Prensa Ibérica, the Spanish regional news group, has revealed how it managed to grow revenue in a tough market.
The publisher was facing a decline in traditional advertising income and challenges transitioning to a more digitally focused environment.
It also needed an effective way to preserve the local identity of new acquisitions while it managed complex editorial and technological integrations.
But a structural transformation has enabled it to improve operational efficiency, combine various technologies and increase the quality of its data.
The company – which publishes 26 newspapers, four magazines, and a host of online brands – implemented the changes to ensure it can remain sustainable in an increasingly competitive environment.
Integrated CRM and advertising workflow solution
A key part of this overhaul was incorporating the advertising software and customer relationship management solution of S2i Media Solutions.
This cloud-based subscription and advertising management tool saves publishers time and money by eliminating the need for data to be re-entered on different platforms.
S2i consolidated two advertising hubs that served all of the group’s brands, streamlined the sales processes and unified workflows related to pre-sales, purchase orders and invoicing.
The new system replaced Prensa Iberica’s outdated advertising management applications that was unable to cope with the increased demands of digital advertising.
Concha Blázquez Rodríguez, Prensa Ibéricas director of operations, had worked with S2i in a previous role and knew it could help revitalise the operation.
“We have continued to rely on S2i to continue supporting us on our path of constant change and technological adaptation,” she explained. “Actions speak louder than words.”
Close collaboration enabled continuous improvements to be made during the implementation to help Prensa transition to a modern advertising management system.
Digital advertising and subs lead to increased workload
According to S2i’s director of international operations, Ricardo Fortes, managing digital advertising and subscriptions require significantly more workload than legacy media.
“Many news media companies aren’t prepared to handle large volumes of work and perform repetitive work that’s very costly,” he said. “Our solution helps them optimise processes, reduce costs, and look to the future with greater clarity and optimism.”
Prensa Iberica’s technological and organisational overhaul to ensure its growing business could remain sustainable in an increasingly competitive environment.
For example, it tackled print advertising decline by diversifying revenue through new formats such as branded content, events, digital subscriptions and programmatic advertising.
Continuous improvement of the editorial products and content have also been essential, as well as strengthening the group’s commercial offering.
For example, Prensa Iberica has increased the number of events held to generate a complementary source of income and introduced efficient cost management to remain competitive.
Data is at the heart of the business
Another major benefit of the changes introduced has been improving the available data, which is essential for the rigorous monitoring of commercial activity and sales.
This information enables the company to analyse the business from multiple perspectives and make more informed decisions, particularly when it comes to expanding its portfolio of titles.
This is why intensive work has been carried out on integrating CRM and sales data into the group’s Business Intelligence (BI) platform.
To ensure consistency, efficiency, and continuous evolution of processes, a multidisciplinary internal committee oversees both the implementation and maintenance of the system.
This team acts as an expert body within the group, evaluating and defining changes to the tools and being the sole authorised point of contact for requesting modifications from the supplier.
Prensa’s overall transformation has also required a significant investment in staff training, equipping teams with new skills and ways of working.
The aim of these ongoing changes is to improve the quality of internal management and generate synergies that enable a more efficient use of resources.
Restructure paved the way for significant expansion
The changes introduced by Prensa helped put the foundations in place for the significant growth that’s been enjoyed by the group over the past six years.
Key acquisitions have included the newspapers and magazines of Grupo Zeta, which gave them a leading position in Catalonia via El Periódico.
In 2021, Prensa Iberica launched a new national media outlet, El Periódico de España, based in Madrid, and the following year acquired Publisuites, the link-building and branded content specialist.
It has since added El Correo Gallego, which covers Santiago de Compostela, as well as adding El Correo de Andalucía, the digital newspaper that’s deeply rooted in Seville.
Prensa Iberica plans to continue growing sustainably, with a focus on constant innovation and revenue diversification.
It’s also planning to strengthen its commitment to hyperlocal information, which is seen as a differentiating factor that allows it to connect more directly with the communities served.
New editorial and commercial products will be developed using data intensively as a basis for more precise and agile decision-making.
International expansion of S2i
S2i, which was established back in the mid-1990s, is also looking to the future with ambitious expansion plans taking it outside Spain.
The company, which is headquartered in Madrid, has spent the last three decades constantly improving its systems to ensure they can meet the needs of a modern media company.
According to Fortes, the emergence of the technological transformation of the media business has been a remarkable period of S2i.
“It’s become a benchmark in digital advertising management, with native integration with the main Ad Managers and SSPs.
It was selected by an external consultancy hired by Prisa as the ideal solution for managing more than 70 sites in Spain, the United States, and Latin America.
The main Spanish digital native media outlets, such ElConfidencial.com and 20Minutos.es, were then incorporated into its client portfolio before it started to expand geographically.
The Portuguese market was first s2i’s first international expansion with the incorporation of Masemba and Media Capital Digital, followed by Grupo Nación of Costa Rica and La Nación and Grupo Clarin of Argentina.
S2i is now looking to expand further and hopes to enter the UK market later this year and begin providing solutions to publishers of all sizes.
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