7 min read

Natural grandeur

Natural grandeur
Photo by Jonas Olbergas on Unsplash
Lithuania Tech Weekly #194
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work in progress

Unmanned Defence Systems

sponsors

Meet our friends pushing the startup scene forward

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
Vinted [largest C2C European marketplace, always hiring]
Tech Zity [tech hubs and campuses across Lithuania]
Presto Ventures [investing in startups – security, defense, aerospace]
Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]


rounds and capital


three questions

Tomas Balzekas, Founder, 15min group (short video on 15min).

Radio’s Decline while Podcasts Boom. Many have declared radio dead for years, but what’s the real misconception about its business model?

The ones who declared might be dead sooner themselves :) We people tend to think that things should die when something new appears. But why? If we still love to use good old things, we have habits, those things make us happy and serve the purpose. Like books, they didn't die, though prognosis was bad. I think well selected music channels won't die. Radio is very convenient way to get music you like and information you need in a hassle-free way. It's just one click of a button, not like time consuming search on Spotify or YouTube, where at the end you get stuck on the same playlist most of the time. On the other hand, I think radio should become more available in all the digital platforms, that's the main opportunity we see.

Future Formats & Platforms & Trends. What’s your long-term strategy? What can we expect in terms of formats and platforms?

Our long-term strategy is to use our strong brands, that create or filter content, in all the distribution platforms where audiences are. Radio should be in all digital platforms alongside FM frequencies, cars, home pods, apps and so on. Strong radio brands have a much better chance to strive than no name channels. We will make M-1 group radio stations much more accessible for digital audiences, while keeping things why people love them. Well, everyone nowadays is talking about AI, no different in media. But it's coming in slow into real news media, there are so many questions about legal part of content use. Another one how AI made content will be treated by google search and so on. So, this one we follow closely and use it for efficiency improvement purposes while looking for other better opportunities.

What’s next. What is your vision for 15min group?

On a local scale, we are trying to build the largest Lithuanian media group based on local capital and ownership, that would kick ass for everyone else in the market. We already are doing well in radio, online news, magazines, news agency and plan to continue expanding further. We have just released info about possibility to buy our bonds (dig into www.15mingrupe.lt/investuotojams), as well as our new partnership plans with Tesonet guys and their venture Mediatech. It’s great to get together with think alike guys who share similar values, have tons of very different know how and experience. We believe this will make 15min group unstoppable in the long run. We aim not only to create sustainable, profitable, meaningful business, but by doing it to make a lot of great good to the society we live in.

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