El Tiempo, Colombia’s leading media outlet in terms of audience and revenue, has discovered a new revenue stream by leveraging the user data it had never previously utilised.

During the recent INMA Webinar Generating a Competitive Edge Through Data Strategy: The Case of El Tiempo, Diego Vallejo Janne, chief digital officer and executive digital manager of El Tiempo Casa Editorial, detailed the news company’s journey in building a data strategy over the past few years.

“In today’s world, we believe [data] provides us with a significant competitive advantage,” said Vallejo Janne about the 114-year-old media company. He emphasised that data itself is just ones and zeroes and without corporate awareness and a strategic approach to its value and utilisation, “data will remain just ones and zeros.”

El Tiempo was a digital pioneer in Colombia, launching its online version in 1996, just a couple of months after global giants such as The New York Times. Today, it ranks first in audience size according to Comscore, and first in revenue, according to IAB figures.

With a robust ecosystem of digital and print products, El Tiempo collects data from its digital products, other offline sources, and third-party benchmarking tools. They manage and consolidate this data into a unique customer base. This data activation supports advertising on their network of Web sites and third-party tools such as Facebook or Google Ads, direct marketing via SMS and WhatsApp, and data solutions like Analitica and other commercial products.

El Tiempo’s database includes first-party data, such as cookies that track events like visits, scroll percentages, clicks, registrations, downloads, and payments. It also utilises zero-party data from registration forms and third-party data, which is becoming less common in the market.

9 years of hard work

This process began in 2015 when the company realised the value in data and audience insights. Using both, they improved products to attract more users and, consequently, collected more data and knowledge about those users. To achieve this, the company developed a robust analytics strategy centered on audiences, which enabled the creation of a data-driven marketing business.

By 2019, El Tiempo had positioned itself competitively in Colombia as a data-driven company. By 2025, the media conglomerate aims to enhance its data strategy through Artificial Intelligence and generative AI.

Vallejo noted this strategy is not exclusive to large companies like El Tiempo; smaller media outlets can also dedicate a small team to their digital transformation: “Digital transformation is not about riding a Ferrari [in terms of state-of-the-art technology] adopting the latest technology. ... It’s about people, teams, and cultural change.”

Strategy turned into product

Some data-driven products, many of which no longer exist, included Giga Impacta for advertising, Giga Contacta for direct user services, Giga Investiga for audience insights, and Giga Asesora for market research consulting. El Tiempo shifted focus toward performance, efficient data use for better segmentation, and higher result effectiveness with less inventory waste.

This shift involved identifying user browsing habits, frequency, interests, transactions, providers, and declared data. The next steps were data consolidation; processing and unifying sources, languages, and formats; user categorization; and creating a standard for data activation for more personalized advertising campaigns.

As a result, El Tiempo reached 39.7 million users, increased sales revenue from the data management platform by 73%, and grew direct and programmatic sales revenue by 81%. The company developed models for click, lead, and direct marketing purchases, capturing market share previously dominated by platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads.

The 33 million user challenge

El Tiempo has a monthly audience of 33 million unique users, of which only 3 million — just 10% — were identified in the first place.

To increase user identification, they turned to their own products, such as elempleo.com, where 10 million users are fully identified. The Vivamos loyalty club and allied business companies, along with event registrations, have also bolstered their database.

 This strategy grew their identified user base to 12 million, each with a unique profile containing personal data like address, profession, and marital status.

Identifying the 33 million users is a nearly impossible task, Vallejo said, but the 12 million users already categorised have tremendous marketing value, “if we consider that Colombia has a population of 50 million people.”

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