I recently wrapped my second Newsroom Transformation Initiative Master Class, Beyond the dashboard: A deep dive into data analysis and insights, a jam-packed series of sessions featuring 12 speakers and loads of case studies that showed how leading media organisations from around the world are using data to engage readers, influence business outcomes, and evolve strategies.

It was an insightful deep dive with many lessons. Among my favourites:

• “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” This came from Esra Dogramaci, a digital leader, trainer, and consultant in Sydney, Australia. She said that as long as you focus on engagement — forming a relationship with your audience — they will stick with you, no matter what the landscape does. This is so important in a world of changing platforms and the rising use of GenAI.

• Identify and communicate one North Star metric. At A Gazeta in Brazil, the goal was to turn casual users into brand lovers. They explain it as: “Seek engagement and retention through an improved user journey, conquering reader loyalty, and building valuable habits: Be Essential Daily.” By narrowing in on fewer goals, they moved the needle quicker.

• At Hearst in the United States, they measure audience metrics but go beyond that. Newsrooms also measure more nuanced metrics: event attendance, social audience growth, newsletter engagement, coverage impact, and more. Their advice: Focus on multiple metrics — scale, conversion, retention, off-platform. They all matter.

• Tess Jeffers, director of newsroom data and AI at The Wall Street Journal, introduced the concept of the data wallpaper — tons of numbers that recede into the background. At WSJ, they’ve moved from data without a strategy to audience data in support of a strategy. “What do these metrics mean for me? Translate data to the team and individual level,” she said.

• NTM in Sweden has moved to now measuring and setting targets solely for their younger target group, people ages 30-39. Editors-in-chief have only two KPIs to be concerned about: digital subscriptions from the younger audience and article reads by the younger audience. It’s been a tough but needed change. The presentation quoted a news editor who said, “We need to relearn and recalibrate from the new engagement data from the younger audience if we want to understand what they want. ”

• Finally, some great advice from Paul Berry, senior editor/news analytics and insights at McClatchy News in the United States:

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