This year, INMA published 841 blogs. 

I edit each one of them, e-mail with the authors, decide which are the most important to feature on our homepage and in our newsletters.

And this week every year, I am eager to see what rose to the top.

I did, of course, expect our No. 1 article to be about AI, generative AI, ChatGPT, machine learning, or the like. And many of our top 11 articles are. 

But our most-read article is about the meat and potatoes of news media these days: personalisation, digital subscriptions, onboarding, engagement. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a case study by The Washington Post.

Our No. 2 article is also a meat-and-potatoes topic — data.

Three of the articles are by INMA’s Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota, who leads our Readers First Initiative, which is not surprising at all. Greg’s brain never turns off — whether he’s doing his own original research or talking to others about theirs. And INMA members are lucky to have him spending much of that brainpower on how news media companies can best win at their digital subscriptions strategies.

Several others, predictably, are about the AI-related topics I expected — most in ways that see AI as it should be seen: as a tool, not a strategy. And they are all worth rereading as we prepare for 2024.

So here’s the list, one that does not include our awards stories (Global Media award finalists and winners, 30 Under 30 winners, Elevate scholarships), which are always our most-read articles.

1. Personalised subscriber onboarding results in higher engagement, retention for Washington Post by Digital Subscriptions blogger Anjali Iyer of The Washington Post in Washington, D.C.

2. Data is pivotal in news publishing, Web design considerations by Product and Tech blogger Q M Ashfaq Ali of The Daily Prothom Alo in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

3. New York Times uses machine learning to create a smarter paywall by Rohit Supekar at The New York Times.

4. Here’s what happens when ChatGPT analyses the New York Times landing page by INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota, who heads up the INMA Readers First Initiative.

5. Technology continues to transform the news media landscape by Product and Tech blogger Q M Ashfaq Ali of The Daily Prothom Alo in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

6. Research identifies the most convincing subscriber pitches by INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota, who heads up the INMA Readers First Initiative.

7. Media companies should be watching these 3 ChatGPT developments by INMA member Lukas Görög of Die Presse in Vienna, Austria.

8. Schibsted experiments with AI, finds 37+ ways it can help by Media Leaders blogger Johannes Gorset of Schibsted News Media in Oslo, Norway.

9. Gannett’s fresh onboarding process indicates new subscribers are more engaged by Satisfying Audiences blogger Phil Schroder of Gannett in McLean, Virginia, United States.

10. What happened when we asked ChatGPT to develop a new product for Financial Times? by INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota, who heads up the INMA Readers First Initiative.

11. Your content is driving ChatGPT by Peter Bale, INMA Newsroom Initiative Lead.

Cheers to this past year. Thank you for being part of this community. I look forward to sharing stories of importance to you as 2024 unfolds.

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