All things Engagement

🤔Have you ever considered these insightful questions within your newsroom? They could be the difference between setting yourself up for maximum audience engagement or secretly holding you back. ⛓️

This week, Francesca sits down with Dmitry Shishkin, Strategic Editorial Adviser to Ringier Media and visionary of the brilliant ‘User Needs’ model. Get ready for a powerhouse discussion that will make you rethink how your newsroom connects with its community.

Local and Hyperlocal newsrooms – listen up!

How is tangible impact measured? 📏

Francesca sits down with Nic Dawes this week, Executive Director at The City, a non-profit local newsroom in NYC. Nic shares perspectives on how to build engagement that serves public interest and mission outcomes. 💪

So how does this work for The City and what can you learn from it? One of the ways The City measures success is by its real-world effect. 🌎

This means:

🧑‍⚖️Real-world policy change: Laws passed, policies enacted.
💬 Shifting discourse: When reporting leads to major public or policymaker conversations.
🏋️ Individual empowerment: Actively helping people navigate complex issues and improve their lives.

Critically, while these efforts do drive long term conversions (newsletters, membership), Nic emphasises that impact is distinct from revenue—it’s about mission fulfilment.
Want to rethink your engagement strategy and deliver real-world impact? This episode is a must-listen for every local and hyperlocal journalist and publisher.

🤔A university can charge a student thousands, yet that student is never a ‘customer’. 🧑‍🎓​​💰

That’s the exact mindset our latest guest, Anugrah, is using to build his news startup, Dot. With a vision to counter the current problems facing news brands and how they are perceived by the public, he believes the goal of audience engagement isn’t just to gain loyalty—it’s to make your readers feel like insiders.

🎙️In this week’s episode, Francesca dives into how Anugrah is building his publication turning readers into true advocates.

🚀 News Avoidance: Will this open your eyes or will it resonate with you?

Are you scratching your head wondering why some readers disengage, or why “news avoidance” is such a buzzword? This week, Francesca sat down with leading researcher Kiki de Bruin, who has spent 5 YEARS studying 4,400 self-identified news avoiders.

Kiki reveals that “news avoidance” is a deeply misunderstood term. To start with, in this digital age, people have different understandings of WHAT NEWS EVEN IS.

🎙️ Journalism is meant to solve a problem. Are you open to a radical change within your news brand?

If so, it is a must that you hear this week’s Redefining Engagement chat. Francesca sat down with Rishad Patel, Co-founder of Splice Media, who argues that traditional audience engagement often misses the mark. 🎯

He describes the “journalism industrial complex” as focusing on supply – creating content we deem important, then trying to market it. 📉

Rishad’s counter:

💡 “Why create a need when you can meet a need?”

🇵🇹Don’t underestimate the power of the Portuguese mentality and keeping things simple! 🧲

This week, Francesca Dumas chats with Catarina Osório, Publishing Manager at Contacto (Mediahuis Luxembourg), about the often overlooked nuances of audience engagement. With over 100,000 Portuguese people in Luxembourg, Contacto has built up a large community that spans generations, creating its own challenges in audience engagement. 🧓👶🧒

⚠️Catarina highlights a critical point for news publishers and journalists: “Everything happens so fast right now… if you lose time, you might lose the game.” Readers have higher expectations than ever before.

How do you walk the line between frustrating readers and driving valuable engagement? 🤔

🎧This week on Redefining Engagement, Francesca spoke with Madeleine White, VP Marketing at Poool and Co-founder of The Audiencers, about the delicate balance publishers need to strike to convert casual readers into loyal subscribers. 💙

Madeleine highlights that every conversion (newsletter sign-up, app download, subscription) involves a degree of “frustration” (paywalls, pop-ups).

🔑 The key is understanding each reader’s engagement level and tailoring the “frustration” accordingly. Show a paywall to someone who’s new to your site, and you risk losing them. Show it to someone who reads you daily and subscribes to your newsletter, and they are more likely to convert! 🤝

📢Stop Guessing, Start Listening: Engaging Your Audience Beyond the Dashboard📢

This week on Redefining Engagement, Francesca spoke with Fabienne Meijer, Head of Journalism Products at The OCCRP and Innovation Consultant. Fabienne dropped some serious truths about how newsrooms need to rethink their approach to audience engagement.

👂Hear about:

– Strategic vs. Tactical Research : Are you just trying to get people to consume existing content, or are you crafting journalism in service of your community?

– Community over Global Audience: Focus on building meaningful relationships within communities instead of chasing global metrics.

– Invest Before Asking: Build trust and credibility before soliciting feedback or expecting engagement. Be transparent about your funding and address tough questions head-on.

– Beyond the Metrics: Page views are proxies, not proof of value. Combine behavioural data (return visits, retention) with qualitative insights. Actually TALK to your audience!

Fabienne’s insight that “we like to measure what’s easy rather than what matters” really resonated. Are you falling into this trap? It can happen to the best of us…

📣 What motivates journalists to engage with their audience? It might not be what you think!

In this week’s Redefining Engagement series, Francesca speaks with Lars K. Jensen, Audience Lead at Berlingske Media, about the importance of cultural shifts in newsrooms.

Lars asks a powerful question: Are reporters being rewarded for engaging with audiences/readers? 🤔

Are they incentivised for it? Lars challenges us to rethink how we appraise their work.

“We need to know our audience in real time.” Are you pouring hours into content that’s just not landing? You’re not alone 😔

In our latest episode of Redefining Engagement, Francesca spoke with the brilliant Andrew Webb about the crucial link between content creation, data, and achieving a real return on investment. 📈

Andrew hit the nail on the head: “The absence of understanding that data is probably what is creating quite a lot of inefficiency.” 💭

He argues that just like any brand advertising campaign, content creation should be viewed through the lens of ROI. What’s the cost of transforming top-of-funnel engagement into tangible outcomes? 💰

If you’re spending countless hours on content that nobody sees, it’s a drain on resources. The solution? “Leverage technology to understand what resonates with your audience in real-time.” 🕗