November 27, 2024

How traditional media can, and should, rethink to reconnect with audiences

How do you reconnect with a demanding audience whose expectations are constantly evolving? In this interview, David Sallinen, founder of Upgrade Media, shares his vision of a rethought journalism, where strategy, empathy and innovation combine to meet the expectations of today’s readers, and thus become indispensable.

Why do media outlets seek your services?

There’s a seemingly endless supply of content out there, and with it a growing distrust of the media and journalism, generally. So my mission is to help media outlets better meet audience expectations by adapting newsroom practices. Too often, “good journalism” is still defined by traditional norms and methods, but research shows that what today’s readers value more are human elements like empathy, clarity, and emotion. Newsrooms need to embrace that, incorporate it in everything they do, and ensure that editorial and management are onboard with the new journalism.

The challenge is to adopt a more empathetic approach while learning how to become indispensable to your audience. I stress that it’s not just about being unique, but truly integral to the reader’s personal or professional life, through content that resonates more deeply. This means revisiting the entire way we produce and distribute information, because readers are more demanding and their expectations are ever-evolving.

The goal is not about pumping out endless content, but instead about creating journalism that meets the audience’s needs, questions, and desires. To succeed, you need to align many factors — from choices and formats to organization and the nature of the products. And all of this needs to be supported to move quickly, and cohesively, while closely tracking the impact of the new strategy. In short, the focus is no longer on just generating “clicks,” but on attracting the right readers, bringing them back for the right reasons, and being truly indispensable.

What challenges do media outlets face today?

The challenges are many. Teams aren’t always up to date with the latest knowledge and techniques; they continue doing things “the way they’ve always been done” without being pushed to try something new. That means producing journalism that’s more in tune with what the audience expects. It’s no longer just about writing for the web or mastering SEO (although that’s still necessary). The real challenge is becoming more strategic in what we do, responding to the diverse needs of readers through a well-managed editorial mix.

“There’s a gap between editorial teams and the modern expectations of readers”

Is middle management missing out?

I emphasize the need for a “well-managed editorial mix” because another issue media outlets face is the lack of guidance for middle management. Too often, editorial managers aren’t familiar with the content strategy, whether it’s web-based or web-to-print. This is a major source for many of the struggles they face. The biggest issue, though, is the urgent need to adapt products — whether digital or print — to meet new expectations. This will help clarify the editorial mission and focus.

In short, there’s a gap between editorial teams and the modern expectations of readers. A study in Chile [LINK] shows that journalists emphasize objectivity and independence, while readers are increasingly valuing empathy and human connection. The goal, then, is to broaden the definition of “good journalism” by highlighting the human and emotional aspects, which are key to engaging diverse audiences and restoring their trust.

As you can see, the problems are complex, and rethinking current processes needs to be explained and managed carefully. Editorial staff are questioning, critical, and even cynical by nature so part of the art is convincing them that this isn’t a trend – it’s essential to getting their voices heard. Likewise if management isn’t fully onboarded, key values risk being underestimated or ignored. Part of that art of that is showing them exactly where current content is failing.

“Just offering the right information in the right format isn’t enough anymore”

Where do traditional media fail to engage their audience?

As I mentioned earlier, audience expectations are truly multifaceted. They want up-to-the-minute updates, analysis, opportunities to react (or at least feel they have the chance), breakdowns of complex issues, and more. They also expect videos — vertical videos, audio, text, you name it. At the same time, they want bite-sized content or deeper dives, depending on the topic. And to make things even trickier, between 2019 and 2024, the percentage of French people feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information jumped from 37% to 46%, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – Report 2024.

Just offering the right information in the right format isn’t enough anymore. Especially if the publisher wants to grow digital subscriptions. So, media outlets need to manage a new editorial mix and clearly differentiate between breaking news and informational content, while targeting the expectations of key audience segments.

How do you go about measuring this?

I focus primarily on analyzing a newsroom’s daily output. Over a period of time, covering anywhere from 20,000 to 500,000 articles, I look to understand what’s working and what’s not. That means what content gets above/below average engagement, and what truly resonates with today’s audience in terms of issues or formats. This work is valuable because I can visualize the data in a map where each point represents an article, and algorithms cluster similar content together. This makes it easy to quickly spot that most editorial efforts underperform, for example. This precise, hands-on approach is ideal for kickstarting a reinvention of journalism.

What are the key metrics?

Once the strengths and weaknesses of the content are identified, explained, and understood, it’s time to move on to the next stage: implementing a new content strategy. This strategy aims not only to satisfy current audiences but also to attract new ones. From there, we can define the ideal editorial mix, establish KPIs to track its deployment, commission initial content to ensure teams apply their new knowledge and techniques, and get everyone involved — from social and marketing teams to IT and product staff. A genuine, sustainable media transformation requires a new understanding of content, and making the new editorial intentions visible to both the reader and the internal teams.

“This work has allowed us to increase top-of-the-funnel audience fivefold”

Do you have any examples of this?

Yes, we have real-world examples with consistently positive results. This work has allowed us to increase top-of-the-funnel audience fivefold for certain topics, boost engagement tenfold among connected readers, and increase digital subscription growth by up to 28% in the bottom of the funnel. For subscribers, we also see higher engagement rates, which helps reduce churn.

Dmitry Shiskin and the BBC famously popularized an approach focused on user needs. How do you take that further with your clients?

Meeting reader needs is obviously at the core of everything. As I mentioned, a media outlet must become “indispensable” to its target readers. Some will be satisfied with the free content, while others need convincing to subscribe.

From there, it’s about creating and maintaining a complex editorial mix. As Dmitry points out, it’s essential to meet readers’ needs across six dimensions:

Update me
Give me perspective
Educate me
Entertain me
Keep me on trend
Inspire me

But it’s also about producing content for:

Building brand awareness
Attracting new audiences
Satisfying “legacy” customers

It’s vital to:

Adopt the right formats (mobile-first) for the right information
Customize formats to your brand and target audiences
Incorporate freemium models (for paywall-based media)
Set up efficient web-to-print processes (this can save 20% of time on print production).

But that’s still not enough. Mass data analysis reveals that readers who engage and decide to subscribe, for instance, also want to feel ahead of the curve, able to take action… This leads to rethinking your purpose — the “why we publish” question. In fact, this is probably the most important point: you must become indispensable to your readers by aligning with their values.

At Upgrade Media, we’ve developed 14 values that media outlets can integrate into their content, and the results show that reader engagement is stronger when these values are included.

To support journalists, I’m also developing an AI toolbox across the entire process to suggest tailored solutions.

What’s your methodology?

My methodology is based on four pillars:

Analyzing data to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your editorial offering.
Identifying key audience needs and creating prototype content that meets these needs, often with a focus on human elements, clarity, etc.
Publishing initial content, tracking its impact, and refining the offering.
Scaling the approach by gradually bringing in more teams.

What results have you seen with your approach?

By helping media outlets align their editorial mix with modern reader values, we’ve seen rapid increases in engagement. It’s not magic, but there’s a lot of work involved in convincing and involving teams to build their model.

And how soon will publishers see results?

We see early results very quickly because readers can easily recognize content that’s genuinely helpful to them. Our support is ultimately focused on one goal: producing good journalism!

About Upgrade Media: Upgrade Media is a creative agency, strategy consultancy, training center and media transformation think tank, through its brand New World Encounters.

◾️ We work for media and communicating companies to accelerate their digital transformations, evolve their organizations, print and digital products, and also develop team agility.

◾️ Check out our Upgrade Media website to learn more about our projects and approach.

◾️ We hope this article and our other content inspires you!

Thank you for reading.

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