News by Numbers

Abstract

Analytics are now embedded in newsroom practice. In a form of participative gatekeeping, the ability to track how the audience absorbs information is shaping editorial content. Although there is much discussion that engagement metrics, like time spent, are more important than pageviews, many advertisers are still more interested in clicks than counting time, some newsrooms still have pageview targets, and the pageviews metric is often used as a simplistic measure of reach. As such, digital editors sit cemented to monitors, working to decipher what stories have or are gaining traction. Using this information, they choose placement of content, enhance stories, and share stories via social media to build traffic, then repeat this frenetic cycle in a seemingly endless loop. But at what cost? How does the focus on metrics affect best practice in the newsroom and, potentially, information sharing in the public sphere? This article examines the impact of audience data on practice at The Hamilton Spectator, a local newsroom in Canada, to explore whether traffic-based metrics and the use of analytics impede the ability to meet journalistic standards, and/or build bigger, more informed and engaged audiences.

Constructing audience quantification: Social influences and the development of norms about audience analytics and metrics

“…Their outputs, audience metrics—clicks, likes, shares, and other quantitative measures of attention, popularity, and interaction—have similarly become increasingly visible and influential elements of digital media work (Zamith, 2018). They provide cues that contribute to the human and algorithmic diffusion of content and help shape ideas about what is relevant or trending, thereby altering the calculus about which cultural products should be encouraged and prioritized (Blanchett Neheli, 2018). Media organizations have embedded this new audience information regime into their workflows, with different indicators factoring to some extent into content decisions and evaluations of organizational objectives (Bunce, 2019).…”

Do Metrics Drive News Decisions? Political News Journalists’ Exposure and Attitudes Toward Web Analytics

“…A large body of research shows that contemporary newsrooms all over the world have embraced audience metrics and analytics, influencing the work practices and organizational strategies that determine the news decision-making process (Blanchett Neheli, 2018;Bunce, 2017;Giomelakis et al, 2018;Hanusch, 2017;Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013;Welbers et al, 2016). In 2014, Tandoc (2014) already noted that editors in the US were using metrics to decide on which stories to select for which spot on the homepage, while at the same time "deselecting" articles that generated less web traffic.…”

Optimizing Content with A/B Headline Testing: Changing Newsroom Practices

“…This shift can cause tension between the stated, traditional values of a newsroom and the pressure to incorporate reader data (Anderson, 2011). Metrics can also have a deep emotional effect on journalists and can decouple the goal of producing traffic from that of writing a high-quality story (Blanchett Neheli, 2018;Nelson & Tandoc, 2018). As Nielsen and Cherubini (2016) acknowledge, important signifiers of success and quality, like the public impact of a piece of reporting, won't be reflected by editorial analytics.…”