The U.S. election cycle is moving at breakneck speed as we close in on November — a disastrous debate, an assassination attempt on the former president, a Sunday afternoon announcement from the current president that he’s stepping aside, and a campaign launch for his vice president. And all of that transpired in a matter of weeks.

The New York Times and The Washington Post have kept readers abreast during these developments. But when news moves this fast — in a cluttered and competitive media environment — how do they differentiate their coverage? What metrics are they watching and how does that influence coverage decisions? What lessons do their strategies offer for other publishers?

We talked about that and much more during my latest Webinar, How The New York Times and Washington Post Are Approaching Elections Coverage. I was joined by two audience experts: Hannah Poferl, assistant managing editor, chief data officer, and head of audience from The New York Times; and Candace Mitchell, assignment editor for SEO at The Washington Post.

Read on to hear what they had to say, and watch the replay if you missed it. And I’d love to hear from you: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

P.S.: Have you downloaded my report Strategies for Continuously Transforming Your Newsroom? It focuses on how to position your newsroom for the future and how to instill the concept of transformation into the muscle memory of your organisation.

New York Times leans into video, durable content this election cycle 

At The New York Times, the audience team is part of the newsroom and works closely with each of the desks, including politics. Hannah Poferl, assistant managing editor, chief data officer, and head of audience, said the audience team’s approach to elections doesn’t differ from its general approach — but it’s a top priority right now.

What does that look like?

• Maximise audience during key tentpole events like debates and conventions using engaging formats that bring readers in and hold their attention.

• Consistently publish diverse, engaging content — videos, news explainers, evergreen content, enterprise polling — that attract readers back to the coverage throughout the election cycle.

• Leverage platforms and product portfolio to draw in users and drive continued engagement.

“We’re trying to maximise the reach of our politics coverage. We’re trying to promote sharing of our politics coverage,” Poferl said. “We’re trying to put our biggest muscle and thinking in maximising tentpole events because that’s when the world tunes in.”

For tentpole events, Poferl said, planning is key — and the team sets audience targets in advance. She said The Times also has expanded its use of alternative format storytelling.

The day President Biden announced he was dropping out of the race, The Times was ready, and the audience team’s staffing had been shifted in anticipation of potential news, Poferl said.

“As soon as we had confirmation, it was on fire and we really swarmed,” Poferl said, noting The Times was watching Chartbeat for real-time data.

The Times also is investing more heavily into video this election cycle, and Poferl cited surveys showing readers want to have more direct relationships with Times’ journalists. That means reporters are front-and-center on video.

“It’s very big and very new for us because we’re not typically on camera, so we’re asking a lot of our reporters to make themselves available, but it’s getting the traction that we want,” she said.

An interesting insight: Like many other news executives, Poferl said she’s worried that all the effort on platforms like TikTok and Instagram won’t translate into people coming from those spaces to The Times.

“They’re so self-contained that it’s hard to drive readers back,” she said, “but I’ve been surveying people who have been coming into contact with our videos there, and the surveys suggest they’re more open and more willing to come to The Times in the future.”

Durable content — content with a longer shelf life — has been a huge opportunity for The Times around elections, as well. Those include explainers, FAQs, lists that update (such as which candidates were still running early in the cycle), and more. An essential component of making this effective is setting up a process to track and update that content, Poferl said.

“It’s nice because we’ve already done the hard work,” she said. “Right now, we’re using audience data to look at content we should update, but I’m hoping for a better tool and process as we move forward.”

Poferl offered a piece of advice for other publishers working to put audience first in their coverage: Success requires the right mindset of newsroom leadership and of audience editors.

“Our desk heads see the audience members as part of the team,” she said. “Everyone understands the mission of the team and the broader mission of The Times.”

Do you have audience team success stories? E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Washington Post super-serves both political junkies and casually engaged citizens

The Washington Post’s political coverage serves two key audiences:

• Inside the Beltway political junkies who are hungry to read every development and micro-scoop.
• Casually engaged citizens who may dip in and out of content to catch up or understand the latest.

“What makes The Post a differentiator, I think, is our ability to code-switch. We can write for the political junkies — they know us, they love us, they come to us on our platforms. We have experts and exclusive reporting on the election that brings them to us,” said Candace Mitchell, assignment editor for SEO and the audience lead for elections coverage.

“I also think our reporters have the ability to make our content extremely accessible. They understand it at a high level and can explain it at a level for people who may not be coming to us all the time.”

Different products also are designed for different audiences. For instance, Mitchell said, The Post has newsletters for both of those audience segments.

The Campaign Moment, which recently launched, has analysis and deeper dives for political junkies. Its author also has a podcast. At the other end of the spectrum is The 5-Minute Fix, intentionally named that for casually engaged readers who aren’t going to invest a lot of time in reading political coverage but like the newsletter’s casual tone and approach to explaining the latest. Its author has more content and explainers on platforms like TikTok.

“We try to make sure our product suit reflects the different audiences we’re targeting,” Mitchell said. 

What metrics is The Post watching?

• Pageviews (where they came from and who they are).

• By platform.

• Engagement time.

• New registrations.

• Subscription starts.

“We look at a lot of signals along the way,” Mitchell said. “We don’t look at all metrics for all stories.”

The Post sees the election as a great opportunity to bring in a large audience of potential subscribers, Mitchell said: “They’re coming for the type of content we’re known for and we’re going to continue providing.”

With search, Mitchell said, it’s not simply about how many people came to a story — it’s more about where they went from that story and whether they engaged with more content: “Did we put them on a path where they became more familiar with us?”

For big tentpole events or big moments like President Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race, Mitchell said planning and pre-writing content is key. 

“I don’t just mean the story that he dropped out but all the stories we want for that day and the coming days. It’s often a journalistic instinct when something big happens to focus on what just happened and why it happened. What we often see from trends and from social is people want to know what happens next. Now what? We need to very quickly pivot to the future.”

In this case, it was: If not Biden, who’s next? 

“And we need to predict what the audience needs will be,” she said. “If we just start to write that when we see interest, we’re too late.”

It’s fine and often preferable for the same information to appear in different ways and formats, Mitchell said. In other words, don’t worry if a story, a list, and a video feel somewhat repetitive because they can reach different audiences.

Durable content also is an important strategy for The Post. Mitchell cited the debate as a great example of a moment where The Post resurfaced articles in real time as people who were watching the debate were searching for topics like immigration.

A great piece of advice from Mitchell:

“Rarely are we as journalists or the newsroom our audience. Taking a step back is extremely important, and our audience editors play that role, especially for desks that are in the thick of this day in and day out. It’s really important to take a step back, take a walk around the block, and go online for fun to see what other folks are talking about because in the newsroom, we’re so into the detail of it that it can sometimes distract from what our readers need.”

How are you thinking about audience in elections coverage? E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Mark your calendars 

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• July 31: How to Foster Civil Online Debate in a Divided World will focus on how Der Spiegel took on the challenges of online commenting by creating a new product within their platforms. This INMA Product & Tech Initiative Webinar is presented by Laura Badura, product manager at Spiegel. Register here.

• August 7: GenAI Audio and Internal Tools: Experiments from Two Innovative News Brands covers how two Scandinavian media giants are using GenAI to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Register here.

• September 23-27: INMA’s next in-person event, Media Innovation Week, takes place in Helsinki, Finland. I’ll be there! And we’ll talk about future-proofing sustainable news brands in the sustainability capital of Europe. Learn more and register.

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.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .