Introducing the user needs model to your newsroom

Loyalty and high engagement. Two things every newsroom craves. We can measure it, for sure, but how can we commission for it better?

Groundbreaking work introduced by the BBC World Service and championed by similarly high-profile publishers has provided a way of addressing this issue.

User needs — reasons why readers search out news — go beyond the ‘update me’ form commonly associated with publishers. Breaking news may be a byword for news, but it’s not the whole picture — and certainly shouldn’t be if your goals are those two aforementioned things.

There are, broadly speaking, six user needs newsrooms should be aware of, and planning with those in mind can be transformative.

Dmitry Shishkin was one the first advocates of the model during his time at the BBC and oversaw its adoption at their different newsrooms around the world.

He has been partnering with us on the Triple N project in order to find ways to make using this framework simpler and more intuitive.

“The ‘news needs approach’ covers six different editorial treatments of a news event. By focusing on other details of the story besides the cold, hard facts, the story can offer more value to the reader, which has been proven on many occasions in various settings.

Why should you adopt the news needs approach?

When news breaks, newsrooms cover it. Of course they do. Of course you do.

The thing is, what happens next? How do these stories get followed up? Do they even get followed up? (Often the answer is, no)

Commissioning articles from different and surprising perspectives really enlivens any publisher’s offering, but following up in a broad range of ways does too. Both of these things bring you closer to your audience.

If you can differentiate yourself from your competitors, you’ll carve out a unique place for yourself, and communicate a clearer brand identity to your readers. If you can do that, engagement and loyalty are more likely to follow, which makes any monetisation ambitions you have all the more attainable.

Dmitry: “I believe that the concept makes sense for everyone, even though the circumstances and the user needs might be a little bit different. I’m not saying that you suddenly should stop writing about what has happened, only you’ll get to engage your audience in a much stronger way with other user needs rather than ‘what has happened’.”

It’s not as hard as you think

It’s not like you’re starting from zero here, either. As Dmitry points out: “the four user needs ‘Update me’, ‘Divert me’, ‘Keep me on trend’ and ‘Give me perspective’ are something that newsrooms tend to do, anyway.”

More good news — as if you needed it — that the model seems to be universally applicable:

“Ultimately — the BBC model has been proven to fit almost any market or surroundings, I’d say, with an 80% match. It’s wise (and advisable) to ask your audience directly about what they need from your brand, but I am yet to see a push back where the established needs were not applicable to a large degree.”

So, how do you cover news in a ‘user needs’ way?

Dmitry explains: “You take a piece of news, and then you try and see how it can be covered for the audience answering six different user needs. It’s almost always possible to do so. Just take one piece of news in the morning, and ask your team to go away from the newsroom meeting and come back with ideas reflecting all these user needs about one particular piece of news.”

Getting started

1. Before you start, make sure you have a clear picture of your present performance. Analyse 3 months’ worth of content: how many user needs are you already covering? How is your audience responding to them? How is the content performing overall? Once you have your ‘zero measure’ in place, you can start experimenting. Build on your successes, and add the needs that you’re not currently covering. You can start with a pilot with one need, see how it goes, and expand along the way. ‘Educate me’ is a good user need to start with, because most newsrooms tend to overlook it. After that, ‘Inspire me’ is a good one. Listen to your audience and use their response as a guide.
2. Talk to your audience. Dmitry: “If you want to do it right, then start with establishing your own user needs model by doing face to face interviews with your audience. Always let them explain why they consume news and after a while a clear picture will emerge. As I said, my prediction is that you’ll be following the BBC model about 80% of the time or so, so the majority of needs are quite universal.
3. Think creatively. How can you write that article differently? Instead of explaining the same piece of news with just a news article, explore new possibilities. Why not have a Q&A on what it means, or — with the help of experts and columnists — explore how it might develop in the future?”
4. Focus on performance and put your efforts toward that type of content. But always make sure that it stays balanced. Most newsrooms will find that they are overproducing content that is not performing. Keep an eye on the data, but let it advise you, not dictate your actions.

Making it a success

Change is always hard and for real transformation, the whole newsroom needs to be on board.

But! Even small changes can make a huge difference.

• Start with one reporter piloting the user needs approach. Once others can see how it works, they’ll be intrigued and keen to try for themselves
• Proof is essential. Have the numbers and data ready so you can compare your results against previous performance.
• A multidisciplinary team (even it’s just one person) can really help bridge the gap between data and editorial. Make it clear why you’re doing this and how it’s paying off. There’s a reason audience engagement teams have grown in popularity over the past few years: they do just this
• Iterate. Experiment. You’ll find something doesn’t work well in a certain format in a certain user need. One user need might be a perfect fit for a certain subject, but flop elsewhere.
• Remember things take time. Any change management process can take anywhere 3 months to over a year to get consolidated. And it’s an ongoing process

“I’d rather have a hundred small changes to the product, rather than one huge change. One huge change never works, because you will likely be pissing off your loyal audience who are going to be disappointed.” — Dmitry Shishkin

Applying data is crucial — and it’s hard to put it better than the legendary US engineer William Edwards Deming, who famously said: “A person without data is just another person with an opinion”.

Found this useful? There’s plenty more where this came from. Follow us here as we continue in our series further explaining user needs. You can even sign up for our newsletter with more of the good stuff guaranteed.