'The more niche the publication, the more niche the user needs'

The user needs model was first used by BBC World Service as a framework to better understand, and serve, audiences the content they truly want. The idea is that readers consume news for reasons beyond simply staying informed.

In 2018, then-digital development editor of BBC World Service, Dmitry Shishkin defined six user needs. Later, in collaboration with the analytics platform smartocto, he updated the model to eight user needs. This illustrates how different types of content can meet different needs.

• Keep me engaged
• Update me
• Educate me
• Give me perspective
• Divert me
• Inspire me
• Connect me
• Help me

"In an age where we're all inundated with content from all sorts of places, you really need to differentiate yourself and understand your niche," says Shishkin on the Journalism.co.uk podcast.

"I'd be very surprised if somebody comes up with a user need that we have missed."

Broadly, playing into user needs can help drive audience growth and engagement. But it can also help to develop your brand's unique selling point. Brand-specific user needs emerge by blending or looking at them at a granular level.

For instance, The Wall Street Journal has the "give me an edge" user need, somewhere between 'give me perspective' and 'update me'. Vogue's "make me feel responsible" is a mixture of 'connect me' and 'help me'. This keeps readers coming back for specific content they will not find anywhere else.

Product meets user needs

But the more niche a publication becomes, the more niche the user needs. The power move is to match these specific user needs with products.

The academic news website The Conversation, for instance, focuses heavily on its brand-specific 'motivate me' content. It introduced a text messaging service on Sunday evenings to help younger readers engage with 'motivate me' content when they were most likely to feel demotivated.

The Atlantic also overhauled its search experience on the website to better meet its "introduce me to authors at the top of their game" user need.

Shishkin thinks that user needs are not restricted to general news either and could be applicable to most other content creation fields like travel, fashion or sports.

Serving music fans

A user needs strategy is also critical when revamping an editorial strategy or product development. This is precisely the situation that music publication Rocksound found itself in at the start of the year.

The title looked set for closure in January 2023 but was saved by a takeover from Whynow Media, a multimedia company set up by Gabriel Jagger, the son of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.

Creative director James Wilson-Taylor revealed on the Journalism.co.uk podcast that the closure came as a shock to all staff.

However, the new ownership provided an opportunity to take stock of the editorial strategy, business model and product development.

Wilson-Taylor says that its audience is "super-engaged" and has traditionally flocked towards in-depth features, long reads and short-form videos. Surprisingly, audio has not yet proved a hit.

But the subject of the story is what matters most. Music fans, loosely termed, have "help me be a fan" or "help me support my favourite artists" user needs.

Waterparks is a popular band that released a new album this year and it provides a good example. Rocksound did a digital cover story for the band: deep dives into lyrics, the evolution of its sound and "The Album story" video series, which has caught on with more artists since.

Rocksound also has a successful merchandise store, which is going to become more important under the new ownership. The title often collaborates with artists to sell items around significant launches. In the case of Waterparks, its merchandise sold out, including CDs, vinyls and signed art cards.

"That helped them achieve a top 10 record in the UK, I have no doubt," says Wilson-Taylor.

"To be able to combine that with a product, it’s just beneficial to everybody. Obviously, it benefits us, but it benefits the artists as well."

Music festivals are also a major editorial focus. 'Keep me engaged' user need matters a lot here, in terms of making online audiences feel like they are not missing out. But there is also a deep 'connect me' user need, closer to'help me be part of the community'

My Chemical Romance is another important band for the Rocksound audience. The band famously split up abruptly in 2013 and announced a comeback in 2019. Their comeback show in Cornwall - delayed due to the pandemic - received heavy coverage from Rocksound, including professional photography and on-the-ground reporting with fans sharing fond memories of their first shows.

"I was meeting people there who were a similar age to myself, who were there with friends they had met at the age of 15 at My Chemical Romance shows. That’s amazing to me," says Wilson-Taylor.

"There were people bringing their kids now, their kids had got into it and they’re all there together. Just really, really lovely stories."

Summer is festival season and Rocksound has been similarly active around Slamdunk Festival this month, and the landmark Download Festival last week.

One part of coverage under review is the classic music title function of highlighting talent and helping fans discover new music. This has traditionally been done in the magazine's "breakout" section, but Wilson-Taylor is thinking about expanding this online and in a way that is distinct from streaming service recommendations.

Serving a military audience

The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) also has a very specialist audience and editorial remit. On one side, it is a charity that supports military personnel and works with the Ministry of Defence on welfare, safety and entertainment. On the other side, it runs Forces News, an Ofcom-regulated news organisation that covers the work and lives of the military.

In an episode of the Journalism.co.uk podcast, director of editorial content Lisa Mitchell spoke about serving a niche, military audience. Its work broadly centres around community impact and keeping spirits high.

"Our raison d'etre is largely around welfare. It's to support families back home in the UK, service personnel abroad, it's about keeping morale up and keeping people informed," says Mitchell.

Boosting morale - a variation of 'entertain me' - is an important user need. The organisation needs to think about reaching personnel in remote places, like on ships or in war zones. But also meeting the wants and needs of the wider community.

There are specific channels for Gurkhas (soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent) and a large focus on eSport coverage which is hugely popular in the army.

Interestingly, BFBS provides popular free social media training for spouses and partners of those serving in the UK army. There are also production management courses for veterans, speaking to user needs loosely around personal development or finding purpose after service.

How to introduce a user needs strategy

Both examples show that news organisations are subtly aware of user needs, but do not always have a formal strategy to meet those needs. It pays to be more purposeful, though.

Shishkin says that to start a user needs strategy you need to:

• do a qualitative or quantitative research project if you can afford it to assess user needs of the audience, or make a hypothesis around the eight user needs
• review the last three to six months of coverage and come up with five actionable changes to better suit these needs
• adapt workflows to make this possible and track the changes
• regularly communicate the need for change, collect best practices and circulate into teams periodically

Editors or digital editors should be responsible for this in small teams. In larger teams, this falls to heads of audience engagement or audience growth.

Bridge roles can be useful to collaborate across different departments, i.e. editorial, product, marketing, sales. They should motivate all parts of the business to be invested in the strategy.

"You are looking for connections between volume of output against user needs breakdowns and the impact of those user needs," says Shishkin.

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