"Keep users as your north star” — 4 takeaways from WAN-IFRA World Congress in Spain

More than 1,200 news leaders gathered in Zaragoza, Spain, last week for WAN-IFRA’s World News Media Congress. More than 100 countries were represented. Business transformation, reader revenue, culture, diversity/equity/inclusion strategies and press freedom dominated the agenda that featured over 100 speakers from around the globe.

I was honored to lead a session on best reader revenue retention and growth strategies in the U.S., featuring Toby Collodora, senior manager of retention and engagement, Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and Alan Fisco, president, The Seattle Times. Toby will recap that session in a blog post scheduled for next week.

My takeaways were many, but I boiled it down to four:

Keep users as your north star

Julia Beizer, chief product officer and global head of digital, Bloomberg Media, provided the most compelling and refreshing presentation of the entire conference. According to Beizer, the product manager role is critical to the success of reader revenue. Product is driving the growth at Bloomberg. I thought about smaller news organizations and their ability to dedicate resources to product. It’s something we need to figure out.

Beizer also addressed what lessons Bloomberg learned the hard way:

• “Test and learn” is a mindset, not a religion. Cultivate informed instincts.
• Growth hacks work … unless they don’t. Build for the long term.
• User experience is a choice to make daily. Keep users as your north star.

I especially love the intense focus on user experience.

Stop clinging to the way we have always done things

I could listen all day to Kat Downs Mulder, chief product officer and managing editor of digital, The Washington Post.

Reader research guides everything Mulder and colleagues do. What do they hear the most? “The stories are too long. I have no time to read. Provide summaries.”

This led to the creation of The 7 – a newsletter focused on seven things to know to start your day. Only 3-4 represent hard news; the rest are designed to delight or entertain. Mulder was clear that change is needed to adapt to today’s audiences and acknowledged that too many are clinging to the way it has always been done.

What works at The Washington Post:

• Strong cross-functional teams
• Clear and consistent communication
• Alignment around priorities
• Sharing mission and goals
• Moving fast and continually experimenting

What doesn’t work:

• Clinging to the way we have always done things
• Not understanding the audience
• Too much consensus thinking
• Keeping people in silos
• Doing everything at once

Mulder was asked to provide advice for smaller media companies who don’t have the resources of The Washington Post. She said to start with the data you have and really listen to your audience. Then make informed decisions with a focus on product.

We are in an “attention recession”

Across the world, news websites are reporting declines in engagement. According to Reach plc, from the United Kingdom:

• Online sessions all over the world are down 14% and 26% from the preceding two years
• Heavy users have declined by half since the pandemic peak
• 38% of news consumers are actively avoiding news

They have coined the term attention recession. This really resonated with the audience and spilled over into one-on-one conversations and Twitter.

With so many actively avoiding the news, it presents a new challenge for our industry and our democracy.

“If Russia had a free press, the invasion of Ukraine probably would not have happened”

Press freedom is core to WAN-IFRA’s mission, and no one fights harder around the world for it than that organization. The Golden Pen of Freedom is presented each year to a journalist or organization on the front lines. Three years ago in Scotland, there was not a dry eye in the room when it was presented posthumously to Jamal Khashoggi. This year, Gazeta Wyborcza, a news outlet in Poland, received the award for its investigative journalism, despite being constantly attacked and undermined by the Polish government.

In a session immediately following the presentation, a group of journalists addressed polarization and press freedom. The panelists represented Mexico, Poland, India, Zambia and Brazil. The group acknowledged that the lack of a free press in Russia contributed to the invasion of Ukraine.

I headed back to the United States reflecting on the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

We don’t talk enough about press freedom in this country. The media industry is under attack in ways I have never seen in my 35 years in the business. We need to be fighting harder. I would like to see all the industry organizations, along with the funding community, work together to tackle this enormous problem. Our democracy is at stake.

It was great to be back at an international conference after a long hiatus due to COVID. Thanks to WAN-IFRA for putting on an inspiring event.