How Can Data Drive Editorial Intelligence & Audience Engagement

Overview

Public service media (PSM) has access to an unprecedented amount of data about its audiences and how those audiences are engaging with their content across the platforms. However, with the fragmentation of audiences and the increasing number of platforms, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers.  

This e-Master Class will be a practical introduction to how PSM and other media organisations are using data to: 

  • better understand and engage their audiences 
  • build better products and media experiences 
  • use data as a common language across teams to better organise their work  

The goal of the three modules is to inspire you to have more confidence in using data by giving you tools, techniques and practical steps to better use the analytics you have. And you’ll start a journey towards turning those analytics into insights and action.  

Programme Outline: 

  • Day 1 (Monday 25th September) - Finding your North Star: Establishing your key goals and deciding how to measure progress 
  • Day 2 (Tuesday 26th September) - Turning Analytics into Insights: Conducting an analytics audit and determining which numbers to focus on to achieve your goals 
  • Day 3 (Friday 29th September) - Breaking down the silos to use all of the data across your organisation 

Day 1 - Setting Goals and Choosing Metrics to Measure Success 

The Importance of Setting Your Goal 

The Financial Times’ North Star Framework for setting goals, creating:  

  • Experiments 
  • Hypotheses 
  • Outcomes 
  • North Star Goal 

Setting your goals:  

  • DW : case : Innovation tbc 
  • Schibsted - Data driven product management at Schibsted 
  • The New York Times 
  • BBC - 5-5-2 Strategy - the organisation-wide strategic goal of engaging audiences for five hours across five days across two platforms 

Choosing data to support your goals - the types of data 

  • Usage data 
  • Frequency data 
  • Conversion data - what content is leading to user registration?  
  • Comparing data across platforms 

Day 2 -  Taking Stock of Your Data and Turning Analytics into Insights 

PSM has access to a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data tells you what audiences are doing, and qualitative data helps you understand why they are doing it.  

Quantitative Data  

  • Demand data - pageviews, hours watched and listened 
  • Loyalty and frequency data - how often users engage with your content and the time between their engagement with your data 
  • Product data - how users engage with features of your websites, apps and OTT/on-demand services 
  • Operational and process data - to help you improve your operations and coordination  

Qualitative Data 

  • Surveys 
  • Market research 
  • Guerrilla testing 
  • Kano surveys 

The constraints of data eg. 

  • Privacy must be protected.  
  • Understanding when qualitative data needs to augment quantitative data 

Examples of using a range of data to develop products and improve content 

  • Amedia using quantitative and qualitative data to iteratte a new product 
  • Detroit Free News - Creating multi-dimensional personas  
  • RTS case Amélie Boguet. Content is improved. 
  • BBC User Needs evolution 

Day 3 - Breaking Down Data Silos to Improve Organisational Coordination 

How various departments collect data 

  • How to collect the data.  
  • Who collects the data  
  • Aggregating data across the organisation 
  • Where and how it is applied 

Management of data and management of data use 

  • Make data accessible  
  • Make data understandable 
  • Make data actionable  

Case studies 

  • RTBF - from data silos to team of teams tbc 
  • Jagran New Media - a data engagement programme 
  • NRK - Keeping data together  

Certification

After completing the 3 modules, you will be awarded an EBU Academy Certificate

Meet your faculty

Kevin Anderson

He has 15 years of experience using a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis to help organisations navigate complexity, reduce the risk of strategic choices, optimise business processes, align stakeholders and drive digital transformation to help businesses achieve their strategic goals. As a consultant and team leader, he has delivered ground-breaking digital products including social, video, and audio products as well as new digital platforms for businesses across North America, Europe and Asia including the BBC, The Guardian, Gannett, India’s Network 18 and Waggener-Edstrom UK.

He is a curious leader focused on increasing my emotional intelligence, my domain knowledge and my leadership skills. From 2020 to 2021, he pursued a master's degree in innovation management and leadership from the University of York. He graduated with distinction and earned an award for excellence for academic achievement.