Mika Rahkonen, head of strategy at Yle, said the Finnish broadcasting company was talking about liquid content almost 10 years ago — it just wasn’t called that. And he said he didn’t coin the term: He believes it initially came from Google’s Matthie Lorrain.

It came up as Yle was building its first personalised news app Newswatch, and the team believed personalisation based on topics is — and has to be — just the first stage of personalisation.

“And how form and shape and probably the length of content will follow along the same idea,” he said.

This was the idea, he said:

If you want to listen to anything we’ve published, you can.

If you want to read it — whether it was originally audio or video — no problem.

If we know you are listening to news articles every morning at 8 a.m. when you’re commuting to work, we can offer you news articles in audio exactly at that time.

The concept also applies to location: If we know you like to read long stories when you’re in your summer cottage, we’ll push those to you when you’re there.

“For the past 10 years, it’s been really hard to make people understand what news personalisation is or can be,” Rahkonen said. “I’ve tried to approach misunderstandings and talk to traditionalists/skeptics by underlining that the alternative to a personalised media news feed is not a traditional one news feed for all with big audiences like it used to have. The alternative to personalisation is a traditional one news feed for all with very small (and diminishing) audiences. From this perspective, this is crucial to understand. And liquid content is just one approach to that.”

Rahkonen pointed out that the concept remains conceptual and strategic in many ways — Yle isn’t there yet. But, he said, evolving technology will make it easier to create liquid content. Tools allow journalists to transfer the text to audio or the audio to video, for instance.

“I see this as a very cost-effective way,” Rahkonen said. “Pretty much the same content, different platform. Public service media (and a lot of other broadcasters) has done this on a different level for a long time — creating TV and radio news stories from the same material — and a lot of times it might be the same actual story, really.”

Liquid content puts the consumer in the driver’s seat — they can have it in any form they want, he said.

“Looking at media consumption habits, I'd say this might be a good way to reach new audiences as well. Maybe you can generate your news stories via a template to your TikTok feed?” Rahkonen said. “Although you really need to know the platform and be really good there so that you’re not just the awkward uncool uncle at the party as traditional media has historically been trying to reach new audiences on new platforms.”

Jukka Niva, head of Yle News Lab, offered this great insight on liquid content:

• User needs are crucial (the user’s need at a certain point of time): Is she on the bus? How long is the drive — four or 40 minutes? What kind of content would be suitable for a bus trip compared to driving a car yourself?

• Personalisation a big, big deal here. In the future, it’s possible that different versions of a piece of content can be made (with the help of AI) to suit a customer’s need at that certain point. 

• Liquid content can also be news content that is different based on a customer’s prior use. Example: Let’s imagine Amalie has read many Ukraine stories. When something newsworthy happens in Ukraine, Amalie gets a shorter news piece on that because the news app recognises Amalie already knows the basic background of the Ukraine war. Jukka, on the other hand, hasn’t consumed Ukraine stories at all, so when something newsworthy happens in Ukraine, Jukka gets a longer version with more basic background information on the Ukraine war.

• This would require rebuilding news desk workflows. A desk reporter would write the new information into the publishing system, and the system itself would tailor a suitable Ukraine story for the specific user, including text/video/audio. 

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