Audience engagement and whether it's becoming more impersonal

Plus: Ofcom state of local journalism report reactions + 50 inspirational ideas for growing media brands

Good afternoon,

Welcome to the latest Wednesday What I’ve Been Reading digest of some interesting pieces which have crossed my feed/timeline/inbox in the past week or so and are in the world of digital audiences/journalism and more.

Many thanks to all those signed up, I hope you continue to find this digest useful and if there’s everything anything you think I should be featuring then do give me a shout on ed@almaonline.co.uk and I’ll take a look.

We start this week with another big report into the state of local journalism in the UK, like buses these….

Ofcom: BBC now part of ‘headwinds’ facing local news publishers - Charlotte Tobitt, Press Gazette - there’s extensive coverage across the spectrum into the report by regulator Ofcom into the current state of local journalism and particularly what the BBC’s recent digital expansion has meant for it. There’s been a significant upturn in the digital output produced at a regional and local level in the past 18 months and from the figures presented for Ofcom a significant upturn in consumption of the BBC news websites local sections as a result.

The full Ofcom report is here which looks at more beyond just the BBC - and full disclosure I was one of a number of independent news publishers who took part in some listening sessions Ofcom did as part of their research. I haven’t had time to digest that full report yet, or the Lords one, but will do so in the coming weeks. But I will re-surface my piece looking at some ways the BBC could collaborate on a local level (rather than pursue a digital output increase zero-sum game).

Away from the figures and the report, it was interesting to see an interview with Naja Nielsen, digital director at BBC News on the FT Strategies blog giving insight into the BBC’s overall digital expansion (not just focused on the UK).

Audience Engagement: two words, both matter - Adam Tinworth - this is a really good read from Adam, sparked by a kick off comment made on Bluesky from a journalism conference. I think there’s a tendency, especially with so many broad brush digital insight tools available now, to generalise audience behaviour.

The distribution of digital content across a multitude of platforms, at pace, means meaningful engagement by brands, editors, journalists, is becoming scarcer (or perhaps more difficult to do). This really stuck with me from Adam:

Audience engagement is the skill of taking a reader, and making them more than a subscriber. It's the art of making an engaged member, and keeping them. And doing it again, and again, and again. Because, without them, we don't have a business.

Is engaging with an audience becoming easier or more difficult?

It’s very old school, but on Blog Preston, we try to email back and respond to every person who tips us off about a story, sends us in a story or engages with us. Yes, sometimes that means doing it at 10pm on a Saturday, but to me anyone who takes the time to engage with and write to a brand at that community level deserves a response. Even if the response is, we hear you but we’re not able to do anything about it at this time. And a reminder not all audience engagement happens in public.

50 successful media entrepreneurs share their top growth hacks - Simon Owens - I’ve enjoyed a few of the deep-dives Simon Owens does and he looks at a great variety of media start-ups from pods, to digital, to print, to video, to creators. He always gives good value so this big list from him is a great read and place to start if you’re looking at creating something new in the media space or just looking for inspiration to refresh something already existing.

Speaking of which when it comes to creating something new, in the coming weeks I’ll share a snapshot of some of the new media brands the clever journalism students at the University of Central Lancashire have been coming up with. My fellow Alma director, Luke Beardsworth and I have been co-teaching the cohort on creating a brand for one of their modules. It’s been fascinating to see the students engaging with starting up something new, business models, platforms, strategies, content planning and more. They are currently in the cut and thrust of producing their prototype magazine/newsletter/socials/website creations.

Hope you’re having a good week and this digest has proved useful - do let me know if there’s something you’d like to see covered.

Until next week, keep going.

Ed