How to Practice Audience-Centric Journalism

Your audience isn’t engaging because they don’t see themselves in your content. I’ve seen this happen to even the best creators. You’re posting consistently, writing what feels like great content, and still… nothing. Here’s why—and how to fix it: 1/ Solve their problems The quickest way to lose your audience’s attention is by focusing only on what you want to share. Your content needs to focus on what they care about most: their challenges, fears, and aspirations. Ask yourself: → What questions are they asking? → What keeps them up at night? → How can you make their life easier today? If your posts don’t offer solutions, they’re scrolling past. 2/ Speak their language Your audience doesn’t live in your world—they live in theirs. That means: → No jargon. → No over-complicated terms. → No talking over their heads. You need to write the way they think. A good test? If a 12-year-old can’t understand your post, simplify it. People engage with what feels familiar, not intimidating. 3/ Share your story Your audience connects with you when they see themselves in your story. → What have you overcome that they’re struggling with now? → What mistakes did you make that they can avoid? → What small wins can inspire them? Vulnerability builds trust. And trust builds engagement. Be consistent where it matters Posting 1x a month won’t cut it. Engagement is about showing up consistently in: → Comments (start conversations). → DMs (build relationships). → Your content (keep solving problems). Consistency is the bridge between visibility and trust. 4/ Iterate until it clicks The first post might flop. So might the next 10. But each time, you’re learning what works: → What topics resonate? → What formats drive interaction? → What questions spark the most conversations? Your audience isn’t static—they’re evolving. Keep refining your approach to match. Your audience engages: Not because you’re perfect, but because you’re human. Not because you went viral, but because you showed up. Not because you wrote for everyone, but because you wrote for them. The takeaway? Engagement starts with connection.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve had the privilege of speaking at journalism conferences across the globe (after 10+ yrs of speaking at tech conferences). I've made one stark observation - the same question comes up to me every time: “What should we be doing to improve our product strategy?” I always respond with the same question: “What insights have you extracted from your product discovery work?” That’s where the conversation usually breaks. What I get in return is often analytics, content performance dashboards, or editorial instinct...but none of that is product discovery. There is a serious reality that our industry needs to come to terms with: If your product decisions aren’t grounded in real, validated insights from your actual users, you’re not doing product. You’re doing kitchen sink output. In product management, we don’t treat discovery as optional - we treat it as a discipline. A strong discovery practice means you’re having real-time, qualitative conversations with users frequently + you’re mapping underlying motivations, frustrations, and goals + you’re identifying the riskiest assumptions behind every idea and testing them early + you’re pairing data with empathy. Numbers explain what happened, but user research explains *why.* It's about treating your roadmap as a set of hypotheses, not a set of guarantees. What I see in most newsrooms are teams trying to make high-stakes product decisions based on incomplete inputs like editorial judgment, gut feelings, and clickstream data...aka lagging indicators. That’s not strategy - it's guessing. Here's what successful newsroom/media orgs prioritize: 1) Institutionalizing weekly user conversations. They are a non-negotiable part of the process, not a one-off project. 2) Training cross-functional teams in modern discovery methods: user interviewing, assumption mapping, opportunity sizing, interview synthesis and prototype testing. 3) Defining and testing the riskiest assumptions before a single line of code is written. 4) Tightly integrating design, engineering, and editorial in discovery - not just delivery. 5) Creating a system of insights aka a searchable, shareable, evolving body of user learnings that drive decisions. This isn’t innovation theater - it's how real, successful product teams work. We've got to stop thinking that we are the users - we are NOT the users. We've got to stop building based off of our assumptions, and start challenging them. A better product strategy starts by building the muscle most organizations skip: real, in-depth discovery.

Recently, I posted a poll asking about your biggest communication challenges (many thanks to all who participated). The top answer? Making content that engages audiences. Without a doubt, capturing the interest of any audience is tough, especially when you’re competing against a deluge of content (AI-generated and otherwise). So, it’s tempting to chase trends ... whatever communication fad seems to magically work right now. But fads fade, because people eventually tire of them. What doesn’t fade? The fundamental things that make us human. Like the desire to learn and grow. To solve problems. To be seen and valued. When we tap into those desires in our communication, we’re more likely to draw audiences in and truly engage them. But how? 🔹 Start by showing genuine curiosity: Before writing or speaking a word, invest time in understanding the audience’s challenges, goals, dreams. Make your curiosity part of the experience itself by opening with a question that invites your audience in (as I did in a recent keynote). 🔹 Speak to the audience on their terms: Swap company-centric language for audience-centric terms. Instead of leading with what you offer, start with what they need. And frame your value around their desired outcomes, not your capabilities. 🔹 Move them to think, but also to feel: We all like to think we make decisions objectively, but most of us feel the answer first in our gut. So, don’t be afraid to use emotionally charged words, images, and delivery. And if you really want to grab people in the feels, tell them a story. What does it mean to engage, anyway? Most of us would define it as the act of attracting and holding someone’s attention or interest. But the Oxford English Dictionary says it also means to “charm," “fascinate," “involve," “entangle,” and finally to "pledge" or “commit” oneself to a task or purpose. To me, the difference between communication that engages and communication that doesn't comes down to that: our commitment. It’s on us to do the work of learning what fascinates our audience, what they deem worthy of their involvement. And pledging to serve their needs above ours. That’s what I think anyway; what do you think? #Communication #ContentStrategy #AudienceEngagement