{"id":2540,"date":"2017-09-20T14:31:32","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T14:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ona17.journalists.org\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2017-09-21T14:23:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T14:23:52","slug":"editorial-intelligence-where-editorial-instinct-and-technological-insight-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ona17.journalists.org\/2017\/09\/20\/editorial-intelligence-where-editorial-instinct-and-technological-insight-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial intelligence: where editorial instinct and technological insight meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is sponsored by Content Insights<\/a>. If you\u2019d like to see how Editorial Intelligence can transform your newsroom, email sales@contentinsights.com<\/a> to set up a time or just stop by our booth (M6A) at ONA17.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"Nostalgia doesn\u2019t make for a great business strategy, but for too long \u2014 to quote digital media consultant Adam Tinworth<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 \u201cpublishers have been looking for digital models that allow them to continue doing pretty much what they were doing before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is things are changing fast. A report<\/a> out this month revealed that smartphones are now driving all growth on the web, and last year Pew<\/a> reported that more than 60 percent of American adults now use social media to get news. Local news is almost universally struggling but needed more than ever<\/a>, as the devastation wreaked by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma sadly demonstrates.<\/p>\n

But there are stories of success in fusing journalism with technological innovation, such as at Denmark\u2019s Zetland<\/a>. Mic\u2019s recent pivot to video and Medium\u2019s very existence are both proof \u2014 if it were needed \u2014 that news is no longer synonymous with print.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s curious then that the level of innovation dedicated to creating and refining these new publishing methods hasn\u2019t been matched by a similar investment across the industry in tools to monitor the content that journalists are producing.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot more to be learned after the point at which we hit “publish,” much of which helps to sharpen editorial gut instinct. But there\u2019s still often a wariness about bringing data and analytics into the journalistic fold.<\/p>\n

Editorial and tech: it\u2019s not a case of either\/or, but getting the right balance<\/h3>\n

Last month the former editor of the\u00a0New Republic, Franklin Foer<\/a>, argued that tech has been wielding too heavy a hand over the editorial world. Many took him to task for this assertion and Chris Moran<\/a> at the Guardian pointed out that when it comes to editorial and tech in journalism, it isn\u2019t a case of either\/or, but rather about how you balance the two.<\/p>\n

Journalism professor\u00a0Jussi Pullinen<\/a>\u00a0raised another point. Foer, he said, seemed to have a keen understanding of his readership behavior yet ended up \u201crejecting the tools that enable this very thing in a hybrid digital environment.”<\/p>\n

Moving from analytics to editorial intelligence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Content Insights data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Analytics is an evolving field, but if they are to inform editors and journalists then they must be designed to suit editors and journalists \u2014 not marketers (for whom the original single metrics were first intended) nor those with an advanced knowledge of how to deal with large and complex data sets.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, as Content Insights\u2019 VP for Latin America, John Reichertz, has said: \u201cthe best way to get this data culture flowing through our newsrooms is to get everybody involved.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0We need to get to the point where analytics isn\u2019t just a by-word for data presented in graphs and charts. It can and should do more than that. It must provide insight, context and meaning and do so in line with the needs of not only each news organization, but for each journalist in each department of that news organization.<\/p>\n

When insight is relevant and specific to a publisher it becomes invaluable, and this combination of data and analysis, which we like to call “editorial intelligence,” can only sharpen editorial instinct, not undermine it. It\u2019s redressing the very imbalance that Foer decried, and we think it\u2019s the paradigm shift the industry needs.<\/p>\n

Em Kuntze is a freelance writer specializing in digital media and lifestyle features. You can find her on Twitter as @moshiboshi<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is sponsored by Content Insights. If you\u2019d like to see how Editorial Intelligence can transform your newsroom, email sales@contentinsights.com to set up a time or just stop by our booth (M6A) at ONA17. Nostalgia doesn\u2019t make for a great business strategy, but for too long \u2014 to quote digital media consultant Adam Tinworth\u00a0\u2014…  Read More<\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"start_time":0,"end_time":0,"moderators":[],"hashtag":[],"soundcloud":[],"scribble":[],"viafoura":[],"youtube":[],"vimeo":[],"facebook":[],"trint":[],"slideshare":[],"livestream":[],"resources":[],"video_embed":[],"first_name":"","last_name":"","title":"","organization":"","website":"","twitter":"","_sponsor_url":"","_sponsor_tagline":"","_sponsor_level":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nEditorial intelligence: where editorial instinct and technological insight meet - ONA17<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n