Newsrooms should consider these 4 priorities in 2025
Newsroom Transformation Initiative Blog | 14 January 2025
In my last newsletter of 2024, we heard from members of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative advisory council on their predictions for this year.
Now, I’d like to offer some of my thoughts on newsroom transformation in 2025.
Here are four things I think all newsroom leaders should be talking about:
1. More media companies should be looking at user needs
I talked to many news companies last year that have implemented user needs in their organisations — European companies are leaders in this area — and not a single one reported that it made no difference. Quite the opposite.
Media companies that have successfully introduced user needs better understand and grow their audiences, drive stronger business results, and have learned to work smarter, not harder.
Dmitry Shishkin, CEO of Ringier Media International and a user needs expert, wrote in his 2025 Nieman Lab prediction that: “Audience engagement is not just about cultivating your audiences, optimising distribution, or leveraging platforms. It must be at the core of everything you do, beginning with your editorial strategy. … The user needs approach underscores this perfectly …”
I agree, which is why we’re holding a Newsroom Transformation Seminar solely dedicated to user needs at the INMA World Congress in New York this spring. Shameless plug: Sign up here.
2. Narrow in on quality metrics that lead to insights
We talked about this concept in a recent advisory council meeting — it’s not about a series of data points, but instead, it’s about focusing on quality metrics.
Many media companies are drowning in dashboards showing all kinds of metrics: pageviews, unique visitors, time spent, return frequency, traffic sources … the list goes on. But what are the quality metrics that lead to actionable insights?
At Hearst in the United States, they’re now focusing on visits instead of pageviews — because that’s a more stable way of thinking about your audience, said Patty Michalski, Hearst’s senior vice president of content strategy and innovation and a member of my advisory council. She also said Hearst is working to define a tangible metric for newsrooms that measures engagement by subscribers per month.
Bottom line: Different media companies have different business models, and this year is about finding those KPIs that lead to your desired outcomes.
3. It’s past time to think about multimodal storytelling
Finding new ways to tell stories isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a business essential. Consumers used to personalisation in their lives and social media experiences heavy on video aren’t that interested in traditional 1,000-word stories. Yet that remains the default far too often.
Annemarie Dooling, vice president of audience at Gannett in the United States, wrote about the importance of considering formats in her Nieman Lab prediction: “It’s the time to quickly adapt to understanding that our jobs are about providing information in ways that are for the audience’s use cases, not testing the understanding gap of how they use our formats.”
I think newsrooms should be holding themselves accountable to making alternative-format storytelling the norm this year.
4. Collaboration will become even more important
Fierce competition will likely always be a cornerstone of the news media industry, but it’s more important than ever to collaborate. With scarce resources in most newsrooms, collaboration can allow for deeper coverage, improved products, and innovation.
Alexandra Beverfjord, executive vice-president/brands at Aller Media Nordic and CEO at Dagbladet in Norway, touched on this in an exchange we had late last year. She wrote: “Many news organisations are developing their own technologies and solutions, but this often leads to duplicated efforts and inefficiencies. Collaboration — both within media groups and between competitors — is key to achieving cost savings, driving innovation, and countering the dominance of global players.”
Where can you find fellow collaborators this year?
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