Relationship building at the heart of audience-driven work

How can we bring more diverse audience voices into the news process? One of the ways is to ensure they have representation in our coverage conversations— something that has become even more crucial given a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting Black Americans.

This is one of the reasons why I approached the National Bar Association (NBA), which represents 60,000 black legal professionals, to engage their members in an audience-driven project with The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ’s Audience Voices team was already soliciting coronavirus questions from our existing audience to support reporting, and running other initiatives to bring audiences more into conversation with our reporters, via their comments and questions. But we wanted to also focus on a community of highly-educated people of color, in order to grow and engage new audiences.

Working with former NBA President Alfreda Robinson, we created a Google Form where NBA members could directly share their feedback on stories and questions.

The lawyers’ coverage suggestions and questions ranged from the government stimulus plan, Covid-19 in Black and Native American communities, the virus’s impact on those with certain medical conditions or those who vape, and how the CDC tracked coronavirus cases. Some of their questions for future coverage expanded perspectives on topics already being discussed in the newsroom.

“I never saw The WSJ as being interested in people,” said Alice Gray, a Circuit Court Judge in Little Rock, Ark., who participated in the project and said she has read The Journal for decades, but previously saw it as more focused on businesses.

NBA member Jo Saint-George, who has focused on technology, media and health-related legal issues, also participated in the project. “I enjoyed the way you reached out to us, put the information out to us,” she said.

We asked NBA members for contact information and whether they would be willing to speak with a reporter. More than 90 percent of those who participated said they would speak to a WSJ journalist if needed. That willingness to engage on a continual basis supports our efforts to diversify sourcing in the newsroom.

We found other ways to connect outside of this project as well. Allen Venable, a NBA member and litigation attorney in Michigan, participated in WSJ’s Making It Work series, which highlighted how professionals were adapting during the pandemic. At the NBA’s national virtual conference, several of my WSJ reporting colleagues joined me to share some of their reporting on workplace issues in a special session that drew 100 lawyers.

(Clockwise from top left) Ebony Reed, New Audiences Chief, Lynn Cook, Management Bureau Chief, Bowdeya Tweh, Technology News Editor, and Ruth Simon, Senior Special Writer covering small business and entrepreneurship. These WSJ journalists met with members of the National Bar Association at its annual conference in July 2020.

“All the best reporting requires people who are willing to open up, be honest and put themselves out there,” said Lynn Cook, WSJ Management Bureau Chief. “And, I have to say, it’s also gratifying to see people nodding or sharing in the comment section during these digital gatherings to see how our coverage resonates with them.”

C.K. Hoffler, NBA’s president, said she’d like to explore how to further grow the relationship with The WSJ. The association is working on issues including election protection, police brutality and connecting businesses with computers to those in need in communities for education purposes.

“This is an example of what should be done, but I want to go further,” Hoffler said. “It needs to be done on a widespread basis.”

If you’d like to create a similar project at your newsroom, I suggest the following tips:

1. Research and discuss what the organization values. Be able to speak to the value to both sides for participating.
2. Consider what technology or process you can use for tracking, and how you will apply that if your main system (a Google Form in my case) no longer becomes the preferred communication channel of the group.
3. Know what additional colleagues you can tap later if the organization wants to grow its relationship, so the project is not a one-time interaction.
4. Know how the data will be used — in this case improving source diversity and informing editorial strategy.

If you have an idea on how to engage a community or want to brainstorm a similar journalism project, reach out to me at ebony.reed@wsj.com

Ebony Reed is the New Audiences Chief at The Wall Street Journal. She leads the new audiences and audience voices teams in WSJ’s Digital Experience & Strategy unit.