If you travel in audience development circles, you’ve heard by now that Google is back on top as the main source of third-party referral traffic for publishers. And chances are you’re probably exhausted from explaining to folks that relying on any one particular platform as a primary source of traffic is a really bad idea. In 2018, we’ll see publishers diversify their approach to audience development, both in the tactics used and staffing models required to support them.
Teams will broaden their thinking around what the definition of audience development within a modern newsroom means. Engaging and growing audiences on social platforms will continue to be a priority, but not the only one. The 2018 audience roadmap will involve an increased focus on SEO, analytics, on-platform recirculation, community management, and newsletters. In isolation, none of these tactics are new or revolutionary, but whether your business is ad-based, membership-driven, or a paid model, 2018 will be the year in which audience teams are expected to use them in concert to contribute to the bottom line.
Search engine optimization will once again become increasingly important to newsrooms. SEO editors will join audience teams and lead search strategy, training folks on best practices and building bridges with product and technical teams to ensure that we are working together to achieve the best search results. Analytics editors will be hired to dig into the data daily and work with senior management to evaluate what is resonating with our audiences and compelling them to help fund our work. Newsletter editors will continue to build the type of one-to-one loyalty which helps feed our audience funnels, converting casual readers into the type of loyal ones who will help sustain our work. The community editor’s position will return to prominence, but with measurable recirculation goals attached to their work. Newsroom leadership should encourage and empower these individuals to be the watchful eye on editorial ROI. Multi-disciplined audience teams will balance quantitative data and qualitative audience insight with our years of well-honed news judgement. They will challenge us to stop doing what doesn’t achieve measurable results.
The beauty of diversification is that it means not putting all of your eggs in one basket. It will encourage teams to broaden their skillsets, think creatively about various ways to get to the goal of sustainability and sharpen their discipline of setting goals and measuring them.
Kim Fox is managing editor of audience at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
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Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
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Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
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Jennifer Coogan The future is female
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Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
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Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
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Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
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Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
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Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
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Rick Berke Value is the watchword
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Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
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Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
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Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
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Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea