As media consumption habits continue evolving at a rapid pace, understanding audience behaviour and what drives it has become crucial for news organisations.

This week’s INMA Webinar, How to better communicate audience insights to your newsroom, examined what audience insights mean and how newsrooms can begin using them.

Amalie Nash, lead of the INMA Newsroom Transformation Initiative, explained that while news companies know audience insights are important, they’re not always sure what they’re looking for:

“When I talk to media companies, it feels like there are two versions of what people are asking and thinking about. One is … not really knowing what to measure, not necessarily having the [right] data,” she said.

“The other is that there’s this wall of data coming at you, and you don’t know exactly how to parse that out.”

The Webinar’s presenters, Fernanda Braune Brackenrich, the U.S. editor of audience engagement for the Financial Times (FT), and Tess Jeffers, director of newsroom data and AI at The Wall Street Journal, clarified the importance of audience insights and how they can transform newsroom strategies.

What are audience insights, anyway?

Understanding what audience insights means is a good starting point, and Brackenrich explained there are two ways to look at it. One, she said, is to “understand our audience, the people who are reading, watching, or listening to our journalism.”

The second component is for companies to also understand their journalism and identify what topics and themes are being covered.  

“The key goals here are to identify demographics, locate our audience, pinpoint news habits,” Brackenrich said. “This is so important because the habits themselves of our audience will inform so much how they read the news, when they read the news.”

Gathering such insights helps humanise audiences and shape coverage to better serve reader needs. Some key components of audience insights include demographics, content performance, and reader engagement. Being able to provide that information to the newsroom is a game-changer.

“We know that editors, reporters, they’re really time-constrained,” Brackenrich said. “Data can help them make decisions on the fly. If we don’t communicate audience insights, it’s just one less piece of the puzzle for them to make good decisions.”

Shifting left

Jeffers introduced the concept of “shift left” thinking, a methodology borrowed from software development in which bugs are traditionally tested at the end of a project, leading to inefficiencies.

“If you find a bug, then you have to go all the way back to the beginning, fix it, and then start again,” Jeffers said. “So this is slow, it’s frustrating, and it’s really inefficient.”

The “shift left” principle encourages testing earlier in the process to prevent costly errors. In journalism, that means considering audience engagement from the very beginning.

Traditionally, reporters research, write, and publish a story before audience teams step in to find an audience for it. But, Jeffers noted, “A story that’s already written without a target audience in mind might have a really tough time finding one.”

By shifting audience considerations to the start of the reporting process, journalists can identify their target audience early, choose sources that align with audience needs, and optimise headlines and formats to enhance reach and engagement.

“Naturally, it will be easier to find audiences who are receptive to that particular story,” Jeffers said. “It can be very powerful.”

Reframing coverage

A significant challenge in modern journalism is covering important but underperforming topics. Brackenrich and Jeffers shared how data-driven insights helped their organisations rethink storytelling.

One example involved consumer brand earnings coverage at FT — something important but not necessarily engaging for readers. Rather than publishing separate reports for each company, Brackenrich said FT consolidated these stories into a broader piece that analysed the overall impact on U.S. consumers. This shift in framing significantly improved reader engagement.

Similarly, The Wall Street Journal faced challenges engaging readers with climate change coverage. Data revealed that conceptual or overly grim stories struggled to attract attention. By focusing on solutions-based journalism — highlighting existing innovations and business opportunities —  the WSJ increased engagement while maintaining journalistic integrity.

“When we talk about exciting opportunities that are already happening, they might be an experimental solution, or it might be a startup, but it’s at least one piece of hope that you can hang your hat on that tended to perform a little bit better for us,” Jeffers said.

Something to talk about

Brackenrich and Jeffers emphasised knowing when to talk about audience insights to embed audience insights into newsroom culture. In reality, there are only three times when it should be discussed: early, often, and always.

At the WSJ, Jeffers explained, that means a cadence of daily, weekly, and monthly information-sharing processes, each of which takes a different form:

1. Daily meetings incorporate quick, actionable insights into the morning news meetings to help editors and reporters adjust strategies in real time.
2. Weekly reports provide coverage-specific updates that allow teams to examine what worked and what didn’t.
3. Monthly reviews include town halls and strategic reviews to help shape long-term editorial direction based on audience behaviour trends.

By making audience insights a routine part of newsroom discussions, journalists develop a deeper understanding of reader needs and how their work affects engagement.

The do’s and don’ts of communicating audience insights

Brackenrich and Jeffers left Webinar attendees with practical guidelines for analytics teams that want to share audience insights within newsrooms.

Do:

• Show examples of new ideas: Even if an idea isn’t fully developed, Brackenrich encouraged creating “something visual” to convey the idea. “It doesn’t need to be perfect … just make sure it’s as visual as possible.”
• Tell affected parties when you’re going to present information: “Make sure that you tell the desk editor or the journalist that you’re going to talk about this. They may give you some context as to why certain topics may not be doing well.”
• Talk about different coverage areas: Some teams may feel undervalued if reports focus only on high-performing content. Highlight various content types to maintain a balance.
• Repeat yourself: Journalists have busy schedules, and reinforcing insights multiple times helps integrate audience thinking into newsroom culture.
• Memorise important audience facts: Knowing core statistics can lend credibility and demonstrate expertise.
• Build strong relationships: Establishing trust and understanding how editors, reporters, and data analysts work is a must.

Don’t:

• Show charts you don’t understand: Misinterpreted data can lead to misinformation and erode trust.
• Provide numbers without context: Data without benchmarks is meaningless.
• Forget to share your presentation afterwards:  “You might have a pretty quiet audience,” Jeffers said. “No one raises their hand, no one asks any questions, but if they get that presentation in their inbox after the call, it’s an invitation to reach out directly and start a really nice conversation.”  
• Call out individuals publicly: “Every story takes a village,” Jeffers reminded. “So there’s no one individual who’s uniquely responsible for a story that didn’t quite meet our expectations.”
• Forget to edit: “You are talking to expert editors who are very good grammatical copy editors. It’s important to get the details right because if they don’t trust your data, then they might not trust you.”

A list of future INMA Webinars, which are free to members, can be found here. 

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