As the most widely
read newspaper in France, Le Monde has a range of publications and websites, including
the main French-language news site lemonde.fr. Adopting an analytics-based
approach is an essential part of the media group’s editorial strategy – providing
the highest possible quality of content to their readers.
12% increase
in engine traffic – 2019 vs. 2018
Recovery of
15% of traffic lost to ad blockers
The Challenge
To preserve
the media brand’s tradition of journalistic excellence within the scope of
their digital transformation, Le Monde had to rise to several challenges. Maintaining
the rapid turnover and precise timing of news was critical – both to remain
competitive and stay ahead of the game. They also needed to ensure that a data-driven
approach was fuelling their journalistic strategy, which involved evangelising
teams in a data culture. Finally, they needed to effectively measure a
fragmented audience in a context of multi-device usage with a mix of identified
and unidentified visitors depending on the media consulted.
Adopting an
analytics-based approach was therefore essential to Le Monde’s drive to enhance
content, acquire audiences and optimise conversions.
Outcome
AT
Internet’s data insights enabled Le Monde to optimise their content production
chain and use analytical data to identify which content works well to maximize its
exposure.
They were
able to activate the right conversion levers at the right time which led the
editorial staff to gradually switch from a publication mode based on the flow
of information, to a driver’s logic where each piece of content is published in
the most effective time slot. This involved the staggered publication of cold
content in the evenings and weekends (personal life, travel, etc.), with other
topics covered earlier in the morning (money, finance…), a stronger presence
on social networks on Sunday evenings due to a peak audience observed in this
segment, and thematic content published more in line with readers’ expectations
(cinema on Wednesdays, sports reports early in the morning rather than at
night…)
“Site indicators are extremely valuable. For example, we track the referrer (URL) of each article to find out which pages generate views. We are also able to differentiate the editorial nature of each article, but also the size, date of publication, whether they are free or paid, whether they are read by subscribers or anonymous… A maximum amount of precious detail to produce in-depth analyses.”
Pierre Buffet, head of digital studies, Le
Monde group
Le Monde used
analytics to guide their push strategy which led to a better distribution of mailings.
By targeting of the most promising slots in terms of audience, Le Monde
increased the number of clicks per push by 13%.
AT’s
solution also allowed Le Monde to recover between 5% and 15% of its traffic
lost to ad blockers – while respecting the (legitimate) will of Internet users
not to be subjected to advertisements.
Conclusion
By working
with AT Internet, Le Monde recorded a 12% increase in engine traffic in 2019
compared to the same period in 2018. Ensuring they worked with high-quality and
reliable data significantly increased their traffic across the board and enhanced
the value of their real audience. AT also met the group’s need to have a
trusted third-party tool to provide in-depth solutions on critical issues such
as ad blocking and respect for the privacy of Internet users.
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