Building trust and loyalty with our audiences is more essential than ever.

Why?

It drives repeat engagement, increases subscription and retention rates, and turns casual readers into long-term supporters and advocates of your journalism. In this fragmented media ecosystem — amid discussions of declines in search traffic — engagement is foundational. 

This was the topic of my session for the 2025 Latin American Conference. In this newsletter, I’ll cover my five strategies for deepening engagement, as well as what two newsroom leaders who joined my session had to say.

I’d love to hear how you approach engagement: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

5 proven strategies to deepen audience engagement

In today’s fragmented and platform-dominated media environment, building trust and loyalty isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s the foundation for long-term success. Yet while we talk often about trust, we don’t always take action to earn it. 

During my session at last week’s 2025 INMA Latin American Conference, I focused on five proven strategies to deepen audience engagement and turn casual readers into loyal, long-term supporters. 

Here’s a recap of the ideas — with real-world newsroom examples — that any news organisation can start applying now.

1. Lean into habit formation: Loyalty starts with frequency. Media brands should create experiences that invite readers back daily or weekly:

• E-mail newsletters are the strongest driver of habitual use — especially when written in a personal, conversational tone.
• Push notifications (when used thoughtfully) help maintain touchpoints.
• Build content series or franchises readers return for, like a recurring columnist or recurring feature.

Case study: Newsletters are fundamental to Advance Local’s strategy for deepening reader engagement, driving greater frequency of visits and building reader habits. 

2. Employ user needs to superserve your audience: Understanding why people come to you — not just what they read — is key to building loyalty.

• Map your content to user need frameworks (e.g., “educate me,” “inspire me,” “give me perspective”).
• Identify which needs you’re overserving or underserving based on content and performance.
• Let these insights drive editorial priorities, tone, and formats across platforms.

Case study: 70% of Omroep Brabant’s content fell into the “update me” category yet generated just 22% of their pageviews.

3. Build connections with individual journalists: The rise of the content creator has led to important lessons on individual brands, authenticity, and format.

• Encourage and teach journalists to build personal followings through newsletters, videos, or social posts.
• Use bylines with photos, bios, and links to social to put a face to the story.
• Let audiences “follow” reporters or topics for personalised alerts or newsletters.

Case study: During last year’s elections in the United States, The New York Times deliberately featured its journalists front and center to build loyalty.

4. Deliver content that feels personalised: Personalisation of content—or even the perception of it — helps readers feel seen and understood, which strengthens their connection to a news brand and increases the likelihood of return visits and loyalty.

• Use reader data to recommend stories based on interests or behaviours.
• Segment newsletters or homepage modules by reader type (local, political, sports, etc.).
• Create liquid content so consumers can have options for how they get their news.

Case study: Schibsted aims to serve different users — some who visit frequently, some only a couple of times a week — with different interests.

5. Engage your audience in a two-way conversation: A two-way conversation fosters trust, deepens engagement, and transforms passive consumers into active, loyal participants.

• Be active in the comments and on social platforms by taking part in the conversation.
• Solicit story ideas or questions from your audience.
• Host regular AMA (ask me anything)-style events with reporters or editors.

Case study: A Gazeta recently topped 1 million Instagram followers in a region of just over 4 million people. Engagement was key to their strategy.

These five strategies show loyalty isn’t won overnight — but it can be built through smart, intentional newsroom choices. If you’re focused on engagement in 2025, this is where to begin.

Let me know how you’re deepening engagement in your newsroom: amalie.nash@inma.org.

2 newsroom leaders talk about cultivating audience loyalty

During my session at the 2025 INMA Latin American Conference, I was joined by two newsroom leaders who shared lessons on building loyalty and engaging with readers.

Rodrigo Müzell, digital journalism manager at Grupo RBS in Brazil, and Hiroshi Takahashi, director of El Sol de México/OEM Group, agreed it’s important to meet readers where they are and to experiment. 

“I don’t care what platform someone uses — we need to be everywhere,” Takahashi said. “We need to focus on quality and try everything.”

Grupo RBS offered a fascinating case study on its newsroom reorganisation, which was designed to cultivate more loyal audiences. 

In December, the newsroom was divided into distinct teams — broad audiences (Massivo) and loyal audiences (Fidelização). The broad audiences team is responsible for breaking news, trends, live blogging, social, front pages, and push notifications. The loyal audiences team focuses on exclusive content, beat reporting, features, investigations, quizzes, and newsletters.

The loyal audiences team consists of 40 journalists focused on content for loyal users and subscribers to increase readership, engagement, and loyalty, Müzell said.

“Our KPIs are connected to the teams,” Müzell said. “This team doesn’t care about reaching broad audiences and pageviews. They closely look at subscriber pageviews and time spent.”

This team publishes 50% fewer stories than the broad audiences team, aiming to create richer, deeper content. The team meets weekly to discuss what it learned from the audience: best formats, subjects, and distribution channels, Müzell said.

“We’re learning a lot with this closer look,” Müzell said. “Our journalists feel more confident now with what they have to do.”

What they’ve learned about their loyal audience: They often come back to the app’s front page after 9 p.m., looking for stories that summarise and explain the main topics of the day or for lifestyle/health features; they love quizzes, longer stories, and following news and sports on live blogs; and they closely follow news about small businesses, talk of the town, and football.

The results are impressive:

“Transformation is about having the right focus and narrow and specific goals,” Müzell said.

OEM Grou focuses on technology and tools to improve audience habitual behaviour. Takahashi also said the newsroom leans heavily into exclusive content and liquid content to cultivate and serve loyal audiences. Time spent is an important metric for OEM, he said.

“We get to know what readers value,” Takahashi said. “Meeting their needs is essential.”

Tell me about your loyalty metrics: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Mark your calendars

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• July 30: “Less is More: The Transformation of Gazeta Wyborcza’s Local Newsroom,” presented by Mikolaj Chrzan, CEO of Gazeta Wyborcza; Jan Latala, managing editor of Gazeta Wyborcza’s local newsrooms; and Paula Skalnicka, head of Gazeta Wyborcza’s local newsrooms. Register now.

• August 6: “Using AI to Help Reporters,” presented by Tim O’Rourke, vice-president/editorial innovation and AI strategy at Hearst Newspapers, and Rune Ytreberg, head of iTromsø’s data journalism lab at Polaris Media Group. Register now.

• August 13: “What’s Behind Award-Winning Mobile Formats and Fast-Moving Product Teams,” presented by Kristin Nyland, product manager for video at VG, and Zafar Sawant, chief product officer/OTTplay at HT Media Labs. Register now.

About this newsletter

Today’s newsletter is written by Amalie Nash, based in Denver, Colorado, United States, and lead for the INMA Newsroom Transformation Initiative. Amalie will share research, case studies, and thought leadership on the topic of bringing newsrooms into the business of news.

This newsletter is a public face of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative by INMA, outlined here. E-mail Amalie at amalie.nash@inma.org or connect with her on INMA’s Slack channel with thoughts, suggestions, and questions.

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