Robot texts underpin regional football site

Klackspark uses United Robot’s sports robot for the blanket coverage of all matches down through division 6. For the 2019 season (Apr-Oct) the sports robot generated a total of 1.2 mi page views, 450,000 of which were logged-in.

Who: Local media group Östgöta Media (part of NTM group), Sweden launched a football vertical, Klackspark.com, with the reader promise to cover all football leagues (down to division 6) in the region of Östergötland.

Why: Östgöta Media saw an opportunity in the market for a vertical focussed on the region’s football, as a brand extension to its three local news sites and a way to reach new audiences. The volume of articles, and related ad inventory, needed for comprehensive coverage would not have been possible to generate using reporter time only.

Objective: In addition to reaching new audiences, the initial objective was to drive new advertising revenue. After keeping the site open during the initial launch season, the results were positive and Östgöta Media had the confidence to lock a lot of the content, making it part of the subscription offer of its three local news sites, driving reader as well as ad revenue.

What: Klackspark uses United Robot’s sports robot for the blanket coverage of all matches down through division 6. On top of the automated pre-match texts and match reports, journalists write the human stories, commentaries, deep dives and so on.

Result: For the 2019 season (Apr-Oct) the sports robot generated a total of 1.2 mi page views, 450,000 of which were logged-in – driving reader engagement/retention. During that season, there were an average of 850 articles published on Klackspark.com per month – 70% of those were produced by the sports robot.

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