Let’s talk about reader segments and how they can help newsrooms better understand their audiences.

What are they? Distinct groups of audiences we categorise based on shared characteristics, behaviours, and preferences. These segments can help newsrooms more effectively tailor content, engagement strategies, and monetisation efforts.

Reader segments were at the forefront of a presentation by Aftenposten in Norway, part of Schibsted, during the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Amsterdam last month. I wanted to revisit this subject for today’s newsletter, as well as offer some takeaways from the Africa Newsroom Transformation Summit.

Read on and let me know if you’re effectively using reader segments, too: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

Aftenposten sees results by focusing on reader segments

Like many news organisations across the world, Aftenposten focused too much of its attention and resources on optimising for just the highly engaged minority, said Karl Oskar Teien, director of product and UX for Aftenposten.

While that may keep current subscribers happy, it won’t lead to growth.

So Aftenposten embarked on an organisation-wide effort to better understand and segment its audience groups. The four key user needs they aimed to solve for:

1. Give me new insights.

2. Help me understand why things happen and how events are connected.

3. Give me a quick overview of the news.

4. Help me understand what is important and what is not.

Eirik Hammersmark Winsnes, commercial director, said data scientists crunched internal data and found clusters of similarities in the total user base. That led to qualitative interviews, which the newsroom took part in. “I strongly recommend that,” he said. “There were a lot of lightbulb moments.”

From that, four distinct audience segments were developed: 

• The analyst: These are more mature men who take a macro view of the news and enjoy deep dives. Their need: Help me get an understanding of how societal questions are connected, both nationally and internationally. 

• The surfer: This is a younger man who surfs between pages, platforms, and brands. He prefers video; efficiency is key. His need: Help me continuously be aware of what’s happening in the world and society. I don’t want to miss out. 

• The empath: These are more mature women who want to be engaged by the news and understand different stories through human experiences. Their need: Help me understand different perspectives and spark my emotions by showing how news events affect people and communities. 

• The sporadic: This is a younger woman who wants the broader view and to understand how she can contribute. She prefers audio and is also looking for advice to make her life better. Her need: Help me with an overview of the most important news so I can contribute with my own reflections in social settings. Also help me make good life decisions. 

“These readers are critical, curious, and knowledgeable,” said Johanne Barman-Jenssen, brand manager for Aftenposten. “Men really want to understand the bigger picture, but women want stories through communities and shared interests.”

Barman-Jenssen said giving the segments names helps team members think about what readers need day-to-day. 

“You have to be in sync with the newsroom,” Teien said. “Systematically put the newsroom as part of the process. Bring editorial judgement into the processes.”

I later asked Teien whether it was easy to get newsroom buy-in. His answer: 

“Our ambition from the very beginning was to share a company-wide understanding of our readers and their needs. The way we made it relevant to everyone, including our journalists, was that we started measuring content performance — quality reads, video/audio completion rates, etc. — in a segmented way, capturing how our journalism resonated with not just the average readers but also with minority reader segments that are key to our growth. 

“Although defining our target audience segments in terms of age and gender at first might seem simplistic, we found that it helped us have a much more informed conversation about how we best ensure that we reach new audiences in ways that fit with their needs and habits.”

The organisation now meets regularly to evaluate the numbers and the extent to which they’ve successfully engaged the four audience segments with any given story, Teien said. He noted the newsroom has changed the way it writes about certain topics, like war and conflict, to make them relevant to audiences other than the older male “analyst.” Typically, they do that by focusing on how war affects families and their daily lives, and less on troop movements and war strategy, Teien said.

New products have been introduced — in conjunction with the newsrooms — to reach the reader segments:

• Morning briefing for “Surfers” with FOMO.

• A substantially strengthened podcast offering and text-to-speech functionality to engage lighter and younger users.

Teien later told me that the new formats tend to be more popular with new readers than with those with established news habits. 

“Perhaps that should not surprise us, but it tends to be the case whether we’re talking about a morning briefing or AI-assisted article versioning ... that we see much higher engagement with those new formats among new subscribers than among those who have well-established ways of consuming the news,” he said.

“So when we evaluate the success of new formats, we focus less on engagement among our existing core users and more on our ability to engage trialists and users with fewer daily visits and articles read.”

Aftenposten also is adjusting its resource allocation in the newsroom to better serve the needs that will help it grow. 

Their advice for other organisations considering focusing on reader segments?

• Know why you are working on defining your target audience and how you will put it to use.

• Redefining a target audience will only lead to growth if you act on your newfound insights.

• For substantial effect, you must dare to change the heart of the engine: production and distribution of your journalism.

“Create definitions that help you classify and quantify content performance and audience reach consistently, and ensure that it becomes a lens of analysis available to all departments across the organisation [not something only used in product, commercial, or newsroom],” Teien told me, adding: “We must acknowledge that we increasingly have to earn readers’ time and attention, not the other way around.”

Does your organisation use reader segments? Drop me a line: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Lessons from INMA’s Africa Newsroom Transformation Summit

INMA hosted a virtual Africa Newsroom Transformation Summit on March 27, and I had a front-row seat. From metrics to user needs to how to reach younger readers, leaders from various news organisations talked about what they’re focused on — and what others can learn from them. 

Some of my key takeaways from the half-day action-packed summit:

Change management is never an easy sea to sail, but we must embrace new ways of telling stories. Sell the vision, don’t force-feed it.

Underpinning all newsroom transformation strategies is a clear change mandate. When the Daily Sun morphed from a digital-first news organisation in 2020 to ceasing print altogether in 2024, effective communication and buy-in was essential, said Amos Mananyetso, editor of the Daily Sun, part of Media 24.

“You need to communicate effectively internally and externally,” Mananyetso said. “You can’t force-feed the vision — you sell it.”

Better understand your audience and give them content they love by adopting a user needs model.

News organisations in Africa are embracing user needs — and seeing great results. 

Nation Media Group — which has titles in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania — now displays a live dashboard in the newsroom showing how content connects with reader needs. Editor-in-chief Joe Ageyo said the dashboard, as well as other real-time metrics, allow for immediate intervention when necessary and also inform editors’ judgement. 

User needs also were top of mind at Pulse Africa, which evolved its workflow around user needs and added an AI element to generate article and social media suggestions around user needs.

“Adopting the user needs model refined our strategy, boosting engagement across social video, editorial, and our Web site, strengthening audience connection,” said Kanyinsola Aroyewun, the news company’s director of media and content growth.

Younger readers are on social feeds and like to consume short videos and interactive content. Meet them there.

News organisations in Africa have effectively cultivated younger audiences through mobile-first and social strategies. It’s a business imperative and also an opportunity considering Africa’s median age is ~20, making it the world’s youngest continent. 

Pulse Africa, for instance, is disciplined about creating bite-sized content: videos, engaging Q&As, and the like. Pulse presents this content where consumers are, including TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. 

Aroyewun said Pulse’s goal is to be authentic, engaging, and undeniably relatable, meeting young Africans where they are and amplifying their voices.

BBC Swahili has recruited multimedia journalists to meet the evolving digital demands of younger audiences, BBC Senior News Editor Athuman Mtulya said.

Smartly use analytics to inform — but not dictate — editorial decisions. 

At BBC Swahili, a variety of analytics tools are used to measure success, as well as monitor competitors, Mtulya said. Editors use those learnings to inform the content strategy. 

Pulse Africa measures such metrics as pageviews, video views, engagement, shares and saves, and time on site. By paying attention to user needs and metrics, Aroyewun said, traffic to the lifestyles section increased 66%.

What did you take away from the summit? Email me: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Mark your calendars 

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• April 9: “Unlocking Premium: How to Elevate Your Digital Product — and Its Price Tag,” presented by Eva Günther, head of digital product, NZZ, and Daniel Marx, product manager, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Part of the Product & Tech Initiative. Register now.

• April 23: “Tracking Success: A Demo of Politiken’s Data Insights Dashboard,” presented by Troels Behrendt Jørgensen, digital director, and Mikkel Stampe Davidsen, developer/data scientist/analyst, Politiken. Part of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative. Register now.

• May 19-23: INMA’s World Congress of News Media in New York. Join me for a workshop on user needs on May 23. Register now.

• June 4: “Unlocking AI Content Licensing: Strategies from Dow Jones & The Guardian,” presented by Traci Mabrey, general manager/Factiva, Dow Jones, and Robert Hahn, director of business affairs and licensing, The Guardian. Part of the Product & Tech Initiative. Register now.

• June 18: “How Village Media Has Aggressively Grown by Focusing on its Digital Playbook,” presented by Jeff Elgie, CEO of Village Media. Part of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative. 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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