Win back readers newsrooms have lost

News publishers have long been experiencing an industry-wide decrease in on-site traffic and audience engagement. 

Some of the factors over the years include:

• Declining social media referral traffic from Facebook due to the de-prioritization of news
• The “pivot to video” rush in the mid-2010s precipitating a steep drop in on-site traffic
• Outsourcing audience engagement to social media resulting in a decline in average time spent on-site
• Zero-click search where results feature snippets taken from content, and out of context, which removes the incentive to click through the link
• Audiences’ preference for video, especially shorts, over longer-form (particularly, written) content
• “News fatigue” giving rise to news avoidance particularly with younger audiences

In fact, the 2024 Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism encapsulates many of these points in one of its key findings:

This erosion of direct traffic has ramifications not only for the impact newsrooms hope to have with their journalism but also for how they can financially sustain themselves. As tough as the industry has had it for years now, the pressures will likely worsen with developments like the proliferation of AI-enabled search.

Searching for a way out

The situation feels daunting at first glance. OK, at a second glance, too. However, we can get a better handle on it when we realize that a number of these factors are ones that news outlets, if not in control, can counteract to some extent.

While changes in technical operations (such as embedding videos and comment sections as opposed to running them on social media platforms) could alleviate some of the problems associated with dwindling times spent on site, newsrooms must reckon with the fast-changing landscape of not just the news industry but the internet as a whole. 

The rules of engagement are ever-shifting under our feet, the social media scene in considerable flux, and the widespread deployment of generative AI, force newsrooms to re-conceive their fundamentals if they are to survive, let alone reclaim relevance. By embracing “value proposition” as a fundamental principle, news publishers can orient themselves toward an experimentation mindset which could position them to discover interesting and unexpected new approaches to audience retention. 

In other words, if news outlets want their sites to garner more readers and traffic, they might need to offer their audiences value beyond sheer content. They need to offer something, beyond traditional approaches to news, that would make visiting their site worthwhile.

DigInThere

With our RJI Fellowship project DigInThere, we’re looking to address these problems through a new approach.

Our value proposition is that a newsroom can let its readers take short, engaging quizzes with gamified elements to demonstrate their level of understanding of the content they consume. 

In exchange for their time and attention, readers are eligible to earn the perks that can bolster brand loyalty and engagement. For instance, quiz-takers who’ve shown consistent comprehension (with standards set by news publishers) could gain access to a closed community of equally engaged audience members. This funnel is intended to transform readers into active doers in their communities, grounded in the news they trust.

DigInThere enables newsrooms to embed the quizzes directly on their website so that they retain the increased traffic, and therefore, can fully benefit from the deepened engagement. (Aside from that, they will also have a space where all of their created quizzes are showcased and made publicly available.)

Seeking beta testers for DigInThere

We still have capacity for newsrooms interested in trying the beta version of DigInThere. We’ll host virtual demo sessions in mid-January. Fill out the interest form below to get notified of demo dates or just want updates on DigInThere. You can also schedule an office hours appointment to learn more, or email info@diginthere.com with any questions.

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Cite this article

Csernatony, Zoli; and Amihere, Dana (2024, Dec. 18). Audience retention in a time of upheaval. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/audience-retention-in-a-time-of-upheaval/