The one certainty in the news media industry is change, and at Gannett, that has meant developing a new culture that fits the changing world. 

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of Gannett Media and president of INMA, walked members through the many ways Gannett has adapted to a new environment, during Thursday’s sessions of the INMA Latin American Conference, which is sponsored by the Google News Initiative.

“Our industry is going through changes,” she said. “Everything is changing and we have to follow these changes.

For Gannett, which owns USA Today and has more than 200 media outlets in 45 states, that means altering the course of a very large ship. And Wadsworth acknowledged that it hasn’t been fast or easy.

“It has been a challenge at Gannett and we have learned a lot,” she said. One of the biggest learnings is what makes readers subscribe, and that has made the company think more critically about content and the type of journalism it is creating.

Data has played a central role in making these changes, and that has meant changing the mindset of journalists. Gannett focused on data as a positive strength in the newsroom because it gave them the tools needed to help the business grow and evolve. And the payoff is evident: Over the past year, the company has gained more than 2 million subscribers, marking a 35% growth over the previous year.

“Our journalists are trained to analyse data and look at how their work resounds with our subscribers,” Wadsworth said. “It’s not wrong to say our newsrooms are obsessed with the metrics of our readers.”

Driven by data

Gannett works “relentlessly” to make sure reporters have the data needed to analyse story performance and see what’s working, Wadsworth. The company focuses on the growth of subscriptions by focusing on the funnel, and that means tracking what readers are looking for and responding to that demand. Content that doesn’t connect with the audience is shelved, and thanks to the data, newspapers are able to offer readers more of what they’re looking for.

One of the most eye-opening discoveries was that, while Gannett generated more than 3,000 stories daily across its network, less than 200 stories were responsible for generating more than half of its readers.

“So we started focusing on what we were producing,” Wadsworth said. “We started reducing low-performance content. We asked ourselves, if nobody is reading that content, what if we channel our resources to journalism that can bring us more impact?”

Once Gannett took that approach, it saw dramatic results. In less than two years, the average number of pageviews increased. Its audience grew, despite the fact that it reduced the amount of content it was producing by about 40%.

“Imagine being able to reduce and grow at the same time,” she said.

Reports for reporters

One way Gannett has been able to motivate its newsrooms is by providing daily reports that show the results of story performance across markets. Digital reports help track which stories helped boost subscriptions and show what’s going on in different markets.

“Any reporter or editor can open the data panel and find data to see how an article converts and performs,” she said. This gives the entire newsroom a better understanding of its audience: “We urge reporters to learn who our readers are.”

Gannett created a playbook newsrooms can use to prioritise what’s important. They can better understand the content and what readers are looking for, and editors often talk amongst themselves to compare data and exchange ideas about what’s working for them, Wadsworth said: “Newsrooms play a critical role in driving our business. We let the data guide us to content that is going to bring us subscribers.”

The conference continues on Friday. Complete coverage can be found here.

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