Abstract
It has long become commonplace among media professionals that properly interpreting media analytics is currently critical to ensuring the growth - if not the survival - of any publication, whether print or digital. Regardless of whether they rely on subscriptions, crowdfunding or native advertising to keep their ships afloat, newspapers are now committed to finding reliable ways to profile their audiences, and better meet their expectations. The same is true for media outlets that rely on donations, as showing the social “impact” of their work is critical to retaining donors. Media players need to know who reads, listens, and watches their products, as well as who might do so in the near future - and potentially be willing to pay for this service.
Media Analytics Understanding Media, Audiences, and Consumers in the 21st Century provides a springboard for diving into this fascinating challenge. Although most newsrooms have limited budgets and lack the resources to hire a full-time media analyst, training an employee for this purpose may be worth the effort.
But taking up this challenge means getting rid of routines that no longer fit the world of “liquid journalism” in which we live (Deuze, 2008). For news organizations that might consider hiring or training a media analyst, it is critical to elaborate a clear vision of the goals to be achieved, and then only at a later stage to seek the most appropriate technology to achieve them. As the authors point out several times throughout the book, any kind of strategy should aim primarily to look at what the data mean, not what they say.
Media Analytics, therefore, willingly adheres to the new “audience turn” in journalism (Blassnig and Esser, 2022; Costera Meijer, 2020; Swart, 2023), but cautions against making responsiveness to audience values and interests the gold standard to follow in choosing newsworthy stories. Instead, news analysis should guide newsrooms in identifying stories that matter to their audiences, namely stories that produce meaningful implications for the person, community, or society they aim to serve. Reflecting on these ‘meaningful implications’ is even more necessary at a time when selective news avoidance, usually concerning political news, has doubled in many countries in the past 5 years (Newman, 2023).
The book is divided into three main parts. While part one (Foundation of media analytics) and part two (Media analytics and the business media) provide a summary of the concepts that need to be mastered when undertaking media analytics, especially in a for-profit environment, it is in part three (Media analytics across industry sectors) that journalism scholars will find the most appealing chapters.
In Chapter 11 (Analysis of Publishing, pp 260-286), the largest section deals with the “Periodicals Industries.” The authors note that most periodicals have not yet transformed their websites into stand-alone products, as digital versions serve primarily to support print ones. This means that it is currently very complex to collect reliable data on readers' consumption of magazines. According to Hollifield and Coffey, news analysts therefore have great potential to guide and shape the transition of printed periodicals to fully digital publications, which will also be a necessary step to attract younger audiences.
After a comprehensive overview of the main methodological issues to consider when collecting data on social media users, Chapter 13 (Social Media analytics, pp 311-340) notes that the industry is shifting its focus from quantity (“How much?”) to quality (“How much?”) of interactions, as large figures alone rarely translate into higher revenues. News analysts are therefore tasked with better profiling audiences on social media, in order to increase the “conversion rate” required by the customer.
Finally, Chapter 14 (News analytics, 341-364) discusses in great detail how data analytics can help define media strategy in the short (e.g., search engine optimization), medium (e.g., story framing) and long term (e.g., brand-identity) to better navigate an increasingly competitive environment.
The added value of Media Analytics, however, is the case studies it offers readers to test their newly acquired knowledge. The case studies in the News analytics section include, among others, “Strategizing the Future of a Local News Media Company,” “Optimizing a Local News Blog,” and “Evaluating a News Podcast Launch,” which represent real challenges that a present-day media outlet may confront.
In conclusion, both researchers in the field of media studies and editors who seek to implement changes to maximize profits could benefit from this reading, the former to sharpen their methodological skills, the latter to devise more grounded (read “data-driven”) strategies to increase the audience - and thus revenues - of their media outlets. In times when most newspapers are compelled to constantly innovate their business models, devoting a couple of days to ruminating the insights shared in these chapters could pay off for anyone working in the news-making process.