This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next blog post is Monday, September 8, and I will report from Vienna.
In TheMarioBlog we often try to encourage everyone in the newsroom to create new products. We also have been emphasizing ways to attract your audiences, as young as teens.
Based on this premise, we now have a new study, commissioned by Reuters, about the behavior of young readers when it comes to news. One interesting fact: they prefer to consume news in the morning (even though they access news and information throughout the day—with the smartphone as their constant companion).
You can access the study here:
Here is a highlight:
Younger audiences are different from older groups not just in what they do, but in their core attitudes in terms
of what they want from the news. Young people are primarily driven by progress and enjoyment in their lives,
and this translates into what they look for in news.
Give ’em broccoli and smoothies!
I am not surprised to read one of the highlights of the Reuters study findings.
Among the core findings is the insight that there is a disconnect between what traditional news publishers perceive the role of news to be, and what the younger generation desires from it.
“Traditional news brands feel their job is to tell people what they should know. Young people want that to an extent but they also want what is useful to know, what is interesting to know and what is fun to know,” according to Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at Reuters Institute
If I were leading a new product unit for a media company, I would emphasize the following from the findings, and this falls into the category of “news determinants” that affect how the young view the news they consume. For the young audience, news is not just information that the traditional editors think they must know—-what I usually refer to as “broccoli” in my workshops. Good for you, but not so tasty.
I also mention that the audience wants “smoothies”—and, apparently the young don’t get enough smoothies from their traditional media outlets.
Take a look at what is important to the young, according to the Reuters study:
- News also serves needs related to enjoyment, they are:
- Connections: News is the ultimate source of small (and sometimes ‘big’) talk that helps lubricate daily conversations. It allows an individual to confidently reach out and connect to people with whom they may have little in common. It is also the topic of discussion with friends and family.
- Entertainment: News can be fun. Being immersed in other worlds for pleasure, feeling inspired, enjoying creativity, or simply passing time.
- Passions: News also helps people fuel and pursue their passions and interests, or to experience things they wouldn’t usually in daily life.
Most important: Young people want a point of view in their news, something that many traditional editors may shake their head at.
Point of View: news that…
a. Has a point of view or an angle on a story
b. Is clearly informed by facts (rather than prejudice or agenda)
c. Helps the reader develop his own point of view
d. Is different compared to predictable / politicized / extreme opinion and ideology
Another interesting word that caught my eye in the study: Passions.
- Passions: News also helps people fuel and pursue their passions and interests, or to experience things they wouldn’t usually in daily life.
So, think of these findings when your new product team gets to work on its next project. Think of good morning newsletters that include news that go beyond what “you must know” and get into “what is fun to know”: what has a point of view that helps the young reader understand the context of the story, with good visuals, perhaps edited and designed to be easily consumed on the smartphone (where the majority of the young audience is), and, whenever possible stories that touch on their passions and entertain.
Time to create a perfect smoothie for an audience that will savour it to the last drop.
Of related interest
Young people may download news apps, but they spend very little time with them
“No news app (with the exception of Reddit) was within the top 25 apps used by respondents.”
A cover we like: Vanity Fair
My interview with CNN en Español
I was a guest in the program Encuentro, hosted by Guillermo Arduino daily at CNN en Español. The interview was about how we read on mobile devices and my introduction of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, to a Spanish-language audience.
Mario’s speaking engagements
Keynote Luncheon Speech: Ad Club of Toronto, Newspaper Day
October 25, 2019
Keynote presentation: Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS).
November 12, 2019
Order print edition of The Story from Amazon
You can order the print edition of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, from Amazon already here:
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
The Story will also appear in print
I am happy to announce that we will, indeed, have a print edition of my mobile storytelling book, The Story. I thank you for expressing your interest to our publisher, Thane Boulton, of Thane & Prose. Now the print edition will be a reality, and you can already see the cover and back cover here:
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post # 3107