Singapore’s media network, SPH Media, has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics for content creation and delivery, multimedia storytelling, understanding consumption patterns and delivering personalized content and data-driven.
This helps improve operational efficiency, deliver richer media experiences tailored to user preferences, and improve content discovery and engagement.
Kaythaya Maw, Chief Technology Officer of SPH Media, said iTnews Asia media house leverages generative AI, large language models and automation to streamline newsroom tasks including transcription, translation, summarization, named entity identification, sentiment analysis and extracting PDF content.
It established a centralized DataHub to aggregate channel data, including website analytics, app usage statistics, subscription details, partner survey data and other third-party information, a Maw said.
This central repository ensures that data is accessible and manageable from a single point, providing a holistic view of user interactions and behaviors, he added.
SPH Media is enhancing its first-party data collection by improving user tracking mechanisms, implementing registration requirements, and securing data sharing permissions on digital platforms.
This provides a detailed representation of user behavior and preferences, necessary for delivering personalized content.
Adapting content to audience preferences
According to Maw, consolidated data is made accessible through tools such as Lumos – a newsroom analytics dashboard – and audience segmentation services.
Skilled data analysts and explorers analyze data to gain insights into audience preferences across content types, audience demographics and market segments, trending topics, and content engagement metrics for newsrooms.
These data-driven audience insights inform editorial strategy and decision-making, including identifying content gaps to meet audience needs and adapting content types or formats to align with audience preferences. audience, Maw said.
It further helps verify news sources and reports by cross-checking with empirical data, guiding investigative reporting on emerging topics or justifying investments in niche content sectors, he said. added.
Journalists leverage newsroom analytics platforms, including Chartbeat and Lumos, to gain insights into audience engagement with content.
It provides a holistic view of audience behaviors, engagement, conversion and key metrics over extended periods of time, Maw said.
“By democratizing access to audience analytics, Lumos empowers journalists to help grow their audiences and make data-informed decisions about the content they produce,” he added.
Migration to the cloud
SPH Media has migrated customer-facing websites and applications to cloud infrastructure with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
They have jointly implemented solutions optimized for AWS analytics, AI and ML (machine learning), and databases.
With AWS, it developed Entity360, a unified data platform that consolidates data sources into a data lake.
“We worked with AWS to design and implement a centralized data repository that enables advanced analytics across the organization,” Maw said.
Additionally, SPH Media transformed IT Service Management (ITSM) processes and contact center operations by deploying ServiceNow solutions through a common implementation roadmap.
According to Maw, the first phase of the smart advertising platform is expected to roll out later this year.
This will enable agencies and ad buyers to self-serve and activate media campaigns across SPH Media platforms.
This will streamline and digitize the media campaign booking process for SPH Media, Maw said.
