‘User needs’ or ‘engagement tactics’, the reader is now the King

Know of a brand with 50 million digital users that produces around 2000 pieces of content every day across 70 cities? Perhaps, your guess is right. It is The Times of India whose focus the past year has been on consumer acquisition. Most of the ToI content is free to access on the website and apps. The way ToI reaches out to potential subscribers, its differentiated communication and pricing strategy, its engagement tactics, and what finally convinces its user to become a subscriber is quite a story.

 

Now, Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a name many of us may not have heard. Like many publishers, the Swiss-German newspaper has boosted its reader-revenue efforts by introducing a dynamic metered paywall. Of all the people who register and eventually subscribe, 60 per cent of them do so in their first week, and actually a majority of that 60 per cent do so the first day. However, the newspaper understands that readers mature and have different expectations and that it has to be flexible to measure up.

 

With a presence in South Korea and the UK, The Washington Post is able to operate as a 24-hour newsroom with the two global hubs driving coverage of the usually pay-walled live updates pages, which provide rolling news developments on major stories, such as the collapse of the Afghan Government or the war in Ukraine. The creation of the news hubs in Seoul and London is just one example of The Post’s geographic evolution and how storytelling can drive biggest audiences around the world.

 

Can a newsroom be effective without a user needs model? No, unless you are a really dominant player covering all sorts of beats and verticals equally effectively for a dedicated, loyal audience, says Dmitry Shishkin, a member of the World Editors Forum Board. For user needs to work, everyone in the organisation – including Editorial, Audience, Social, Product and Senior Leadership teams – must share the same definition of them. The definitions must be clearly communicated, reinforced and made visible throughout the newsroom and everyone must agree with the user needs and understand how they add value, he says.

 

From news avoidance to audience trust and newsroom diversity, Reuters Institute researchers have covered some key issues in the past 12 months. Here are some of their findings that will be relevant in 2023:

 

·         News avoidance is growing sharply in many countries: The Digital News Report 2022 found that the proportion who says they actively avoid news sometimes or often has increased sharply in many countries. This type of selective avoidance has doubled in both Brazil (54 per cent) and the UK (46 per cent) over the past five years, with many respondents saying news has a negative effect on their mood

 

·         Some young people avoid the news because they find it hard to understand: The report found that some younger and less educated people say they avoid news because it can be hard to understand.

 

·         Young audiences often get their news from social media: Social networks have steadily replaced going direct to news websites or apps as the main way to access news online for younger audiences in recent years.

 

·         Trust in news on platforms is lower than trust in news overall: According to survey data from Brazil, India, the UK and the US, levels of trust in news on social media, search engines and messaging apps is consistently lower than audience trust in news more generally. 

 

·         Many see misinformation and harassment as big problems for platforms: Misinformation and harassment are among the leading problems many people in Brazil, India, the UK and the US associate with digital platforms.

 

·         Most people prefer to read rather than watch their news: This is prominent in markets with historic patterns of high newspaper consumption such as Finland top the next chart.