“So What Exactly Do You Do?”
“So what do you actually do?” I get it “Head of Audience Engagement can lend itself to all sorts of interpretations. I typically tell people I’m a “data analyst” which is not far from the truth and is digestable enough to move on with the conversation.
The reality of what i do is not complicated, simply new. If you work in journalism in any kind of digital newsroom you’ll be aware of the “bridge role” phenomenon. A brilliant article by Frederica Cherubini stresses the importance of building a modern newsroom with people who can work cross functionally.
“They focus on how to improve collaboration and are part of multi-disciplinary teams. While they may report into one department, they often act as representatives of product in the newsroom or editorial within product.”
The best way i’ve heard my role described is from The Deputy Head of Audience Engagement for the Financial Times at a conference in Oslo. To paraphrase her, Within the newsroom, I am an advocate for the audience. Outside of the newsroom, I am an advocate for the stories we tell.
Audience data helps connects all sorts of functions within the organisation, Editorial, Technology, Subscription. I have to run relay between the two teams (Sometimes physically). Of course in the immediate term, I’m heavily invested in democratizing the data , creating newsroom culture that thirsts for data, and engendering mavericks in the newsroom to be data champions when I’m gone.
What a day might involve
Understanding how our audience is using our site, starting with basic Google Analytics reporting and then moving on with more advanced editorial analytics that answers questions like how much attentive time our readers actually spend on our site? What topics are we not covering enough of? Which reporters engender the most loyal readers? What authors are responsible for putting us in front of new users. After that I like to look at our subscriber management platform to get a sense for what subscribers in particular are reading. What are the articles that are converting the best. The subscriber view is important because of course, these are the people that believe our journalism is worth paying for. Our future is effectively guaranteed by them. And often times, they tend to move against the grain.
So in terms of pageviews the best performing article might be “Business Community believes Buhari has Failed” but on the same day, the article that attracts the attention of our subscribers is “Nigeria needs investment of $900 billion to bridge housing gap”. Understanding what drives this divergence is key for us as we try to gain clarity into the kind of journalism our readers believe is worth paying for.
Once the data has been analysed I meet with the editor and sometimes the entire newsroom to share my findings. Understanding, sharing and designing processes to sustain fit practice. That’s the summary of my work. No day is the same, I assure you.
