Julia B. Chan is the Director of Audience at Mother Jones. Her work has appeared in Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Salon, and Nieman Lab.

1. Creating investigative stories
with impact,
an audience perspective
Julia B. Chan, Director of Audience
@juliachanb

2. Media has mostly grown its reach through:
(Broadcasting)

3. Now, we want to hear from our readers

4. Why?

5. Adds new element to our journalism
● BROADCAST → REACH
● ENGAGEMENT → DEPTH

6. Adds new element to our journalism
If priority now is to now deepen the relationship with readers..
Engagement is:
● communication that opens the door for a conversation.
● important to our newsroom because it allows us to better
understand our audience, connect to the communities most
affected by an issue, and expand the scope of our impact.

7. Shout out to @coralproject

8. Adds new element to our journalism
Engagement helps us to:
● be more transparent.
● democratize journalism.
● be accountable to the people we’re talking to.
● bring underrepresented voices into the conversation.

9. Adds new element to our journalism
Engagement helps us to:
● be more transparent.
● democratize journalism.
● be accountable to the people we’re talking to.
● bring underrepresented voices into the conversation.

10. What do they want to know?

11. Experiment
Audience Call-out: Questions

12. Using what
we already had

13. First
experiment

14. First
experiment

15. Questions from
the audience
● What is the actual death toll?
● How many cell towers are down or
destroyed?
● With most of the power out, how are
people coping from day to day?
(cooking, cleaning, communications)
● What is the greatest single need and
how can people donate most directly
to help Puerto Rico?
● Total = 120 responses across platforms

16. Takeaways ● Readers who take the time to write us are
largely thoughtful and intelligent.
● Audience questions were not unlike the
questions we had in the newsroom.
● We didn’t get a single troll or spam-type
response.
● The overall quality of responses was high.

17. Results:
- An FAQ post
- Integrated into
reporting/follow ups
- Tweetstorm
- Evergreen post

18. Results:
An FAQ-type
post

19. Results:
Integrated
into AJ’s
followups

20. Results:
Tweets
extracting
the answers

21. Results:
Evergreen post

22. Shout out to @coralproject
✓
✓

23. Adds new element to our journalism
Engagement helps us to:
● be more transparent.
● democratize journalism.
● be accountable to the people we’re talking to.
● bring underrepresented voices into the conversation.

24. What are their experiences?

25. Experiment
Audience Call-out: Stories

26. Travel Ban
Call-out

27. We’ve evolved—
we want more info now..

28. Results:
An initial
roundup

29. Results:
Pieces that
focus on one
standout story

30. Results:
Audience-generated
angle/story

31. Shout out to @coralproject
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

32. Adds new element to our journalism
Engagement helps us to:
● be more transparent.
● democratize journalism.
● be accountable to the people we’re talking to.
● bring underrepresented voices into the conversation.

33. Spotlight: Targeted Outreach
● Working w/ Communications Team
○ Identify communities most affected by an issue
○ Reach out to stakeholders
○ Build story ideas with them // Help tell their stories
○ Bring them into the Mother Jones community
■ Also an attempt at audience growth and diversity
● In-person events
to underrepresented communities

34. Experiment
Call-out on Instagram

35. DACA Instagram Story

36. DACA IG Story:
Sharing & Responses

37. Thank you!
Keep in touch:
jchan@motherjones.com
@juliachanb