If you want to connect with your readers, you have to give them value. Embrace a more creative approach to news and cover the facts from a different perspective. That's why we want to help you choose the right editorial approach for your next story. If you write stories that go beyond stating the facts and what has happened, your readers will keep coming back for more.

The Triple N project is where we work to enhance our smart notifications, inspired by the user needs model. We wholeheartedly believe in the user needs approach and are convinced that adopting it will help our clients create more impactful stories, with higher engagement and a stronger connection to their readers.

News needs

The project

Participants

The notifications

Expected outcome

Read more about the project

Stay updated!

can smart notifications help editors choose the right user needs approach for their story?

News needs

Modern audiences are becoming more demanding when it comes to news. They're not simply looking for updates, they also want to be educated on certain topics, read inspiring stories, learn more about possible solutions to problems. This can give them the knowledge to participate in conversations, offer interesting facts to share with friends and family and provide a more positive outlook on current events.

The BBC World Service developed the user needs model to answer to their audiences' demands. This model states that audiences have 6 different reasons to consume news:

  • Update me
  • Keep me on trend
  • Give me perspective
  • Educate me
  • Divert me
  • Inspire me

'Update me' fulfils the basic news need: what has happened? Most of the news stories created today fall into this category. But research has shown that the others have a much higher engagement rate. They are worth the extra work.

user needs explained

we believe in impactful content and stories

The project

The goal of this project is to

  • highlight the value of user needs for the growth of media outlet's readership
  • prove how user needs boost the newsrooms' content commissioning efforts
  • facilitate journalists' efforts to engage with their audience more effectively

We want to provide our clients with notifications that go beyond simple news updates; a toolkit that helps them choose the right user need approach for every story.

Stages of the project

  1. Zero measure: we took a close look at the current content of our participating newsrooms and how well it performed. Maybe they are already using the news needs approach?
  2. Creation of the notifications: our data science wizards create an algorithm that recognises the user needs and offers the right notifications.
  3. Creating stories answering the user needs: the participating newsrooms start working with the notifications and create content according to the user needs approach.
  4. Evaluation: have the notifications and user needs approach helped the participating newsrooms to generate more engagement with their stories?

who's involved?

Project participants

smartocto
Omroep Brabant
Dmitry Shishkin
De Morgen
Breda University
IDN Times
smartocto
Omroep Brabant
Dmitry Shishkin
De Morgen
Breda University
IDN Times
smartocto
Omroep Brabant
Dmitry Shishkin
De Morgen
Breda University
IDN Times
 

Rutger Verhoeven, CMO @ smartocto

"There’s no doubt that adopting a user-needs-first approach can help newsrooms boost engagement. we also know that smart notifications can have a transformative effect on the culture and workflow of editorial teams. The combination of the two should create a powerful solution to enable newsrooms to connect with their audiences better - and for longer."

Ton Mallo, Manager news @ Omroep Brabant

"The user needs model can help us to change the way we think, be more creative. The 'hard' news takes up 80% of our time, but generates just 20% of our reach. By thinking and commissioning differently we could reach a much bigger audience with that same news, which will strengthen our public duty: to make news available to as many people as possible."

Dmitry Shishkin, digital innovation expert and user needs evangelist (formerly @ BBC)

"I'm hoping that we can give smartocto clients an interesting toolkit, combining data science, product and editorial, to make their output stronger to the benefit of the audience. This is an incredibly exciting project for me to be part of. I want to find out how data science, machine learning algorithms, and historical data can help journalists look towards the future."

Roy Wassink, Insights manager @ DPG Media, De Morgen

"The interesting thing about Triple N is that it makes the readers' desires measurable, bringing content and data together. I hope that smartocto will be able to recognise the audience's needs from the data, and train the algorithm to serve up targeted tips that will help editorial rooms create better stories and follow-ups."

Marnix van Gisbergen, Professor Digital Media Concepts @ Breda University of Applied Sciences

"This project combines many different things: working with students in a multidisciplinary context, based on the BBC's research, to develop innovative technologies that help make news more engaging for readers around the world, particularly young people. We've experienced this already: after just one inspiring lecture the students were able to transform basic news articles in a diversity of inspiring news stories, based on news needs."

Yogie Fadila, Quality Control Editor @ IDN Times

"The Triple N project has been really promising for IDN Times. Already the user need approach has brought much to the newsroom; the insights from the first deep dive showed us how much more we can offer our audience. And the user needs notifications will definitely be helpful in directing us towards making our online efforts more relevant."

Rutger Verhoeven, CMO @ smartocto

"There’s no doubt that adopting a user-needs-first approach can help newsrooms boost engagement. we also know that smart notifications can have a transformative effect on the culture and workflow of editorial teams. The combination of the two should create a powerful solution to enable newsrooms to connect with their audiences better - and for longer."

Ton Mallo, Manager news @ Omroep Brabant

"The user needs model can help us to change the way we think, be more creative. The 'hard' news takes up 80% of our time, but generates just 20% of our reach. By thinking and commissioning differently we could reach a much bigger audience with that same news, which will strengthen our public duty: to make news available to as many people as possible."

Dmitry Shishkin, digital innovation expert and user needs evangelist (formerly @ BBC)

"I'm hoping that we can give smartocto clients an interesting toolkit, combining data science, product and editorial, to make their output stronger to the benefit of the audience. This is an incredibly exciting project for me to be part of. I want to find out how data science, machine learning algorithms, and historical data can help journalists look towards the future."

Roy Wassink, Insights manager @ DPG Media, De Morgen

"The interesting thing about Triple N is that it makes the readers' desires measurable, bringing content and data together. I hope that smartocto will be able to recognise the audience's needs from the data, and train the algorithm to serve up targeted tips that will help editorial rooms create better stories and follow-ups."

Marnix van Gisbergen, Professor Digital Media Concepts @ Breda University of Applied Sciences

"This project combines many different things: working with students in a multidisciplinary context, based on the BBC's research, to develop innovative technologies that help make news more engaging for readers around the world, particularly young people. We've experienced this already: after just one inspiring lecture the students were able to transform basic news articles in a diversity of inspiring news stories, based on news needs."

Yogie Fadila, Quality Control Editor @ IDN Times

"The Triple N project has been really promising for IDN Times. Already the user need approach has brought much to the newsroom; the insights from the first deep dive showed us how much more we can offer our audience. And the user needs notifications will definitely be helpful in directing us towards making our online efforts more relevant."

Rutger Verhoeven, CMO @ smartocto

"There’s no doubt that adopting a user-needs-first approach can help newsrooms boost engagement. we also know that smart notifications can have a transformative effect on the culture and workflow of editorial teams. The combination of the two should create a powerful solution to enable newsrooms to connect with their audiences better - and for longer."

Ton Mallo, Manager news @ Omroep Brabant

"The user needs model can help us to change the way we think, be more creative. The 'hard' news takes up 80% of our time, but generates just 20% of our reach. By thinking and commissioning differently we could reach a much bigger audience with that same news, which will strengthen our public duty: to make news available to as many people as possible."

Dmitry Shishkin, digital innovation expert and user needs evangelist (formerly @ BBC)

"I'm hoping that we can give smartocto clients an interesting toolkit, combining data science, product and editorial, to make their output stronger to the benefit of the audience. This is an incredibly exciting project for me to be part of. I want to find out how data science, machine learning algorithms, and historical data can help journalists look towards the future."

Roy Wassink, Insights manager @ DPG Media, De Morgen

"The interesting thing about Triple N is that it makes the readers' desires measurable, bringing content and data together. I hope that smartocto will be able to recognise the audience's needs from the data, and train the algorithm to serve up targeted tips that will help editorial rooms create better stories and follow-ups."

Marnix van Gisbergen, Professor Digital Media Concepts @ Breda University of Applied Sciences

"This project combines many different things: working with students in a multidisciplinary context, based on the BBC's research, to develop innovative technologies that help make news more engaging for readers around the world, particularly young people. We've experienced this already: after just one inspiring lecture the students were able to transform basic news articles in a diversity of inspiring news stories, based on news needs."

Yogie Fadila, Quality Control Editor @ IDN Times

"The Triple N project has been really promising for IDN Times. Already the user need approach has brought much to the newsroom; the insights from the first deep dive showed us how much more we can offer our audience. And the user needs notifications will definitely be helpful in directing us towards making our online efforts more relevant."

The news need notifications

This is what's going to make all the difference in the newsroom: smart notifications that tell you when to apply the user needs approach. Here are some examples of what you can expect:

  • After a big spike in traffic this story is still attracting readers. Try creating a follow-up from an alternative user need perspective.
  • This story meets your readers' expectations! Try engaging them even more with a ‘Give me perspective’ follow-up.
  • This story was very popular, can your team create a follow-up from the ‘Educate me’ angle?
  • Twitter is going crazy over this story! How about an explanatory follow-up or an expert’s opinion?

Alternatively, the algorithm can identify the Facebook reactions on a story and provides you with tips for suitable follow-ups.

Love
People are truly connected to this story. Give them more context.

Wow
People are impressed by this. Is it possible to write a more emotional or personal story about this?

Haha
Your audience finds this amusing! Create a ‘Divert me’ follow-up.

Sad
This story resonates with and touches your audience. Try writing a follow-up that gives more context or provides an explanation.

Angry
People are expressing their anger at this topic! Make a follow-up that shows more sides to the story.

Expected outcome

We plan to integrate the news needs approach in our tool, the notifications and our consultancy. That's how convinced we are that adopting this approach will benefit editorial rooms everywhere. Editors tend to overproduce the content that is performing the least. If you make the switch to other formats and needs, you can expect a major change. So we say, let's put all that effort towards creating content that performs demonstrably better.

  • These user needs exist and are valid for newsrooms today
  • We are able to recognise from the data if the audience wants a user need in relation to topics
  • If we send out notifications in real time and they are followed up, the connection to the audience is much stronger
Actionability is the key to prevent data overload in the newsroom

Read more about the project

Introducing the user needs approach to your newsroom

Writing for the user needs requires the newsroom to change their commissioning and writing approach. In this blog, we explain how you can make this a success.

How we did it: building news needs notifications

The ultimate goal of Triple N is to help newsrooms create news user needs content through actionable notifications. This is how we built them.

Triple N update: 4 months in

The first months of working with the news user needs in the newsroom have been successful and eye-opening. A different approach really does drive more engagement!

the user needs, explained by Dmitry Shishkin

What are the user needs for news, why are they so important and how do you apply them in the newsroom? We let Dmitry Shishkin explain, with tips and examples!

Triple N project announcement

We're fusing our notifications with the user needs model to help you choose the right approach for news stories and connect to your audience in better ways.

5 questions about user needs, with Dmitry Shishkin

What is the user needs model, why was it created and how can it help newsrooms? We asked Dmitry Shishkin, their biggest advocate, to explain.

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