How to reorganise media analytics teams to support decision-making PLUS SCMP says infographics 1155% more likely to become evergreen content from @WNIP

August 02, 2022

You might call this the numbers edition. My work has transformed the organisations that I work for in two fundamental ways: date journalism transforming storytelling and analytics supporting digital transformation where I have been a leader. In this edition, we look at how numbers can play a better role in achieving both goals.

Media companies can utilise new product analytics structures to bolster subscriptions and content recommendations.

In this detailed article from INMA, Utkarsh Aurora, the group product manager at the Economic Times in India, maps out a number of data pods that help turn numbers into insights. I think what Utkarsh outlines is a solid process, although I can imagine the idea of a multi-team or pod implementation feels out of reach of all but the largest news organisations. Putting that aside, he describes a very sound process to deliver better insights to decision-makers.

Founded in 1903 and headquartered in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post is one of Asia’s most respected news organizations. It is also one of the most progressive with a strong emphasis on audience engagement across multi-channels – SCMP’s UGC YouTube channel reached a staggering 1 billion views in 2020 alone, whilst this year the …

Time and time again, I have heard in industry intelligence and data from clients about how infographics and even basic charts are several times more likely to engage users, and now we have another eye-popping statistic. "1155% more likely to become evergreen" is just incredible.

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

Another data point about the state of the British news industry, and it’s interesting to see how National World leveraged digital ads to boost their results. They also had healthy growth in digital subscriptions, which might speak to the different results amongst companies in this space.

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

The piece outlines hires that the team is making, but what I find really interesting is their networked approach that looks to break out of the New York-Washington-London media hubs. I think the future of business and of journalism is distributed and networked. It will make it easier to land top talent and also to provide a much richer and more accurate sense of what is actually going on across countries and geographies.

"Numbers do not speak for themselves. All the same, many people believe that they do. An ideology we call numerism, which accords a privileged epistemic status to quantification, is widespread."

In the third piece on numbers and data, the Nieman Lab points out some shortcomings in how journalists use numbers in stories. Just like everything, numbers need context, and journalists can’t assume knowledge, either about the story or about statistics. I have said in addition to who, what, where, why and how, journalists need to use all of their storytelling skills to explain to readers why - why they should care. This story points adds richness to that idea.

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven more people to use QR codes. Here are some ways that your radio station can use this technology.

I have long been a QR code sceptic, but during the pandemic in the US, their use exploded as people became more accustomed to use them for touchless menus and other ways to gain information without touching surfaces. And phone makers responded by increasing the usability of QR codes, making it much easier to simply open your camera app and use them. This might be the coming out point for QR codes there and elsewhere, and radio consultants Jacobs Media explains how radio stations can use them.

Keeping information easily accessible is an essential lesson for newsrooms.

A solid, practical look at using Airtable to organise internal resources. Airtable is a favourite tool of product managers in journalism in the US. I've only dipped my toe into using it, but I have seen it used in a number of applications.

Layoffs From SEO Teams, Others Cited In Twitter, LinkedIn Posts - 08/01/2022

Brokerages often talk about real-time data streams, which include mobile and credit card data that on aggregate can track economic trends more quickly than waiting for traditional reports from central banks and other research sources. And, of course, one of these streams is social media, and there are increasing signs of economic stress as people post about being laid off from Shopify, Vimeo and Outbrain .