Latin American media are generally lagging behind in technology and there is a significant percentage that could disappear given its weak growth, according to a survey on the state of digital transformation carried out by the Press Institute of the Inter-American Press Association (SIP).
The entity, based in Miami (Florida), released a statement this Friday in which it stressed that the survey carried out showed that the largest media, with few exceptions, have difficulty reaching more audiences, while the small ones do not fully establish themselves in their markets due to lack of resources and technology. The survey, in which editors from 326 media outlets from 22 countries participated, mostly digital natives, also revealed a lack of training in physical security for journalists and in cybersecurity.
32.9% of the media consulted believe their disappearance is very possible or possible, compared to 27.25% in 2022. 50% of those who responded said they knew or had information about media outlets that have closed in recent years, according to a survey carried out between the months of January and February. 60% of the executives and editors who responded come from small media with 10 or fewer journalists, 10% said they have 10 to 15 journalists, and 30% are from media with 25 to more than 50 journalists.
The president of the Commission of the IAPA Press Institute, Ernesto Kraiselburd, pointed out that although digital media have helped to contain the “digital deserts” that the closure of traditional media is leaving, it is not enough since “these new media continue to without finding sustainable business models”.
The survey showed that the adoption of new technologies is progressing very slowly among the media in the region, since only 8.7% of those surveyed said they have a “podcasting” strategy in their newsrooms and 25% responded that their sites do not offer video content. Only 1.5% said that they use Artificial Intelligence tools, although 73% indicated that they would like to better understand the advantages that this technology offers.
The survey shows better use of audience monitoring and analytics tools by the media compared to last year’s survey results, but the challenge of creating new audiences remains. The need to produce more visual content and through new narratives is the main challenge for newsrooms:
Almost 50% of those who responded said that in their environment they have received training or help from Google’s Showcase or GNI programs (32.96%) and from the Video Accelerator or Meta Mentoring (15.5%). Only 16% of those surveyed indicated that they already have a platform to charge for content, while 23% said they were not interested in that type of income. More than 60% estimated that they would like to adopt a payment platform, but do not have the resources to do so or need to improve their content to charge for it.
