Isentia launches non-English media monitoring service following divestment from Northern Asia
Media intelligence and data technology company, Isentia, has launched a Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) media monitoring service, to expand its coverage to non-English publications across the country.
The service will monitor non-English publications across Australia and provide curated summaries of the content in English with links to the PDF of the original article.
The service will monitor Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Punjabi, and Filipino.
Isentia’s CALD will create English translations of non-English publications
Russ Horell, chief commercial officer at Isentia, said: “By introducing new CALD services, we are delivering on our promise to continually provide the greatest breadth and depth of coverage.
“We are excited to be the first media intelligence company in Australia to offer this kind of service. It reflects our focus on customer-first innovation and our mission to cater to our customers’ evolving needs, making sure they have all their bases covered in terms of media monitoring, particularly in light of current economic and political conditions.”
Australian Census data states that more than 300 languages are spoken across the country. 21% of Australians speak another language than English at home.
In particular the CALD is targeted at government agencies and businesses who are interested in accessing multi-lingual services within the community and monitoring media sentiment across various demographics.
Isentia’s broadcast monitoring service has also been expanded to include live news streaming services, partnering with Ticker TV and Ausbiz, enabling it to offer additional content from live streaming services.
Tom Gerstmyer, chief operations officer at Isentia, said: “We are committed to continually expand our coverage. The addition of CALD media, along with Ausbiz and Ticker TV represents our ongoing, strategic commitment to expanding our media coverage and data sets.”
The service was made available to clients from 1 July.
The launch of CALD comes a week after Isentia announcing it was closing its North Asian operations, ‘following an extensive strategic review’.
A statement released to the ASX on 30 June said the decision came as a result of “poor alignment of these assets with the rest of the business and the substantial capital investment needed to meet the unique customer requirements and reach scale in these markets.”
Isentia is transitioning its clients in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan across to big data business intelligence company Wisers Information Limited. The alliance will allow both parties to ‘explore further opportunities to collaborate across other markets.’
Isentia managing director and CEO, Ed Harrison, said the move ‘streamlines the business’.
“The decision to exit our North Asian markets was not taken lightly but reflects our relentless strategic focus on building regional scale with a single platform. The exit streamlines our business and clears the path for innovation to reach all our markets simultaneously. The strategic alliance with Wisers represents a unique opportunity to transition our clients to a leading local business intelligence provider and to explore the possibility of further collaboration in other regions,” Harrison said.
Isentia’s stake in its Korean business will be sold to its local partner.
The departure from North Asia is expected to result in a one-off net cash closure costs of $3m to $4m which will be incurred over the next 12 months, primarily in H1 of financial year 2021.
In FY 2020, North Asia is expected to contribute $8.7m in revenue and an EBITDA loss of $1.3m. North Asia will be treated as discontinued operations in the FY 2020 accounts.
Isentia said it remains committed to its operations in South East Asia.
