"Thinking calmly takes time and can be exhausting, while using habit and established framework to react intuitively is much easier. Every issue can bring up different voices. We hope to initiate more discussions on those voices, rather than to judge immediately."  

Mario Yang is the Co-founder and Chief Content Officer at TNL Media Group, as well as the host of the podcast programme Drink With Mario. This week Telum has invited him to share about his daily work and the latest development of The News Lens, as well as how PRs can collaborate with its media brands. 

Key takeaways for PR professionals

• The News Lens has offices in Taipei and Hong Kong, with more than 10 editors in Taipei and two in Hong Kong. The Taipei editorial team is divided into the news team, opinion team, infographic team, as well as the Southeast Asia and international content teams. 
• Mario mainly focuses on managing the content of The News Lens. He would hold meetings with the editorial team every morning to decide which news to focus on that day, and the opinion team would arrange further commentaries and article invitations on the issue. He also takes charge of the video and audio programme team, where he would discuss with the producers about the content and guests of the programmes and prepare for the interviews. He would hold regular meetings with the managing editors of other subsidiary media brands to provide suggestions in content. 
• To generate good content, Mario suggests that it is important to firstly understand how to communicate with the target audiences, and then consider which medium is suitable for conveying the content. Different tools such as audio, video, image and interactive website have their own advantages and limitations. That's why media have to technically adjust their methods of using those tools based on the content. 
• The News Lens mainly focuses on social affairs and general news, which are mainly issues selected by the editorial team but rarely from PR invitations. But the team would also see whether the type of PR invitations match their recently-concerned topics. PRs may contact its business team to plan for content collaborations. 
• Other media brands under TNL media group like every little d have more collaborations with PRs. It welcomes interesting story ideas related to lifestyle, or press invitations of event and new product launches. 
• When PRs give pitches or event invitations, he suggests not to be too rushed and better contact them one or two weeks in advance to ensure there is enough time for arrangement. 

Watch the video interview (in Mandarin) for more content, including the editorial plan of The News Lens, challenges of developing social media strategies, and Mario's view on Taiwan media launching podcasts.