Three modules, 12 speakers, 45 minutes each. Too many insights to count.

That was INMA’s Newsroom Innovation Hub, a 1.5-day workshop designed to impart practical lessons and inspire conversations. It was part of Media Innovation Week, a whirlwind, action-packed experience that took us around beautiful Dublin.

During the Hub, we spent our time focused on three big themes:

• How newsrooms are deepening engagement and using data effectively.

• How newsrooms are using AI and automation to unlock efficiencies and spark innovation.

• What newsrooms can learn from content creators.

All are meaty subjects, and we’ll delve into them below and in a future newsletter. If you were at the Hub, thank you for taking part — participation was key to its success. And if you weren’t there, I hope the wrap-ups provide some concrete ideas for your newsroom.

Media organisations are grappling with a seachange of factors beyond their control: a dearth of audience from social, dramatic shifts in search driven by AI and chatbots, a flood of AI content, and declining trust in media.

Yet there is much we still can control. 

Jess Awtry, vice president of digital strategy and communications at Pew Research Center (who also has worked at Gannett and Newsweek in the U.S.) outlined seven things publishers can be doing right now during her keynote at the Newsroom Innovation Hub in Dublin.

“Increasingly, our roadblocks aren’t a lack of strong ideas. Progress is more often halted by a lack of practical advice on where to start, whether that’s how to overcome organisational buy-in or simply how we break these big strategies into more bite-sized tactics,” Awtry said. “That’s why I chose these seven ideas and focused on concrete ways to get started if you feel like you’re behind.”

She continued: “From broad needs like how to convince leaders of the importance of audience over traffic and readying your shop for AI down to how to start a business-driving first-party data strategy, I hope people took away not just conviction that these are the right approaches but useful ways to get started as well.”

So let’s dig in to the seven ideas: 

1. Decide and live it: traffic or audience?

Traffic can pay the bills, but the bucket is infinitely leaky, Awtry explained. Engaging and connecting with an audience ensures your site becomes a place people actively go to — not just a place they wind up. But be careful — don’t abandon reach.

Awtry demonstrated why scale isn’t everything: 10m users at 1x per month and 1.2 views per visit could translate to US$180K, while 1,500 premium subscribers paying US$300/month would be US$450K.

She urged the audience to:

• Build the mandate. Show a boss (or your team) the math.

• Add (or launch a plan to ask) “What do we want the reader to do next?” in every story template. 

• Track the related KPI — visit depth, return frequency,newsletter signups, etc.

2. Optimise what you can for AI, internally and externally

“Yes, it’s the biggest threat since the original sin of ‘giving away content for free.’ We can mitigate impacts through the ‘new SEO,’ but there are deeper opportunities if you’re bold,” Awtry said.

Her advice:

• External: Identify your top 25 evergreens; refresh titles, schema, and sourcing so they’re citation-worthy. Think classic SEO.

• Internal: Use a GPT to perform basic taxonomical analysis. What can you learn from 10,000 stories?

• Internal: Start a basic manual GPT for b-matter or angles.

3. Treat engagement as distribution

Engaging and building owned audience is good business because it: Increases pageviews per visit, increases return frequency, creates a strong subscriber pipeline, and builds robust first-party data, Awtry said. 

She recommended deepening engagement with the audience by:

• Opening up site comments and closing the feedback loop by responding.

• Publishing quizzes and polls, and requiring registration to gather data.

• Connecting readers with your experts via premium texts.

4. Map and understand your user journeys

Audience is often visualised as a funnel, but reality is more complex, Awtry said. Create a nuanced picture of your user journeys to better translate different groups to their value.

Here’s a visual representation:

Awtry’s recommendations:

• Map a basic funnel and the inflection points. What are the main stages of readership, and what causes someone to move to the next stage?

• Identify the numbers at each stage. How many readers can you address? How are you addressing them?

5. Own first-party data like a product — because it is

When we have a relationship with readers, we can ask for preferences, habits, decisions, and connect to profiles, Awtry said. Readers get more control over their experience, and we can serve ads that better meet their needs.

Awtry cited newsletters as key here: They’re one of the richest sources of first-party data available. She also recommended:

• Add a new intake process: save topic, follow author, etc.

• Launch a six-week pilot from one expert (clear beat, “reply to” monitored). 

• Do a limited test of data enhancement — find out who your readers are.

6. Spin up small, repeatable events … with ROI

While not many who attended the Hub are currently focused on an events strategy, Awtry noted events can both engage and be a strong line of business. She said it’s essential to set goals and KPIs at the outset and to make sure you have the setup to build audience and capture leads.

Awtry’s advice to those who haven’t gone all-in on events:

• Start small: Test out a live Q&A Webinar for subscribers with advance registration. Can be an interview, expert conversation, or editor chat. Close the loop with your attendees to track them.

• Programme a 30-person roundtable (one tight topic, one newsroom host), add sponsor lead capture, and consider a regular cadence.

7. Mercilessly edit your KPIs

“Your goal is to have as few metrics as possible to steer you in the right direction,” Awtry said. “Too many operations democratize KPIs — and when there are 13 target numbers, there are zero target numbers.”

She urged newsrooms to answer these questions:

• Are they vanity metrics or do they matter?

• Are these metrics built around your current or future business?

• Are they built around trust and culture levels?

Using that same audience funnel, here’s a look at the potential KPIs:

If you remember one thing from the presentation, Awtry said, it’s this: “Never let a pageview be an end goal. Each view is an opportunity to connect with readers. What action do you want them to take next?”

If you’d like to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, INMA members can do so here.

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