Audience Analyst
For every newspaper company, there's an individual who gathers data and assesses if stories are favorable or detrimental to the general public. Sandra Schlosser is the audience analyst at the Arizona Republic.
PressBox Again?
Since I covered Pressbox in my post last week I won't go too much into it again but I had the oppuruntiy to attend a press box training with other journalists at the Republic this past week. Since its one of the newer tools that is being used by the reporters, Sandra gave a little "training" of what Pressbox does, the goal of Pressbox, how to use it, and how its the most useful tool they have.
Key Metrics of Pressbox:
- Traffic
- page views
- unique visitors
- referrers(special digital communities)
- Engagement
- engage time
- scroll depth
Audience Analyst Analysis
After the training, I sat down with Sandra and asked her what she thinks makes an audience stay engaged to an article from an audience analysts point of view. She claims that after viewing statistics for years now she still has absolutely no idea, but there are 4 points she feels has some effect on engagement.
- journalist has to have amazing story-telling skills
-the article has to be scan-friendly
-tone and style need to appeal to your reader
-HEADLINE
Next week is crime scene or court week so make sure to stay tuned!
Hi Aditi. What is it like working with professional journalists? Do they pay attention to you, or are they super busy and constantly moving around to get the next best story? Also, after being in this type of environment, has it increased or decreased your interest in journalism? I can't wait to hear all about your crime scene experiences!!
ReplyDeleteIt's surprisingly really easy-going. Yes, they pay attention to me but they're always at their desk typing away, either replying to emails or working on a story. It's definitely increased my interest in journalism because journalism is a really independent field. Of course you have a boss, but for the most part you're on your own doing your own thing and I enjoy that you're given that kind of freedom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Sandra said that it's so hard to determine what a reader will and will not be interested in. Making an article "scan-friendly" as you said is vital. As a working adult, I don't always have time to read an entire article, but am intrigued by the headline (an extremely important factor to grab the reader) and being able to quickly scan it in order to get the jist of it is helpful.
ReplyDelete