Audience data can be overwhelming for journalists, leading to analysis paralysis. What are the numbers to track? (Hint: it’s not just page views.) Learn how to apply an analytics strategy to your work to help you cover stories more effectively. These slides, presented by Danny Gawlowski at Fresno NewsTrain, are accompanied by a handout: Analytics that count: measuring what matters to drive improvement. Gawlowski is assistant managing editor of The Seattle Times. For more information on the News Leaders Association's NewsTrain, see https://www.newsleaders.org/newstrain.

1. Analytics that count
Measuring what matters to drive improvement
Danny Gawlowski

2. Analytics are only as
useful as the changes
they inform
Photo by Dmitriy Demidov on Unsplash

3. Avoid analysis paralysis
Photo by NeONBRAND on unsplash

4. Analytics should
inform action
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5. Our goals today:
● Define what
you want to
achieve
● Identify the
analytics that
will help you
get there
● Set up a system for
continuous improvement

6. Me: Danny Gawlowski
● Assistant Managing Editor,
The Seattle Times
● Oversee our Digital Audience
teams
● Connect our newsroom and
our subscription strategy

7. Our winding road toward
meaningful analytics

8. Page views: before 2016

9. Manual tagging: 2016-17

10. Mixed metrics: 2017-18

11. In pairs, discuss:
● When have you been caught in analysis
paralysis?
● When have you followed metrics that felt
meaningless and not in support of your
goals?

12. Finding the most
meaningful analytics

13. Ask:
1. Goal-oriented: What do you want to
achieve?
2. Focused: What’s the best way to measure
that?
3. Accessible: What’s an approximate way
to measure that you have right now?
4. Actionable: Experiment, measure, adapt.

14. 1. What do you want to achieve?
Goal-oriented
Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

15. 2. What is the best
way to measure that?
Focused
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16. Mini-Publisher Teams
MARCH 2018 - OCTOBER 2018

17. Mini-Publisher Teams
MARCH 2018 - OCTOBER 2018

18. Mini-Publisher Teams
MARCH 2018 - OCTOBER 2018

19. Mini-Publisher Teams
MARCH 2018 - OCTOBER 2018

20. Mini-Publisher Teams
MARCH 2018 - OCTOBER 2018

21. 3. What’s an approximate way
to measure that you have now?
Accessible

22. CHARTBEAT

23. CHARTBEAT

24. HEADLINE TESTING
Click-through
rate (CTR)
increase: 47%
Why many of WA’s top
football seniors aren’t
getting college
scholarships

25. Photo by Alex Kondratiev on Unsplash
4. Experiment, measure, adapt
Actionable

26. In small groups, answer:
1. Goal-oriented: What do you want to
achieve?
2. Focused: What’s the best way to measure
that?
3. Accessible: What’s an approximate way
to measure that you have right now?
4. Actionable: Experiment, measure, adapt.

27. Gather the right people often

28. Review, experiment, review
● What is doing well?
○ What trends do you
see?
○ What can you do
more of?
○ What approaches
should be repeated?

29. Review, experiment, review
● What is doing poorly?
○ What trends do you
see?
○ What can you do less
of?
○ What approaches
should be changed?

30. Share knowledge

31. Share knowledge

32. In small groups, discuss:
1. What review process should I have for
my goals?
2. Who are the right people to gather?
3. How often should we meet?
4. How can we spread the knowledge?

33. Danny Gawlowski
dgawlowski@seattletimes.com
Slides and handout:
bit.ly/fresnonewstrain
Photo by Simone Secci on Unsplash
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