MANILA – Byron Perry, Coconuts Media founder and managing director, flew to Manila this Friday to formally sign their two-year content partnership with ABS-CBN, opening unique synergies were both brands can thrive.
Ging Reyes, head of ABS-CBN Integrated News, describes the deal as a “win-win,” giving the media giant a welcome boost in terms of regional coverage thanks to Coconuts’ over 4 million monthly unique visitors
While ABS-CBN’s reach is extensive, Reyes said that Coconuts will lend them a hand on more granular coverage, especially in Southeast Asia where its correspondent network is much smaller compared to what they have set-up in the Middle East, Europe and the US.
“We are transitioning into a digital world but without neglecting our legacy business, which is not easy for us,” she adds, refering to the transition of journalists used to traditional media platforms. “That’s why we seek out partners like Coconuts and at the same time improve and upgrade the skills of our own journalists.”
Perry shared with adobo that Coconuts Manila currently posts 15 to 20 stories per weekday, which they figured as an ideal number for content production in the country after getting feedback from initially posting 30 stories daily.
In total, Coconuts is producing over a 100 stories per weekday across the 8 countries where it operates, remarkably done solely by two editors (with some help with freelancers) in each country, which Perry endearingly called as “content engines.”
“Our main way to differentiate is to go very local in every city we are in. We are not national news, we are not international news or chasing the biggest issue of the day or the most viral. What attracts us the most are interesting things that are happening just down the street,” Perry adds.
On their end, Coconuts.co will get the chance to get even closer to Filipinos with the country’s biggest media company. ABS-CBN News Online properties touts receiving 3.5 million daily page views and 1.3 million average daily users.
Like ABS-CBN, Perry is looking forward to enrich their coverage in some areas, namely hard news, Tagalog news and sports, which Coconuts currently has a lot of room to improve on.
The partnership, which actually went live last March, is showing great results so far. Without revealing figures, James Ong, Coconuts Editorial Director and former editor of ABS-CBN Publishing titles, said that ABS-CBN sports stories has gained valuable traction on Coconuts Media online assets, which peaked during the height of the Pacquiao-Mayweather superfight.
(PHOTO: (L-R) ABS-CBN digital news head Karen Igaya, ABS-CBN Integrated News head Ging Reyes, Coconuts Media managing director Byron Perry, Coconuts Media editorial director James Ong)
