{"id":148446,"date":"2024-11-21T15:43:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T14:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=148446"},"modified":"2024-11-21T15:43:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T14:43:56","slug":"how-do-journalists-find-audiences-in-the-platform-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/how-do-journalists-find-audiences-in-the-platform-era\/","title":{"rendered":"How do journalists find audiences in the platform era?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How has the emergence of new media platforms<\/a> impacted journalism, and its audiences? <\/strong><\/p>\n

To explore the state of journalism today and how it\u2019s evolving for the future, we invited two panels of industry experts to share their expertise with an audience of PRs and fellow media professionals for the Pulsar x Vuelio event: \u2018Seeking Audiences: Journalism in the Platform Era\u2019 event.<\/p>\n

\"Seeking<\/p>\n

Joining us to discuss the \u2018new news\u2019 landscape – including the challenges of capturing audience attention amid fragmenting forces like TikTok; the role of podcasts; and comebacks for local news – was Press Gazette UK Editor Charlotte Tobitt, ITV News Reporter and Producer Siham Ali, Polis Founding Editor and Director of The Journalism AI Project at the London School of Economics Professor Charlie Beckett.<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/p>\n

Covering changes in audience perceptions, brands, and behaviours was CNN International Commercial Vice President, Audiences & Data Tini Sevak, The Economist\u2019s Media Editor Tom Wainwright, and BBC News Journalist, Producer, and Presenter Kamilah McInnis.<\/p>\n

Here are key points from the speakers, as well as extra answers we ran out of time for\u2026<\/p>\n

The new news: Reaching audiences with journalism today, from TikTok to podcasts, to local journalism<\/h3>\n

So many platforms, so little time for each: What are the biggest hurdles to reaching an audience for journalists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Two main things – the fragmentation of the media landscape, and Google sending less traffic to them,\u2019 was the verdict from Press Gazette\u2019s Charlotte Tobitt, who covers the fortunes, and fluctuations, of the media as part of her daily beat.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s rarer for someone to search for \u2018The Telegraph\u2019 to find their news now, and publishers are finding it harder to engage directly. They need to future-proof against the many other platforms out there by building brand connections – trust is at a real low in the UK and the US\u2019.<\/p>\n

Charlie Beckett, whose organisation Polis campaigned hard for amendments to the Online Safety Bill<\/a>, highlighted just how much the media industry has been transformed by competing platforms pumping out information, 24\/7:<\/p>\n

\u2018I remember when it was just papers and TV. We were the only place you could get news – life was great!<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

\u2018Social media is the biggest thing to happen to journalism in a hundred years. You have incredible access to different sources, and that can be overwhelming. But as an audience, we don\u2019t want to go back.<\/p>\n

The problem for publishers is having to start from a place of what people want. But journalism has always been good at that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Is the plethora of platforms warring for audience attention actually an opportunity for journalism? ITV News\u2019 Siham Ali, talking as a reporter with \u2018boots on the ground\u2019 across the UK, sees the positives:<\/p>\n

\u2018I think finding an audience is easy with TikTok and Instagram. Especially with local news<\/a> – Facebook has made our jobs easier.<\/p>\n

\"Siham<\/p>\n

\u2018We have stories that perform well on TikTok. The trick is adapting our storytelling to this new way of sharing news. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a bad thing. But then, I\u2019m young, so\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

Another \u2018newer\u2019 format for storytelling is podcasting, a medium the publishing industry has invested in heavily over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u2018[The podcasting format] is infecting \u2018traditional\u2019 broadcasting and making it more casual,\u2019 believes Charlie. \u2018And they aren\u2019t much different – they\u2019re merging.<\/p>\n

\u2018Podcasts are ambient. TikTok, you\u2019re more focused on it. When we talk about audience attention, it\u2019s skeletal – it doesn\u2019t tell us everything we need to know.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rebuilding trust in the news industry when bad actors also have a platform<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vuelio\u2019s head of insights<\/a> Amy Chappell asked if the extra competition for audience engagement has meant more clickbait (and as a result, more misinformation).<\/p>\n

\"Panel<\/p>\n

\u2018You have to be really careful where you get your news from,\u2019 said Siham. \u2018I\u2019d like to think the big media names are the good actors. There\u2019s clickbait everywhere.\u2019<\/p>\n

Charlie pointed out that this isn\u2019t a phenomenon born from the digital age:<\/p>\n

\u2018Audiences have a lot of agency – they consume \u201cfake news\u201d because they want to. People are driven by identity and emotions, by fear – they choose to consume what panders and pays attention to fears they have.<\/p>\n

\u2018Clickbait wasn\u2019t suddenly invented. Marketing and advertising people have known this for decades.\u2019<\/p>\n

Trust was also highlighted as a difficult part of the local journalism ecosystem –<\/p>\n

\u2018People are at the heart of everything we do. In journalism – people are the story,\u2019 said Siham.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was only able to work on certain stories because of people in communities. I saw their need to be heard.\u2019<\/p>\n

The importance of time covering a local new beat on a journalist\u2019s skillset was underlined by Charlie – not just for the journalist, but also for building loyalty with audiences:<\/p>\n

\u2018Editorial diversity is what\u2019s needed – knowing what it\u2019s like to grow up on a council estate, for example.<\/p>\n

\u2018Most national press get their stories from local news. The media have to be honest that we\u2019ve messed this area up by reducing news teams – fewer journalists are left now in regional journalism.\u2019<\/p>\n

Is social media and vertical video making news accessible, and can it bring media success?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018The news industry was slow to TikTok, and then a few individual journalists picked it up,\u2019 explained Charlotte.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Daily Mail is now one of the biggest news publications on TikTok, and it’s a good thing for the longevity of the brand.<\/p>\n

\u2018People were hesitant initially because the monetisation wasn\u2019t there. But for brand building, it\u2019s worth it. The TikTok algorithm is so good that the right stuff should find the right people.\u2019<\/p>\n

But Charlotte also recommended caution regarding social platforms like TikTok:<\/p>\n

\u2018It would be risky to rely on them completely – the platforms can change up the algorithms anytime. Publishers shouldn\u2019t get too excited about one platform.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Audiences that are underserved [by traditional media] are on TikTok,\u2019 added Siham.<\/p>\n

\u2018They might then come through to ITV at 6.30pm. An 18-year-old then knows what\u2019s happened in Westminster today. They\u2019re now able to pass that information to their friends at the pub.<\/p>\n

\u2018TikTok used to be an afterthought, but now it\u2019s part of the planning stage at ITV. The social team make up a chunk of our output on the platform\u2019.<\/p>\n

The opportunities for PRs and a bright future for journalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018I used to work in PR, and we didn\u2019t think to add vertical assets – there\u2019s a lot of potential in that space, said Siham. \u2018Show that your content is multiplatform.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve seen politicians doing interviews directly with social teams, and not the digital news teams. That trend is quite interesting.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m excited by the new platforms, adapting as a news organisation is exciting.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018If I wasn\u2019t optimistic about the future of journalism, I would be in the wrong job,\u2019 said Charlotte. \u2018People are aware of the challenges, but there\u2019s lots of innovation and cool stuff going on.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The news industry is more aware than it\u2019s ever been. News is incredibly resilient – the dogs won\u2019t die,\u2019 said Charlie.<\/p>\n

Journalism in the platform era: Audience perceptions, brands, and behaviours<\/h3>\n

How worried should the media and comms industries be about increasingly polarised communities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Economist\u2019s Tom Wainwright highlighted just how split media audience are along political lines – particularly in the election-heavy 2024:<\/p>\n

\u2018More extreme takes travel further online than more moderate ones. That makes the space seem very polarised. And what you see in polling is that trust is very split along partisan lines in readerships and viewer bases. After Brexit, the big fallout between \u2018leave\u2019 and \u2018remain\u2019 audiences, for example.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s part of a broader mistrust from more conservative audiences with what they see as \u2018elite\u2019 institutions. This split is a hard thing to fix. Organisations need to increase their diversity of staff partly because of this. There\u2019s a divide that\u2019s baked in.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

\u2018People still value credible and well researched journalism but news is dominated by organisations that focus on sensationalism and misinformation,\u2019 added BBC News\u2019 Kamilah McInnis.<\/p>\n

\"Kamilah<\/p>\n

\u2018Organisations should apologise when mistakes are made, listen to audiences and be consistent to rebuild trust. Respond to what audiences need. And remember that they also tune in for escapism and analysis.\u2019<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Tini Sevak emphasised how vital established and non-partisan media organisations are for the public, whatever their political outlook:<\/p>\n

\u2018When people are making big decisions, they’re still coming to news organisations.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Tini<\/p>\n

Bringing audiences back to engaging with news reporting, wherever it’s published, posted, or shared<\/strong><\/p>\n

The panel talked about the rise in news avoidance over the last few years, and how this is increasingly impacting audiences across demographics. It\u2019s not just younger people who avoid hard news – not tuning in to \u2018traditional\u2019 news mediums like ITV News at 10, or picking up a daily print newspaper. Even those who had previously been avid news-followers are tuning out for a variety of reasons – the increase in global conflict; the ways awareness of this has seeped into all other mediums to become a constant in the background of modern lives; even the lack of censorship and inclusion of distressing images and updates.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of this increase in news avoidance over the last few years – both at industry conferences for journalists, and in reports detailing challenges for publishers. Could a factor be a simple lack of visibility for \u2018traditional\u2019 news platforms?<\/p>\n

As Tom pointed out: \u2018As a child, I had to watch Newsbeat to get to Grange Hill. People are moving from a news-rich environment to a news desert. Maybe people are bored of news, but I think they\u2019re just seeing less of it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Discussion also centred on the lack of news on the streaming channels now available – Tom mentioned Netflix as an example of a platform that doesn\u2019t have an option for news updates. For many of the public, the only way they will encounter broadcasts devoted to news reporting specifically will be by seeking it out. How can new organisations build relationships so that audiences will search for them as sources?<\/p>\n

For Tini, reputation and reliability are vital:<\/p>\n

\u2018When you’ve got a brand that stands for something, you have a relationship with your audience. It’s about giving back – news has to be a reflection of life. Hard news, but also culture – reflecting what life is about’.<\/p>\n

The impact of paywalls and subscription models<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom pointed out the difference that a subscription model makes to an outlet\u2019s overall focus, not just their audience:<\/p>\n

\u2018Organisations that focus more on subscriptions are more likely to go niche. The New York Times has shifted to a subscription model and is aiming to be more in tune with their readers – for the good and bad.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you\u2019re funded by advertising, however, you\u2019ll be more generalised and centrist. With subscriptions, readers want to engage with content they agree with. The way publications respond to that dilemma depends on their business model\u2019.<\/p>\n

‘The brand safety aspect is very real,\u2019 added Tini.<\/p>\n

\u2018Advertising within news doesn’t have to be a detriment to your brand. There’s an opportunity to engage with a tuned-in audience’.<\/p>\n

For more on this topic, as well as the Pulsar and Vuelio research discussed during this event, check out our reports \u2018TikTok journalism: The platform\u2019s impact on news audiences<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018Hold the homepage: How scoops circulation through the modern media landscape<\/a>\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To explore the state of journalism today and how it\u2019s evolving for the future, we invited two panels of industry experts to share their expertise with an audience of PRs and fellow media professionals for the Pulsar x Vuelio event: \u2018Seeking Audiences: Journalism in the Platform Era\u2019 event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":148465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7383,7272,3531,3672,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148446"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148464,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148446\/revisions\/148464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}