacturers, in line with Geoffrey Bernard, vp of promoting, knowledge and client insights at La Presse.
One component of its first-party technique is knowledge clear rooms, a privacy-focused means of matching purchasers’ audiences with writer audiences, a way that pulls new advertisers.
“20% of the info clear room income comes from new advertisers,” mentioned Bernard. “And 80% of incremental {dollars} comes from present advertisers.” In 2016, a yr previous to shutting its print store, La Presse obtained 92% of its advert income from digital, per the World Affiliation of Information Publishers.
In line with trade estimates, cookie demise and regulatory pushback have left practically 70% of the open net viewers unreachable. By attending to know its viewers, La Presse has introduced extra addressability to that cohort. These efforts have allowed the writer to develop its direct gross sales efforts outdoors of programmatic channels.
Increased conversion charge
VIA Rail, Canada’s model of Amtrack, is a long-time consumer of the digital newspaper and expanded its media shopping for technique in 2019 and has extra just lately labored with the writer’s knowledge clear room.
VIA Rail amassed its first-party database, primarily e mail addresses, of 1.3 million individuals. Nonetheless, the restricted shelf lifetime of third-party identifiers prompted VIA Rail to discover Optable’s knowledge clear room answer.
“In a cookieless world our effectivity of reaching our viewers has turn into a lot more durable,” mentioned Philippe Normand, director, advertising, digital, and go-to-market, VIA Rail. “It was a no brainer to search for different activations. This partnership with La Presse was one we thought was actually attention-grabbing.”
