Thursday afternoon sessions dealt with a wide variety of approaches to a controversial topic - editorial measurement
An Inventory for Editorial Excellence
Michael Smith, Managing Director, Media Management Center, USA
When the Media Management Center at Northwestern University was founded in 1990, "publishers asked us how they could make their journalists more productive," says Mr Smith.
"That wasn’t the right question," he says. "They didn’t want more stories, they wanted better stories."
Thus began a quest to help newspapers monitor and measure what they are doing editorially. Mr Smith outlined the research techniques and the results that have been produced since then, and provided three case studies of how different approaches have been applied:
 At the Chicago Tribune, which set about reducing the number of errors following a study which showed that trust in the newspaper was declining. They succeeded, and established accuracy guidelines for all staff. They also appointed a "readers’ editor." As a result, they are once again the most trusted medium in the city.
At the Tampa Tribune, where editors complete a daily scorecard on their performance against idealised objectives for the paper. The criteria were established after a long tracking study on those factors that were likely to increase readership over time. The process has let the paper to become the fastest growing daily in terms of circulation, in the country.
At Knight-Ridder, the second largest newspaper chain in the United States, which developed criteria to measure readers’ attitudes to the paper. It came up with a 20-question survey that would measure how readers thought the paper was performing in key areas - and it pays substantial bonuses for editors that succeed in increasing the scores.
The product is influence
Phil Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism, University of North Carolina, USA
Confidence in the press is declining. So is the number of people reading a newspaper daily.
"Yikes! We need a new business plan", says Mr Meyer.
He suggests asking a few questions. What business are we in? The newspaper business? The information business? Selling eyeballs to advertisers?
The product, Mr Meyer contends, is influence. Newspapers are in the influence business.
Mr Meyer, one of the world’s leading experts on measuring the impact of editorial quality on newspaper revenue, directs the Quality Project, which seeks to measure quality and trace its impact on revenue.
He argues that newspapers face the challenge of "disruptive technology" - electronic media which could replace them - and their future success is tied to their quality. "If you can develop editorial content the community trusts, its very hard to beat that," he says, and he is providing quantative research to back up his claim.
Mr Meyer defined quality as ease of use, accuracy, localism, interpretation, editorial vigour, and quantity of news.
"This list comes from a recent survey of elements that newspaper editors consider important in defining quality. I am testing them one by one," he said. He presented his results at the conference.
Introducing the New Metrics
Rick Edmonds, Researcher & Writer, The Poynter Institute, USA
To help editors in their battles to obtain sufficient resources, the Poynter Institute is attempting to establish new measurement criteria so they can have "businesslike discussions of resources with corporate management, based more on hard facts and less on protective rhetoric than those of the recent past," says Mr Edmonds.
He emphasises the word, "businesslike" because most editors recognise they are at a disadvantage when using the language of the boardroom with those who inhabit that space.
"Also we want to develop benchmarks for a given paper to compare itself to other papers of similar size and ambition - or to chart progress over time from a starting point, whatever that may be. Finally we hope a version of news metrics could help citizens assess how the newspaper in their community performs its public service role."
Mr Edmonds says the Institute is trying to define "news capacity," or "having what you need in your newsroom that is critical to producing quality."
Measuring Editorial is Desirable
Jim Chisholm, Strategy Advisory, World Association of Newspapers
Mr Chisholm returned to the day’s programme to introduce "Editorial Measurement," the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper strategy report which makes a case for the desirability of using quantitative measurements in the newsroom.
"We need to accept that editorial measurement is practical, acceptable and beneficial," says Mr Chisholm, who acknowledges that the idea is controversial. "We need to demonstrate the benefits of the system to the staff."
Mr Chisholm says every aspect of the editorial workflow - from newsgathering through editing and photos and graphics, to opinion, design and production - "can be measured easily in our business, if we choose too."
Mr Chisholm’s study, part of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project undertaken by WAN and its strategic business partners, found that editorial measurement is being successfully applied to newsrooms around the world. He presented some examples at the conference.
The SFN project was created by WAN to identify, analyse and publicise, as quickly as possible, all important strategic and operational breakthroughs that can benefit the future of newspapers all over the world. More on the project at www.futureofthenewspaper.com. |
