What I’ve been reading: human stories to counter AI content, journalists can take future into their own hands + how The Conversation carved out user needs model for its journalism
Before I dive into this week’s what I’ve been reading digest then after a period of leave I’ve launched a new venture.
I’m setting up an audience development consultancy – Alma – that straddles all things digital media and more.
My area of focus for the editorial side of the consultancy is either launching new digital initiatives (something I have a wealth of experience in and really enjoy!) and also rebooting or rewiring existing digital initiatives, brands, content verticals or newsrooms that need to get their momentum back (not easy, but again something I have a lot of experiences to draw upon).
It’s also not a case of going it alone, circumstances dictate that two very good and talented people – Shirah Bamber and Luke Beardsworth – will be alongside me as we embark on new opportunities and a new path for the three of us.
Will write in more detail in the coming weeks as things and projects develop but it’s the culmination of much thinking and conversations with many people over the previous few months. So thank you to everyone who has been generous with their time, lending me an ear, offering advice or pointing me in the right direction. I truly appreciate it. If you think there’s something that I or Alma could help you with then please do get in touch.
Now, this week’s reading list… (a reminder, you can sign up via my TinyLetter email newsletter to receive this direct into your inbox)
Elements of News Company Digital Transformation – Louise Story – a dive into the New York Times playbook from the 2013-2014 period about how they went about newsroom transformation for digital. So many of these still hold very true to this day. I very much agree that it was an ‘audience transformation’ rather than a ‘digital transformation’ as Lucy articulates well that for the first time, as journalists, we had access to the data on what readers were actually engaging in at a speed like never before. I think the key next stage of newsroom evolutions is there’s often too much data, how do you know what’s worth looking at to help inform decisions and future directions?
And I thought this point “Do all units of your company look at customer service data and also comments posted on site at some sort of regular cadence?” was really prevalent, this helps you understand how stories are landing, what feelings they are provoking and you start to learn and recognise the names and their feedback too.
Hey Journalists, Nobody Is Coming to Save Us – Katherine Lewis – this was really strong from Katherine writing on Nieman Lab with some tips for those battling their way through journalism in a time full of headwinds. What I’ve learned since stepping back from Reach and taking a moment to catch breath is what a huge array of transferrable skills you gain as a journalist and as an editor. And many of these you take for granted, or hide away, or just simply forget because as Katherine points out you’re busy on the treadmill of news. Even just taking 5minutes to update a LinkedIn profile every six months with inevitably a couple of things you’ve done that others would find staggering is worth it. The strength of networks is also important, taking the time to be involved in something bigger – be that in your own organisation or outside of it – can not just help you professionally but also personally too by giving you connections beyond the workplace. Ultimately, remember too, you have to back yourself. To me it feels a bit like 2008/9ish again, there’s been some seismic shocks, there’s new technology coming over the horizon and indeed already here and a plethora of tools for journalists to directly engage with audiences, publishing and monetisation methods that perhaps were previously off limits.
SEO will be over for publishers. You need to adapt. – Ian Betteridge – this contains some very useful information about how Google is experimenting with AI to provide what it calls ‘Search Generative Experiences’ – or SGE. These are the equivalent of those snippets that Google often provides but taken to another level and giving very little reason for a user to click beyond the search result they’ve just asked for. Ian rightly points out the impact this could have on audience to (not just) news websites, equivalent likely to how Google has started to provide more information natively in search results (I can remember when it didn’t provide sports fixtures directly in search results, for example and this used to drive significant audience spikes). Ian argues for publishers – and indeed all content producing organisations – to double-down on newsletters and also to focus on complexity of content. I’d also add in there the humanity of content, AI-driven content will not be able to articulate and campaign for a better service at a local hospital or conduct an in-depth interview with the new chief executive of the city council. So as well as complex content, will we see a shift to solutions-driven and people-driven stories because these are what only a human, a journalist, can do?
The Conversation identifies brand-specific user needs, redirects content strategy – Stefan ten Telje – and linked to the above piece from Ian this update to the user needs model caught my eye and how The Conversation have been utilising it to really help grow their range of story sub-types was eye-catching. They found that ‘motivate me’ stories were performing strongly, and I think we’ll find this trend continue as people seek inspiration from their journalism, not just to know what’s happening but how they can then do something. A story without a link to then to discover more will not have the same value and it’s also interesting these motivate me stories brought in more new users than other story types.
There’s also detail on how for ‘give me perspective’ stories they created sub-types of stories their editors would understand, such as “give me the big picture,” “give me historical perspective,” and “give an expert prediction.” – smart stuff. A timely reminder that whatever data and insights you have, you need to then bring these back into newsroom speak that journalists will understand and be able to act upon.
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