If you are too busy or not a big fan of watching recordings, here is chapters list and an AI edited transcript made so you can browse at your convenience:
00:00 Introduction to Melle and Contribly
01:38 Melle’s Career Journey and Media House Overview
04:42 Innovation in Journalism: Scaling Projects
09:32 User-Generated Content: Challenges and Strategies
14:38 First Experiences with Contribly: Successes and Learnings
19:39 Comparing Tools: Contribly vs. Previous Systems
24:42 Data Insights: Measuring Success and Engagement
29:30 Future Steps and Recommendations for Contribly
Case Study: Mediahuis and Contribly – Boosting Engagement Through Community-Generated Content
Featuring Melle Drenthe, Innovator at Mediahuis
Francesca Dumas:
Melle, thank you for joining us! We’re excited to discuss your experience with Contribly. To start, can you tell us a bit about your background and what you do at Mediahuis?
Melle Drenthe (Mediahuis):
Absolutely! I’ve been working in newsrooms for about 30 years, starting at the Volkskrant. Now, at Mediahuis, I focus on digital projects, data analysis, and AI implementation. A big part of my role is testing and implementing new technologies across our regional news brands.
Francesca:
Mediahuis is a major player. Can you share some insights into the company and its position in the market?
Melle:
Mediahuis, along with DPG Media, dominates the Dutch newspaper and media landscape. We own The Telegraaf, the largest Dutch national newspaper, and several regional newspapers, plus titles in Belgium, Ireland, and Germany. I work with the regional brands in the Netherlands, which allows me to pilot innovations on a smaller scale before rolling them out to our larger publications.
Francesca:
You’re essentially running innovation from the ground up!
Melle:
Exactly. And I leverage our relationship with The Telegraaf to amplify successful projects. If they’re interested, it’s much easier to get things done. They also use our regional brands as a testing ground. We’ve collaborated on projects like headline summarizers and a news search tool powered by our Telegraaf archive.
Francesca:
That’s a fantastic approach to innovation. Before Contribly, what kind of reader engagement projects were you working on, and what were your UGC processes like?
Melle:
My main focus was building our new editorial system, CUE. While working on that, we realised that our readers primarily want news. So, for the new site, we decided to focus on delivering more high-quality news content. To enhance reader engagement and get our readers spending more time with us, we wanted to focus on reader-created content, which is when we connected with Contribly. I knew trying to build something like that in-house would take too much time and expertise.
Francesca:
What were some of the challenges you anticipated when focusing on reader-generated content?
Melle:
The biggest challenge was defining *what* kind of content we wanted to generate. We’d seen mixed results with citizen journalism in the past. We also wanted to find a way to bring some of the reader interaction happening on social media (especially Facebook) back to our own site.
Francesca:
So, how did Contribly fit into your vision?
Melle:
The integration was smooth because I had a good understanding of the tech. When you showed me the product, I immediately recognised its potential. Setting up a test was quick, and talking to other Mediahuis titles already using Contribly helped us share best practices. Now, we have three titles using Contribly in unique ways, which shows its flexibility.
Francesca:
Tell us about the first few campaigns you created with Contribly. What was that experience like, and what were the benefits?
Melle:
We started by mirroring our successful summer photo competition. We asked readers to send in their best end-of-summer photos and added a Contribly gallery to an article showcasing example photos. You advised us to add our own photos first, which was great advice. It worked. People uploaded their photos and liked each other’s submissions. It was exactly what we wanted. We don’t focus too much on KPI’s but that sort of thing is difficult to measure. We knew that people were engaging with the website in ways they wouldn’t normally do.
Francesca:
What about the “mushroom thing”? That sounds fascinating.
Melle:
Aha! The mushroom campaign! It’s a Dutch tradition to hunt for mushrooms in the autumn. One of our newspapers, De Gooi- en Eemlander, already had an annual “best mushroom photo” contest. We decided to use Contribly to run it this year. We got over 700 submissions and lots of engagement.
Francesca:
How did Contribly’s support compare to what you were doing before?
Melle:
The tool itself is incredibly user-friendly. Easy to implement and manage, even for journalists. Compared to how we’ve ran similar things in the past it was far better. The support was amazing, a true WhatsApp on a five-minute basis. But Contribly also helped us think about things differently and actually plan something instead of throwing stuff online.
Francesca:
How has your team reacted to Contribly?
Melle:
Initially, there was some resistance. “Oh god, another tool!” But once they saw it in action and the results, they came around. We put our “ombudsman” journalist in charge, who’s experienced with reader interactions. Having a well-known journalist championing the tool really helped drive adoption.
Francesca:
Why did you choose Contribly?
Melle:
I found Contribly on LinkedIn. What really stood out was that it was developed from a newsroom. Plus, it was already being used within Mediahuis. It felt like a win-win-win situation.
Francesca:
Let’s dive into some of the data. What results have you seen in those specific campaigns, like the mushroom contest?
Melle:
Well, editorial data is almost always correlation, not causation. But the results are compelling. For the De Gooi- en Eemlander newspaper, the average free article gets 660 page views. The mushroom article pulled in 2,196 – three and a half times more! Time spent on the page jumped from an average of 39 seconds to 90 seconds for the mushroom content.
Francesca:
Those are fantastic results! What are your next steps with Contribly?
Melle:
While those metrics are promising, we’d love more data. Our main goal is to extend the success to something beyond just the photo contests. We’re aiming for our readers to provide information that we can use journalistically. I’m convinced it is the question we are asking, so we need to figure out the right way to engage them.
Francesca:
The million-dollar question: would you recommend Contribly to others?
Melle:
Absolutely. Especially if you don’t already have a tool like this. If you don’t, it’s a no-brainer. If you do, you need to compare it.
Francesca:
Melle, thank you so much for your time and insights! It’s been a pleasure working with you and Mediahuis.
Melle:
My pleasure.