Journalists have a reputation for dismissing data about their stories. But it’s undeserved. After all, the axiom “if it bleeds, it leads” describes a newsroom practice driven by the metrics of newsstand sales and broadcast ratings. Pulitzers and Emmys are qualitative data that indicates a reporter’s work is respected by her peers. Journalists don’t hate […]

We are excited to announce today a new cohort of newsrooms using Metrics for News, the American Press Institute’s analytics dashboard and content strategy program. Metrics for News gives newsrooms powerful journalism analytics that go beyond traditional traffic metrics and offers unique tools to help grow audiences, deepen engagement and drive subscriptions. It’s a strategic […]

News organizations who want to prioritize audience-driven storytelling and simplify their analytics with easy-to-use dashboards can now take advantage of subsidized access to the Metrics for News software and services provided by the American Press Institute. Thanks to a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, subsidies are now available to use […]

As you build reader data and marketing efforts, questions about organizational goals and structure will inevitably arise. Your IT, audience, marketing, product, or technology groups may control different pieces of the solution. But as new systems and processes are developed and new skills are added, who is in charge? There is no single answer, but […]

The key cycle for audience and revenue growth is “analyze, experiment and iterate.” Your investment in business intelligence and marketing tools will pay off as you understand reader needs and behaviors, and make decisions and create processes that are data-driven, testable, and support organizational learning and staffing decisions. Many of these tactics are possible even […]

“Marketing” includes a broad range of decisions: what services to offer, what to charge, how to talk to your audience, and where to deliver your services. Marketers describe this as the “4 Ps” of Product, Price, Promotion, Place. To focus on readers, grow engagement and sell subscriptions, you must act upon all four of the […]

To improve our websites, boost reader engagement and grow subscriptions, we don’t want “more data.” We want deep insights leading to a better understanding of visitors’ needs and how they interact with our journalism. The actual data (web metrics, advertising impressions, and newsletter subscriptions to name a few) are just the raw materials. It is […]

Launching a paywall is easy. Pivoting a whole business from an advertising-centric mindset to one focused on reader revenue is not. Despite 10 years of experimentation and increasing attention, the news industry still needs to develop some of the attitudes, technology and skills needed to sustain exceptional membership and subscription programs. To succeed with reader […]

All told, our team at the American Press Institute worked with journalists and leaders at nearly 100 local news organizations this year in our mission to help them become more audience-centered and innovative organizations. Those partners included newspapers and digital startups, public radio stations and local TV stations — organizations large and small. We helped […]

  Summary As Election Day approaches, more people seek news and information about politics. To understand the habits of news audiences in the run-up to the election, we analyzed what was being covered in reporting about down-ballot, non-presidential races for U.S. Congress, governor, and local offices in the lead-up to the 2016 general election. The […]