The newsroom matchmaker
I’m on a mission to help the news industry think more holistically about how we approach cross-platform storytelling. I think of it like being a newsroom matchmaker, pairing projects with like-minded artists, strategists, and technologists. And every newsroom should have one to be ready for the future.
Over the past nearly 20 years, I’ve worked on new initiatives in journalism, championing the need to invest in the future. And there’s been a lot of progress, from immersive projects winning Pulitzers to day-to-day incorporation of interactive graphics and data visualizations. But more often than not, the folks who are passionate about technology and the initiatives inside newsrooms that support them are siloed from reporters and editors and even from central product teams.
A recent Washington Post opinion column addressed the malaise many are feeling about the news lately — I stopped reading the news — is the problem me or the product?. The author, Slate’s Amanda Ripley, observes “Today’s news, even high-quality print news, is not designed for humans.” While product and strategy can’t change the fact that we’re covering wars, political unrest and climate change, we can create more human-centric design to tell stories in ways that resonate. From building a TikTok strategy to launching an awards-worthy documentary series, to AR and VR projects, data visualizations and photo essays, there are dozens of ways to break down content, remix it, and share it. We’ve never had more tools at our disposal to reach more people in meaningful ways.
The question becomes what to use when and how to make your stories stand out amid the noise. This is where having a team looking across the organization for opportunities can have the most impact. Here’s my tried-and-tested advice if you want to be your media organization’s matchmaker:
Start small. It’s great to look to big projects like The New York Times 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre interactive project for inspiration. While this was a huge undertaking with in-depth mapping, social and video components and dozens of staff to make it come together, it’s possible to take a similar approach to feature stories at most organizations — just on a smaller scale. In 2020, WBUR worked with Walking Cinema to create Hidden Sacred Spaces, a unique, innovative, and engaging series built on an open platform — Sketchfab — that’s easily integrated into the station’s existing audio and web presences. Imagine what your web presence would look like if more longer term projects were able to get a unique treatment that was right for the story.
Build trust across departments. Understanding what both sides of the newsroom need and collaborating at a small scale builds trust and makes reporters and editors part of the product process. In 2018, I spent a year as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford talking to artists and choreographers about their creative processes and how we can map these learnings to journalism. Of course, artists rely on inspiration and spark — but also on the limitations of their chosen medium, belief in their own work to make an impact, and the power of visuals to tell a story — all things journalists understand better than anyone.
Focus on people who are passionate about experimentation. When I was at Yahoo News running the XR Partner Program, my strategy was to meet with news partners like the Los Angeles Times on a quarterly basis and discuss what features were coming in the next quarter, which stories had support across the organization, which reporters were most passionate about experimentation, and what would benefit from a different type of treatment. That’s how projects like Caste in California came to be — a mix of documentary, podcast, AR, and in-depth reporting that culminated in a Sunday front page print feature — complete with QR code launching a WebAR experience. The only way to get buy-in from skeptics is to lead by example and empower those in the newsroom who are most engaged to try new things first.
Make deliberate choices that bring the right attention to the stories you’re telling to grow new audiences. Give your audience options to explore and lower the barrier to entry if there’s new technology involved — we found at Yahoo that once people got into AR, they stayed and were more engaged, spending more time on the page — and you will be rewarded. Not every story needs to be on every platform. Use the data your audience team is providing wisely and be specific about what projects live on TikTok and what needs to have an expansive space on your own website. No one has the time or staff to maintain every community on every platform — and they don’t need to.
Push your product team to experiment. Cross-platform leaders must be allowed to take risks and given a runway to succeed. On a recent panel with CUNY, TIME president Keith Grossman discussed the magazine’s launch into the NFT space and Discord, a major investment and shift from what you probably think of as TIME’s core audience. According to Grossman, this leap has paid off to the tune of thousands of new subscribers, a new source of revenue, and a thriving community on Discord. That’s not to say that building an NFT community is the right choice for every organization. Allowing tech-forward thinkers in news organizations the autonomy to identify areas that are ripe for disruption and take calculated risks is something from which every brand can benefit.
Let’s create teams that get ahead of technology and experiment, work with reporters and editors to identify longer-term projects and match them to the most impactful platforms and storytelling mechanisms, bringing in product and marketing as early as possible. We need to look at content from a high level and deeply understand the opportunity of new technology, including XR and the metaverse, in order to succeed. Much like meeting your soulmate, a newsroom matchmaker can only take you so far. It starts with the work news organizations are already doing — telling powerful stories.
