The moderating effects of atypicality on content performance in the online mass media industry

Media holding companies face a fundamental tension between leveraging economies of scale through content sharing and maintaining distinctive brand identities across their portfolios. While content sharing across outlets offers clear operational benefits, it risks diluting unique brand voices that attract loyal audiences. This study examines how atypicality — standing out among similar entities, both in terms of content characteristics and network position — affects this trade-off. Drawing on 32 months of data from a European media conglomerate encompassing 1.5M articles shared across a network of 17 news and magazine brands, our results confirm that increased content adoption volume generally reduces content performance. Atypicality of the content and the way brands adopt articles from each other (i.e., content-level and network-level atypicality) can turn this into an advantage. We find that relying on more atypical content adoption strategies can help media organizations offset the negative effects of increased adoption volume. These findings advance our understanding of how atypicality functions in consumption- and experience-based digital markets and offer practical insights for media organizations balancing efficiency with differentiation.