Journalist — Know your audience!
- Five ways you can get closer to your audience today
When journalism does not have an audience, it is at best art, at worst a waste of time and resources. Yet in many places there is still opposition to using data to measure the relevance of journalism.
Af Gerd Maria May
The story is well-written, it is important and the journalist has been working on it for a week — but it has no audience — nobody reads it.
That is not an unusual scenario, but it is relatively new, that it is a thing the editor and the journalists meet around for a chat. That they meet to discuss what to do after the story has been published.
Just five years ago my workday normally started at the office of the editor in chief — here the editorial management-team met up to discuss the newspaper of the day. We prepared the evaluation of the days journalism. We flipped through the newspaper, and some times we had written our comments in the margin or we had underlined important pointers. We discussed choice of sources, angles, the narrative formats and the importance of the story. — All the stuff a publisher must know about and have focus on.
After the meeting one of us sat down in front of our computer and summed it all up to an email, that was send out to all the journalists who had stated their day preparing the next days paper. They were already working hard to make the best journalism for next days readers, when the verdict from the editorial management arrived. Here we told them what we found out. What we wanted more of and what we didn’t like. A decision made on the basis of gut feeling, experience and journalistic goals. None of us knew at the time how the readers had received the story. Whether it had an audience at all, or whether it was read, shared and debated in enthusiasm. We did not know if there was a debate going on that we could follow up on or if the story was dead when it was published.
Data was for losers
Looking at what had been read online was for several years something that was looked down upon. The number of clicks could not match the editors’ assessments, was the perception. -And luckily it still is in most places. Because of course data can not stand alone if you want to be a publicist. But the perception that editors and journalists alone know when a story is a success is fortunately also fading in most places. Data is an increasingly recognized participant in the debate about what good journalism is, and the nuance of what data can be used for and when publicism is needed is also increasing.
In the sales department in the media houses, data has been absolutely central for years. Both when it came to strategy, when it came to evaluating and promoting and hiring or firing. Screens with the best-selling or the one who had completed the most calls have long hung on the walls of the sales departments. And they are not just for decoration. If a salesperson performs particularly well, it often has an impact on pay, and others are curious to hear what it is she is doing to succeed in selling. Tips and advice are discussed at the coffee machines, and colleagues try to learn from her.
But if you change floors and step in to the journalists, it took many years before the screens with performance figures followed suit in the editorial offices. And even the great numbers were not necessarily something to be proud of here, the experience seemed to be. By the coffee machines in the journalism department the talk seemed to be more like — if we just write for more clicks, what will we then be? And what will the meaning with journalism then be?
The reason why it has taken so long for data to become a recognized tool when assessing journalism is not only about a particular journalistic culture, but also about the fact that it is difficult to measure what is perceived as quality. And if journalism only look for most clicks it will loose its value.
An article with many clicks is not necessarily the same as a good article. Sometimes an event alone can carry a large number of clicks, whether it is good journalism that describes the event or not. Other times, a headline is tightened so much that it may well attract clicks, but subsequently pulls a trail of disappointed readers behind it.
Discuss your data
The discussion about data and journalism is therefore completely valid and important to take and not least to continue to relate to. But failing to relate to data is a mistake. That applies to both bosses and journalists in my eyes.
Refusing to relate to the knowledge one can acquire through data on how one’s audience perceives journalism is wrong. And it is an arrogant approach to the journalistic craft. If one has chosen to work as a journalist, one must assume that it is because, one believes, journalism is important in our society in one way or another. And when today there is an opportunity to find out how as many relevant recipients as possible can be presented to journalism, one must not fail to pursue those opportunities. That data alone should define a good story is hopefully not a case in the newsrooms today.
In a large part of the editorial offices, data is today not a natural part of the journalistic decision-making process. In many places, data belongs in the head offices, while the journalists largely do as they usually do. But the possibilities of using data in the journalistic process are present everywhere.
Here I have pinned down five examples on how to get started if you are not already there.
Five ways to get started using data in the journalistic process
Invite to focus group meeting — If you do not have a large department that regularly holds focus group meetings about your journalism, do it yourself. Set up a meeting with a handful or two from your audience and have a chat with them. Show them a variety of articles or features and let them talk about them. Hear what they notice and maybe get them to cut and paste in previous editions and let them put together their favorite edition.
Listen to those who listen — In the debate concept The Room of Solutions, (Reach out if you want to know more about this format) you can engage and listen to your listeners, even without they need to say anything. By giving the participants red and green cards, you can all the way through a debate meeting ask your audience, and from here turn the debate so that it makes the most sense for those present.
Ask your audience digitally — You can simply use a digital form at the bottom of your article and ask your audience what they would like to hear more about. You can ask based on a story, you publish how to follow up, or you can ask before you start if anyone knows of sources or something you should know.
Look at the data that is currently available — Take a starting point in the data that is available. If you do not have a large analysis department that serves data for you, then grab where you can. — How does the audience react to social media? Can you measure or count how many listener inquiries come on a demand or something third that suits your workplace. Once you have found a place to start, take note of how readers respond to your stories via data. Notice what goes on again when a story gets a lot of attention, and what is happening when a story does not hit an audience. Try to draw your own conclusions and test them. That way, if you are on your own, you can just as quietly become better at understanding your audience.
Five is fine — Make it simple; start by asking five people in the target group what they think, and start here. — It is not a representative sample of the population — or for that matter of the reader / listener / viewer crowd, but it gives quite quickly a sense of where we are going. The method is called :“five is fine”.
And last but not least, the headline made you read this article. So seek knowledge — Although your audience is of course unique, there is very good knowledge to be gained by generally keeping up to date on media development. Of course, there is the obvious place like Reuters Digital News Report: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ and Pew Research: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/news-habits-media/ or the NiemanLab; https://www.niemanlab.org/. And of course a lot more.
In addition, one of my favorite places for new knowledge and research in the media field is twitter. Here I have built myself a feed where I can be sure to be notified when new exciting knowledge emerges.
So… Step away from the anxiety about data, acknowledge that it is lacking and use the knowledge you can get out of the data along with your journalistic approach and then bring journalism closer to its audience.
I have been working on this approach to journalism for many years, and would like to help you get closer to those you need to be something for. — It can be in a project on your media or you can come to one of my courses.
Come and learn how to make your journalism more relevant to your audience:
If you want to learn more about how to target your journalism to your audience, then you can join one of these two courses for March, see more here:
https://roomofsolutions.dk/kurser
Sign up or send me an email if you want to hear more — and especially if you want to hear about it in english.
And if you work in a Danish media; remember that there is a double increase in grants from Pressens Uddannelsesfond in the spring of 2022, so it is super cheap to get new knowledge and inspiration to get closer to your audience.
