Here are 10 key points how to develop audience based on NY Times Innovation Report. Or in other words how to use technology to make sure that journalistic efforts are in front of the right readers at the right place and at the right time.
1. Organize the content by relevance, not the publication date.
2. Use experimentation
- Launch quickly, then iterate
- Set goals and track progress
- Reward experimentation
- Use retrospectives
- Kill off mediocre efforts
- Make it easier to launch an experiment than to block one
3. Prioritize sustainable solutions over time-consuming hacks:
- A collections format can improve the ability to organize content in ways that are more intuitive and useful
- Use the slideshow tool
- The dashboard system has elevated newsroom ability to respond to breaking news
- The blog platforms helped train reporters to write for the web
- Invest in formats, analytics, optimization and testing frameworks
- Use personalization: stories are finding the right readers. Tools: “recommended for you” tab, “follow” button, news feeds.
4. All assets are useless unless you have metadata associated with them. Tag stories using:
- geographic location
- timeliness
- story type
- story threads
- story tone
- photos (topics, articles where photo appeared, usage rights)
5. All reporters and editors should be fully fluent with social media and promote their own work (1. use photos 2. facebook posts 3. submit tweets, etc.)
6. Use a team that creates a specific strategy for each story in advance of its publication.
- Create a “impact toolbox” that would provide strategy, tactics, and templates for increasing the reach of an article before and after it’s published. Editors could learn and teach each others.
7. Pull back the curtain and provide readers more insight into how newsroom guys do their work.
8. Readers want to show off. Create a platform for opinion pieces and guest essays.
9. Provide a platform that connect readers with important people. Most people don’t want to talk to strangers. They want to talk to their friends or important people. Facebook is handling the friend part of the equation. The publication is well-positioned to play host to important people.
10. Use data in a smart way. LinkedIn offers a good example of hos to use reader data. For example: “congratulations, you have one of the top 5 percent most viewed LinkedIn profiles”.