At the INMA Newsroom Transformation Seminar held at the recent INMA World Congress of News Media, one theme cut across continents, newsrooms, and technologies: Understanding and meeting the “user needs” of readers is no longer optional, it’s foundational.

In a series of compelling presentations, newsroom leaders and strategists from across the world unpacked how reorienting editorial strategies around audience needs is driving impact, increasing loyalty, and reshaping the role of journalism itself.

“It’s not about giving people what they want. It’s about understanding what they truly need from us,” Amalie Nash, Newsroom Transformation Initiative Lead at INMA, said. “When you center journalism around audience value, whether it’s to help, to explain, to connect, or even to entertain, you build relevance that lasts.”

Putting the reader first in how stories are made

The user needs model, originally popularised by Dmitry Shishkin during his time at the BBC, categorises content into several core types, such as “Update Me,” “Give Me Perspective,” “Help Me,” “Inspire Me,” and “Divert Me.”

These needs are not arbitrary; they reflect real-world motivations behind why people seek out news.

Nicole Stockdale, executive editor at The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun, described how McClatchy’s 30 newsrooms have begun integrating user needs into planning, training, and newsroom culture. Instead of assigning stories solely based on beats, they now start with a fundamental question: Who are we trying to serve, and what do they need from us?

“They all talked about how intentional they were with their audiences,” Stockdale said. “This process of thinking at the beginning, who am I writing for and what do they need from me was revelatory for many of them.”

AI as an assistant, not a replacement

Matthew Monahan, president of Arc XP, the media industry’s content management system, explained how they are now experimenting with AI agents to support, not replace, editorial roles.

“We’re working on a copy editor agent that does everything from spell-checking to fact-checking to formatting and channel production,” Monahan said. “The goal is to do this faster at scale so we can focus our resources on the fast gathering, on the narrative flow, on the actual creation.”

Yet even in an AI-powered newsroom, the “human-first” mindset remains central. Monahan emphasised that personalisation shouldn’t just be about content delivery.

“We’re aiming for hyper-personalisation at the content level,” he said. It’s not just about deciding which story to show each person, but about changing how the same story is told, depending on the reader’s background, interests, or prior knowledge.

Six ways to write about broccoli

Lars Anderson, head of innovation at DPG Media in the Netherlands, showed how data-backed analysis of user needs is being used to reframe editorial priorities across dozens of brands.

“If you don’t embed user needs into your planning tools, your CMS, your metrics, you’re not going to change behaviour,” Anderson said. “It has to be everywhere.”

He offered a humorous but telling example: six different ways to write about broccoli: “From ‘Update Me: Broccoli prices are rising’ to ‘Help Me: Where to still find cheap broccoli,’ it shows how one topic can serve six distinct user needs, if we think intentionally.”

A strategic shift, not a trend

Across the board, speakers agreed user needs aren’t a trend, they’re a lens. They don’t diminish journalistic independence, they strengthen it by reinforcing journalism’s purpose: to serve.

As the industry grapples with economic uncertainty and the impact of AI, user needs is journalism’s most powerful tool to stay not just relevant, but essential.

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