Understanding a newsroom’s digital goals can go a long way to helping PR professionals understand what types they should be pitching.
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Every newsroom – no matter the type – has its own set of digital goals.
Pageviews. Uniques. TOS. Returns. Loyals. Logged-Ins. Visits. Reach. Engagement.
Each is a little different, but no matter the goal, it is always strategically aligned with …
- How the newsroom wants to build/maintain its audience.
- How the ad department thinks it can best make its revenue.
Understanding a newsroom’s digital goals can go a long way to helping you, the PR professional, understand what types of stories work best for that newsroom, and therefore which stories you should be pitching.
So the next time you’re chatting with a reporter or editor, ask them about what their newsroom goals and metrics are for their website. Their answer could tell you a lot about what kinds of stories you should be pitching.
Here is an explainer of some of the common goals in today’s newsrooms, along with what they are really trying to achieve from a readership standpoint, revenue standpoint, or both.
GOALS
PAGEVIEWS: Also called “clicks,” Pageviews is the most commonly-used digital metric because they are easy for web producers to chase and also for ad sellers to explain to their clients. A Pageview is counted every time a webpage is viewed (duh) OR a webpage is refreshed or reloaded while viewing. That second part is critical, because it means if a reader views five photos in a slideshow, all five are counted as separate Pageviews. Websites that favor high Pageviews as their primary goals generally sell their ads based upon “impressions” – the number of times an ad is loaded on a page. The more times a page is viewed, the more times it is seen, the more ad inventory sold. Stories with a lot of interesting photos that can be turned into slideshows, that are very shareable on social media, or that somehow relate to a national topic and might appear on search engine results all help journalists meet high Pageview goals.
VISIT/VISITORS: A Visit or Visitor is counted every time someone comes to a website. Whether it is multiple people making one Visit, or one person making multiple Visits, it is counted the same. Websites whose primary goal is Visits or Visitors want to be able to tell advertisers a large number of people are coming to the website, rather than a small number who consume a lot of content. Stories with urgency (breaking news), that are related to a hot topic of the moment, are emotional/personal in nature, and that share well on social media help journalists meet high Visitor goals.
UNIQUE Pageview/Visitors/Etc: Adding the term “Unique” before any goal above means that one visitor or view is only counted once within a certain time period (typically either within a day or month). So, for example, if I visit CNN once per day every day for a month, I would be counted as a visitor 30 different times but a Unique Visitor only once for that month. Similarly, if I read the same article three different times, it would count as three pageviews, or one Unique Pageview. Websites who set Uniques of any kind as a goal want to tell advertisers that they have a large variety of readers, and that it’s not just the same few people seeing their ad repeatedly. Stories that appeal to a wide variety of interests, have a regional and/or national appeal, and that share well on social media help journalists meet high Unique goals.
RETURNS/RETURNING Visitors: This is a visitor who has come to the site more than once in a given time period (generally a month). Return Visits mean that a website is creating value for its users and/or doing a good job of connecting with social media users. From an ad standpoint, Return Visitors potentially see an ad multiple times, making a more meaningful impact. Stories that appeal to Return Visitors are those that are local in nature, deal with an ongoing issue or relate to a niche interest.
LOYAL Pageview/Visitors: A “Loyal” pageview or visit comes from someone who has come back multiple times within a set period of time, though what that number is differs from website to website (generally five or seven times per month). A website that sets Loyals as a primary goal wants to show they are building a sustainable audience that repeatedly consumes the product and is likely to continue doing so. This helps websites sell/renew digital subscriptions, and offers advertisers repeated viewings of their ads by the same person, theoretically making a deeper impact. Stories that appeal to Loyal audiences are generally very local in nature, relate to the news of the day, speak to a certain issue or appeal to a specific niche audience (ex. sports).
LOGGED-IN Visits/Pageviews: Very similar to Loyal, this is someone (generally a subscriber) who has created an account on a website and is viewing content while logged in. These users are considered well-informed, heavy consumers of news. News organizations that sell digital subscriptions view this as the gold standard of web metrics, because it means that not only are they selling subscriptions, but people are actually making use of the subscriptions they buy, meaning they are likely to continue renewing the subscription. Stories that appeal to Logged-In visitors are those that have an impact in their community, provide insight on specific issue, or that contain depth or emotional impact.
TIME ON SITE (TOS)/ENGAGED MINUTES: This is the amount of times a user is spending on a website or with a certain piece of content. If a user is on a site for a long time, it means they are engaging with what they see on a high level, and are more likely to return in the future. Stories that appeal to Time On Site goals are those that contain a video, tell a long story or deal with an ongoing storyline that will entice the audience to consume other pieces of content on the website.
“REACH: “Reach” means something a little bit different to every website. If a reporter, producer or editor talks about “reach,” they are talking about some specific combo of the metric above, generally with a high emphasis on Uniques and social media shares. Basically, did this story make a splash? Stories with a high reach potential are those with high shareability on social media; have a high local appeal (often breaking news of some nature); or have a national interest that might cause them to appear high in Google News results, or get picked up by news aggregation sites like the Drudge Report.
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