All things Engagement

Exceptional journalism alone won’t cut it anymore.

We must understand the “economic mechanisms” and marketing strategies that drive audience engagement and ultimately, sustainability.

Quality content is King, but the value it brings is Queen (and she wears the pants!) 👑➡️🚀

Cyrille Frank really dropped some serious wisdom on what it takes for media outlets to thrive. 🫡

This week on our Redefining Engagement podcast, Francesca chats with Cyrille Frank (in French 🇫🇷), a veteran journalist, and media consultant with a background in advertising. 💪

One of his key points? “The quality of content is indispensable, but it is not enough for the success of a publication or a media outlet. That content has to bring value.”

📣 Is your team rowing in the same direction? 🚣 This week on Redefining Engagement, Francesca sits down with Martin Vodermair.

Not only has Martin been shortlisted as one of the best editors in chief of Germany for his adaptation and implementation work on Dmitry Shishkin’s user needs model! 🤩

OVB24.de also won an INMA Global Media Award for “Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation”. 🏆

In our interview, Martin discusses the power of a unified vision in media success. 👓

OVB24.de started as a digital first media house and they have had very successful results with their complete change in strategy.

Audience engagement isn’t just a metric; it’s a mindset. 🧠

Joe Cawthorn, Content Strategist at National World highlighted, “if the journalists and the editors don’t buy into the reason WHY they are doing it, then it will just be a box ticked. ‘I’ve sent that newsletter’ or ‘I’ve sent that message’. The journalists require an understanding of why it’s important.”

It’s not enough to simply check the box and say, “We’ve engaged with the audience today.” It’s about deeply understanding WHY we’re engaging, and ensuring that understanding is shared across the entire team.

We can learn so much about community engagement from Bellingcat’s way of working. 🐈‍⬛

Community engagement is central to their mission, empowering individuals to participate in their investigations.

It is clear that their focus is what is best for their community.

♥️What does putting their community at the heart of their work look like in practice?

For their members this means:

– Joining a mission that is clear, exciting and that they know they can be actively part of.
– Being properly welcomed: They receive clear, personalised onboarding to the network and are matched with subjects that align with their interests
– Growing and learning = Get access to upskilling opportunities / fun challenges embarrassing curiosity
– Contributing at their leisures = They don’t expect more of their time than they are willing to give, they want quality time.
– Embracing the community = Having their achievements showcased and different skills celebrated publicly
– Being challenged = through games and activities

🙋Have you asked yourself these questions lately?

🗞️Have you changed your journalism to try to connect better with your audience? If so, how?
🔍Have you worked with your journalists in your newsrooms to change:
– The way that you present stories?
– How you research stories?
– How you distribute them?
🥷What is your purpose/ mission as a brand? What do you want to be known for?
🧑‍💻 Have you done the work to understand what your user needs model should be?
♥️How do you foster loyalty? How do you build trust with your reader?
🫂How do you build that sense of community around your content so that your reader understands what you’re doing?

Your answers to the above questions might change after watching this week’s episode with Jeremy Clifford, who has 35 years experience working in news and is now a media advisor helping businesses on their digital transformation journey. 💪

What is important when it comes to audience engagement?

This week’s Redefining Engagement guest, Gwyn Nissen, editor-in-chief of Der Nordschleswiger, a media brand for the German minority in the southern part of Denmark, reminds us that engagement is being close to your audience, understanding their needs and how they can actually benefit from engaging.

Often when we think of engagement, we think about what we can have and not so much what the audience actually gets by contributing and engaging with us.

🔊 Are you looking at audience engagement as clicks, time on page or app downloads?

We forget how our articles can impact the reader. It’s about more than just numbers. 🔢

Sophie Van Oostvoorn, former editor-in-chief of C.Tru, challenges this perception in our latest Redefining Engagement chat. She shares invaluable insights on how newsrooms can move beyond the metrics to create real connections with their audience. 🪴

How do you truly connect with your readers in a meaningful way? We sat down with Johannes Niemeläinen, Data Manager at Keskisuomalainen Group (Finland’s largest regional publisher), to explore this crucial question.

Johannes brings a unique perspective, blending traditional newsroom experience with a data-driven approach.

“Now is the time to really invest in bonding with your audience and trust, because, well, if you can find the answer anywhere without going to the source, maybe loyalty is the only way.”

We speak with Gerson Veenstra, Editor-in-Chief Online Team and Interaction Manager at EenVandaag, a Dutch news show reaching over 800,000 viewers daily.

Gerson’s journey is nothing short of inspiring; transforming their approach to media audience engagement from a small experiment into a fully-fledged interaction team showcasing how embracing a human-centric approach, even on a large scale, can lead to phenomenal results.