Data can be a newsroom's best friend to inform editorial strategy, but it can also put pressure on journalists to get clicks and conversions. So how much is too much (or too little)?
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Any newsroom with a digital output will have access to a wealth of data and metrics. When used correctly, data can help newsrooms produce content that their audience cares about. When used incorrectly, journalists start to sweat over whether their stories are picking up enough clicks and conversions.
In this week's podcast, we talk about this metrics anxiety; how data can sometimes be a hindrance, not a help, to reporters whose primary job is to deliver good journalism.
This is a subject that has been explored recently by Reuters Institute journalism fellow Elisabeth Gamperl, who is also the managing editor of the data storytelling unit at the German news organisation Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Gamperl sheds light on what the best newsroom leaders are doing right around data. And as we increasingly shift towards user-first journalism, how a steady supply of carefully considered information about data can be useful to reporters.
The bottom line is that journalists should control the metrics; metrics should not control the journalist.
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