“As a newsroom leader… live on your toes, on the balls of your feet, which makes it a lot easier for you to pivot. When that ideology permeates an entire shop, it becomes very easy to move. Because everybody is basically casting pebbles into the same lake – all of those pebbles ripple, and the ripples connect, and so you’re seeing the transformation spread, which is very exciting because cultural transformation is hard to make it stick. If you don’t do it right, then the movement stops when we leave where we are. And so cultural transformation only happens when people individually decide to commit and you hit a critical mass of those agents of change across one organization.”

– Samantha Ragland, American Press Institute

Guests: Samantha Ragland and Elite Truong, American Press Institute

What is cultural transformation, and how do publishers know if they’re doing it right? How can publishers cultivate real and lasting cultural change in newsrooms? How does cultural transformation in the newsroom translate to the content produced and thereby the relationships newsrooms have with members of their communities? 

In this episode of News Take, News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank sits down with Samantha Ragland, Vice President of Journalism Programs and Elite Truong, Vice President of Product Strategy, both at the American Press Institute, for a candid and fascinating conversation about the work API is doing with news publishers to help them look at their organizations with a critical eye and evolve to better reflect the communities they serve and respond to their needs. They talk about their work with newsroom leaders on DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), promoting and fostering a sustainable news organization from the inside out, and encouraging a culture of experimentation in the newsroom. Finally, they share lessons learned from API’s Table Stakes program and Inclusion Index, as well as their data centric tools for publishers, Metrics for News and Source Matters, and offer tips for how other news publishers can use data and related guidance at their own organizations to spark transformation.

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:

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“We want to encourage folks who understand that if you want to get anything out of working with other folks and learning all of these lessons… you have to put some work in to be able to see some rewards, which is not revolutionary, but … it’s difficult to try to make space for all of the different things when you’re responsible for so much, but I think there’s always a little bit of room to look at ‘What can I let go of so I can invite more modern strategy in, or think about the long-term strategy once in a while.”

– Elite Truong, American Press Institute

Speaker bios

Samantha Ragland is Vice President of Journalism Programs at the American Press Institute. Previously, Ragland was a member of the faculty at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies where she also served as director of the Leadership Academy for Women in Media. As VP of Journalism Programs, Ragland leads API’s efforts to promote cultural transformation and business sustainability in media, helping news organizations serve diverse readers and communities more effectively. She leads API’s journalism programs portfolio, including The Table Stakes Local News Transformation program, Beyond Print, API’s work on diversity and inclusion in newsrooms and change management coaching for news companies of all sizes. While at Poynter, Ragland created custom workshops based on newsroom needs, including trauma and resiliency training developed in collaboration with clinical psychologists. She was also co-director of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship program for early-career reporters. Ragland previously led digital content strategy at the USA Today Network and managed digital storytelling at The Palm Beach Post. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Western Kentucky University. She’s an active member of and coach for digitalwomenleaders.com.

Elite Truong is Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Institute. She manages the existing API product portfolio, which includes Metrics for News, an analytics tool that aligns journalism metrics with an organization’s editorial values and business model, and Source Matters, a tool that allows publishers to track and improve the diversity of their organizations. As head of the Product Strategy team, she helps strengthen and expand the product portfolio, while also serving as a product coach and thought leader for the news industry. Elite is also the board secretary of the News Product Alliance, a nascent community of support and practice for news product thinkers. Elite most recently worked as director of strategic initiatives at The Washington Post, where she led the newsroom R&D team to create projects and products driven by emerging technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence and 3D and augmented reality. Before joining The Post, Elite spent four years at Vox Media, three as the product manager for off-platform storytelling. Elite has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, where she created and taught an entrepreneurship class for journalism students. Elite earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Roosevelt University. She is a member of the Asian-American Journalists Association and the Online News Association, where she taught as guest faculty and coached participants in the Women’s Leadership Accelerator.

Related Links:

Inclusion Index report: Assessing the Pittsburgh news ecosystem’s commitment to DEIB

Metrics for News

Source Matters

Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program

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Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

Audio & Video Engineer: Current Media Group

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The post News Take Episode 202: How the American Press Institute is Inspiring Cultural Transformation in News Media appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Presented with:

You can view a full video of the webinar here.

All publishers want to become indispensable to their audiences, especially now. They want to effectively serve their communities to get them the information that matters. They also want to know what drives engagement and subscriptions, how to make their work part of a reader’s daily habit and how deeply to cover those topics that matter. Those questions are not easily answered with conventional web analytics that were never intended for journalists.

What people click on, spend time with, subscribe to and share can reveal why they rely on a publisher for their news and information. But data overload can become overwhelming, even paralyzing, to decision-makers.

In a webinar with the American Press Institute’s Metrics for News team, we’ll discuss which measures of engagement to focus on (hint: not just pageviews) and how to define success. Through a series of 11 lessons on using metrics for newsroom change (gathered from the Metrics for News team’s work with 100+ newsroom partners), participants will learn how to prioritize which metrics they track and tips for leveraging the data-collection tool(s) they already use.

Additionally, API has created a new coronavirus dashboard in Metrics for News that automatically pulls trends and insights about how your audience is engaging with your COVID-19 coverage. In this webinar, you’ll get a peek at that dashboard and learn how to gain access to this tool if interested.

Resources:

Full Webinar Video
Metrics for News Slides
News Media Alliance Slides
MFN Coronavirus Dashboard Preview

About Metrics for News:

Metrics for News gives news organizations powerful journalism analytics that go beyond traditional traffic metrics. It’s a strategic tool built around newsroom priorities to grow audiences, deepen engagement and drive subscriptions, and it’s designed so every user can see how their work contributes to larger organizational goals.

Speakers:

Liz Worthington, Director of Content Strategy, American Press Institute

Liz manages API’s program to help publishers create data-driven content strategies. She joined API after nearly 10 years as a reporter and editor for various newspapers and digital platforms. Just before joining the team, Liz served as the Senior Editorial Trainer for Patch.com where she built an editorial curriculum that focused on enhancing the field’s digital news, social media and audience development skills. Prior to training, Liz served as a manager and editor at Patch. She always loved community news and before jumping into the world of online journalism, Liz worked as a reporter for the Island Packet in Hilton Head, SC, and the Culpeper Star-Exponent in Culpeper, VA. Liz is a 2005 J-School graduate from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Katie Kutsko, Partner Development Manager, Metrics for News / American Press Institute

Katie Kutsko is a ​graduate of the University of Kansas and the partner development manager for the American Press Institute​’s Metrics for News program. She empowers prospective and newly-signed partners to understand how MFN’s suite of products can help them build a loyal and engaged audience over time. While at KU, she served as editor-in-chief at the University Daily Kansan, where she led a newsroom transformation from a print mindset to a digital-first operation. She has interned at the Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star and Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World.

Moderator: Jennifer Peters, Reporter, Trends & Insights, News Media Alliance

Jennifer Peters is the trends and insights reporter and social media manager at News Media Alliance. She is focused on the ways in which the news media industry is changing and how those changes impact the way journalists create new work. With the News Impact Project, she and the Alliance are working on showing the value news media has in local communities across the country. Prior to joining News Media Alliance, Jen spent more than a decade in journalism, both in print and digital, working for glossy magazines and digital news outlets. She has written hyper-local news stories, as well as stories of international interest, and her work has covered every aspect of human existence, from love and sex to war and death.

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The post Webinar Recap: Using Data to Inform and Improve Your Journalism – Including NEW Information on Tracking Your Coronavirus Coverage appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

What brought you to the news media industry and API?

I knew I wanted to be a journalist since I was in high school. I went to the University of Missouri to get my bachelor’s degree, and after I graduated, I started working for small local newsrooms in Virginia and South Carolina covering crime, government, health and environment. In 2008, when my newsroom and others were facing layoffs, I decided to expand my knowledge of digital journalism. I found Patch.com and started working there as a reporter/editor with various roles in management and training. I learned a lot about digital journalism, analytics and training, which were the skills that API needed when it was starting Metrics for News. There was something really appealing to me about building something from scratch.

What is Metrics for News and how is it different from other analytics platforms?

Metrics for News is software we created in 2014 when publishers started asking us how their editors could make more empirical decisions about what to cover and how. At first, we looked to their Google Analytics, but that wasn’t enough. It didn’t answer the key questions publishers ask themselves all the time, such as which beats drive engagement, how a given author can improve or how to attract more subscribers. So, we decided to create Metrics for News to help publishers better understand their audience and deepen their engagement, grow their subscribers, write better stories, etc.

Our platform is different from any other metrics app; it is a content strategy tool where publishers can analyze hundreds and thousands of stories over time to learn the qualities that drive engagement, as well as identify new trends that could benefit audience and subscriber growth.

In 2018, we went through a massive redesign. We talked to newsrooms to get their feedback and decided to change our original platform to something more user friendly that would help anyone in a newsroom, and not only the people who were already familiar with analytics. We wanted Metrics for News to better assist newsrooms as a whole, including reporters working to grow their skills in audience development and analytics.

What are you working on to help Metrics for News’ members?

I think the biggest project that I keep working on is helping publishers better understand their audiences and their needs through analytics. I’m working with API to make sure publishers are getting answers to the key questions and information they need. Day-to-day, our team is talking to newsrooms, training them on how to use this strategic data, and continuing to evolve our product to better support our partner newsrooms and the communities they serve.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing the news media industry in 2019?

There are lots of challenges: the audience’s perspective about misinformation and disinformation is one of the biggest issues. We have folks at API who work on that challenge specifically. Another issue is the path to sustainability for local newsrooms. Our efforts in Metrics for News are one way to support newsrooms trying to better identify what drives people to subscribe as they move away from advertising models alone and toward ones heavily supported by reader revenue.

What is the most promising opportunity for news publishers in 2019?

I think it’s still an exciting time to be a journalist. I think one of the biggest opportunities for publishers this year is to keep getting better at understanding and listening to their audiences to learn how what they are producing is helping their audiences live their lives, connect them to their communities and satisfy their needs.

What are you most excited about in your role at API for the rest of this year?

I’m excited to keep working here. The people at API are all very smart and passionate about journalism, which makes it fun. I am also excited to keep improving the future of Metrics for News and spreading it across more newsrooms to help them improve their business.

The post 6 Answers with Liz Worthington, Director of Content Strategy at American Press Institute appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

On a recent Adweek Webinar, Chief Marketing Officer at NetBase Solutions, Paige Leidig, shared that 81 percent of executives don’t feel like their company is leveraging enough from social media. “There’s so much information out there, literally hundreds of thousands of social media sites, that it’s really hard to keep track of all of their metrics,” he said.

Companies need to understand why consumers are purchasing their products, as well as the key metrics that they should be measuring. “Aligning metrics with your business strategy is key to your business success,” Leidig adds.

Leidig, along with NetBase’s Sr. Director for Product Marketing, Mike Baglietto, shared what they have deemed the nine most crucial social media metrics companies should be considering when investigating their performance:

1.     Mentions: Mentions qualify how people talk about a brand, but businesses should also look at the channels where they were mentioned– your own, sponsored, public or earned.

2.     Engagement: By measuring customers’ engagement in these three different channels, companies can figure out not only who is mentioning them, but also what people are saying about them and their competitors.

3.     Sentiment: Understanding consumers’ likes and dislikes gives you the attitude towards engagement.” Once brands understand this, product and service improvement becomes a simple task.

4.     Passion: While passion and sentiment are two very similar categorizations, passion refers to the intensity of the sentiment. And passion drives action, “If people are passionate about your product they’ll be willing to stand in line for hours to get it.” Baglietto said.

5.     Influencers/Detractors: Brands’ biggest fans are often the best influencers. When identifying potential influencers, “Followers are not enough. Celebrities aren’t either. Even though they are important, people who connect deeply with the target audience can be more beneficial.” Surprisingly, detractors can also be important influencers. By spotting where conversations expressing dissatisfaction are, companies can start communicating and change consumers’ attitude and behaviors.

6.     Top Content: The top content that resonates with the audience is what drives engagement, sentiment and passion. “Visual content has been proven to be 40 times more likely to get shared in other media sites, specially earned channels.”

7.     Top Channels: With such a broad spectrum of social media platforms, some of them can get overlooked. The panelists gave the example of the Pocky brand, being considered unpopular in the U.S. until they learned that Tumblr was the largest source of where the conversations were happening.

8.     Top Locations: Knowing where and what your audience is interacting with will increase targeting possibilities and expand your consumers.

9.     Share of Voice: Include mentions of your main competitors in your social media monitoring to know where your brand fits into the overall conversation.

The post Nine Social Media Metrics for Success appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

What brought you to the news media industry, especially American Press Institute?

I’m a journalism major. I graduated from UNC School of Journalism, and before this job I worked at another small nonprofit news organization called Education NC. When I was working there, I realized that I didn’t have enough education in technical knowledge, so I decided to work for a commercial web agency that had a very strict web developing process that taught me a lot. Once I felt comfortable with my skills, I decided to go back to the news industry. I wanted a position where I could be working with a lot of local newsrooms by helping them increase their success. Since many local news organizations do not have the budget to hire someone like me, I decided to reach out to nonprofit organizations and chose API.

What are you working on at API now?

I am mostly working day-to-day on technical issues for our Metric for News costumers and offering a lot of research documentation to help API achieve a better coverage about its website’s data points. Metrics for News is a web analytics platform that contextualizes web analytics specifically for news. It can import analytics from multiple systems and create data, so publishers can set journalism related goals, such as number of subscribers per article, user priorities, etc. It is a very straightforward program with many presets that help news media companies to easily use it.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing the news media industry today?

Probably the fact that a lot of stable news organizations have different revenue models; they are nonprofit or have some robust subscription model. Local news organizations are often owned by financial institutions, so they don’t have the opportunity to publish opinion content. For local news organizations, that is a very important section because it is how journalists tell their community what they think about the news. The character of the news media organizations is kind of lost.

What is the most promising opportunity for publishers in 2019?

Understanding their audience – having a good grasp of who their audience is and what they need. You can publish content all day long, but if you don’t know how your audience interacts with it, then you are not going to know how to adjust to their needs.

What are you most excited about in your role at API?

I am excited to be able to bring Metrics for News to more news media organizations and to make the product even more accessible to the people who have it. It is an extremely valuable product that can actually help local news organizations be more successful and stable.

The post 5 Answers with Lindsay Carbonell, Success Engineer at American Press Institute appeared first on News/Media Alliance.