Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s largest and most influential daily newspaper, faced a crossroads: As revenues and results declined, would it be better to focus on boosting pageviews or on a subscription model with high-quality journalism?

The organisation chose the latter and embarked on an ambitious project to refine its content strategy. The team at Gazeta Wyborcza shared its story and their impressive results in my most recent Webinar.

Here, I’ll distill three important lessons that can benefit newsrooms of all sizes:

1. Write fewer but better articles

Gazeta Wyborcza analysed thousands of articles to see which attracted audience and/or subscribers. They found the weakest performers shared common characteristics: They were short, contained information freely available from other sources, and required no real journalistic effort. 

“We had to ask ourselves, why are we writing articles that no one wants to read or buy?” said Jan Latala, managing editor of local digital editions. Instead, the newsrooms began focusing on quality over quantity — refined and well thought out journalism.

The results? More pageviews and new subscribers based on publishing less.

2. Change your journalists’ minds and habits

Simply telling the editorial teams to write less but better wouldn’t work, Latala said. A cultural shift of this magnitude required work to change people’s minds and habits. 

“I remember very well that meeting in 2022 with local editors-in-chief when we presented our findings,” he said. “It was a clash between the data and our habits and imaginations.” 

That eventually led to fruitful discussions and daily conversations about how to attract audience, he said. Sincere and honest communication was key — supported by data, Latala noted.

3. Talk and listen to people

This concept is foundational to journalism, but one we can sometimes forget or neglect. As Gazeta Wyborcza honed its content strategy, focusing on investigations and deeper explorations of breaking news, they also made human interest stories a pillar of their work. 

It doesn’t matter what you cover, Latala said: “Focus on people. Listen to them and write from their perspectives. Go, try, touch, experience.”

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