The New Newsroom
Nov 02, 2022
Traditional media moguls are chasing younger generations. This is the start of the new wave newsroom.
Younger generations are increasingly going to social media for news, and turning away from the outlets we’ve become familiar with. Instead of the BBC and Sunday Times, they’re now more likely to turn to Twitter and TikTok - for more on what’s driving this shift, check out last week’s article about who we trust.
With the number of people paying for news subscriptions plateauing globally, how do you draw in new audiences?
New Products
Did you, like so many of us, play (and get slightly addicted to) Wordle in the past twelve months? If the answer is yes, the New York Times’ strategy is working. Their plan is to grow subscriptions by boosting their games offering: luring people in with free games, and offering game-specific or full-editorial subscriptions so that they can access more popular ones. So far, the plan seems to be working, with the newspaper reporting an unprecedented tens of millions of new users. Ultimately, their goal is to draw in younger users by expanding their creative outlets, providing news through unexplored platforms, and expanding their non-news reliant subscriptions.
New Platforms
Two years ago, the Washington Post started making headlines as one of the first traditional news platforms to adopt a TikTok strategy. Now, their TikTok account is one of the WaPo’s fastest growing platforms, with 1.5M followers and 66.4M likes. This push is part of a new initiative called Next Generations, which aims to draw in younger and more diverse audiences through new products, practices and partnerships, with a focus on image-based content. What the WaPo does exceptionally well is cater to the different audiences and energies of different platforms: comedic skits on TikTok, serious image-based reporting on Instagram, social commentary on Twitter. They’ve got a separate team building strategy and content for every platform, which is allowing them to get their content and messaging across to entirely distinct audiences.
New (Creator-Led) Content
ESPN’s strategy, instead, is to launch a creator-based network to attract more Gen Z consumers. With a focus on peer-to-peer, authentic content, they’re hoping to drive content creation by giving ten creators priority access to ESPN’s premier sports properties and resources. The plan is to build more meaningful relationships with their subscribers and tap into the “more niche sport fan communities that thrive on TikTok, Instagram etc.” Going niche is a crucial way of building an authentic brand and drawing in new audiences. If you’d like to learn more about how to do it, read our article about niche marketing here.
New News Cycles
Taking a completely different approach, some news media are changing their news cycle entirely. More and more ‘alternative’ news cycle-based media companies are popping up around us. Mostly, these are a response to ‘news fatigue’. Most of us will know the feeling: you pick up your phone in the morning and there’s a dozen notifications filled with bad news looking back at you. In today’s permacrisis society, it feels like too much (bad) news, all the time. Organisations like Tortoise Media are reinventing the slow news cycle, by focussing on well-written, slowly digestible news instead. Others, like Good Good Good, focus on providing ‘real’ good news - positive updates only.
So what?
With so many different ways of consuming news and media popping up around us, the strategies we used to rely on to get our information out there no longer work. Traditional media brands are seeking new ways to draw in younger generations, building on new interests, new creation methods, and new platforms to get new subscribers through the door.
This adaptability is nothing new for media companies. We’ve already seen a transition from print media, to the nine o’clock news, to digital outlets - the switch to different platforms is simply part of the process.
The Washington Post draws a comparison to the introduction of crossword puzzles to newspapers. When they first came into fashion, readers didn’t understand their relevance, and they were often relegated to the ‘ladies’ sections of papers. Now, they’re an industry staple, with even digital-only publications typically featuring a daily crossword section. It’s a seemingly lighthearted side project that essentially serves as a Trojan Horse for the integral journalistic mission and draws in new readers.
Are we going to see the newsroom of the future turn into much more varied, co-creative spaces? And, as an organisation that relies on education and information in part, is there an opportunity for you to branch out into these different spheres to keep Gen Z and Millennial interest in your mission?