In 2006, I wrote "The People formerly Known as the Audience." archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/p... Today, Dick Tofel revived that post for use with another: "The People Formerly Known as the Press." dicktofel.substack.com/p/thinking-a... Recommended if you're tracking the future of a free press. - ThreadSky

jayrosen.bsky.social • 95 days ago

In 2006, I wrote "The People formerly Known as the Audience." http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html

Today, Dick Tofel revived that post for use with another: "The People Formerly Known as the Press." https://dicktofel.substack.com/p/thinking-about-the-people-formerly

Recommended if you're tracking the future of a free press.

Comments

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Appreciate you didn’t write this but I’d be interested to hear more about what this means in practice:

“One thing newsrooms need to get much better at is understanding, and acting on (that is, reporting on), those facts people actually find most salient, rather than the ones we think they should.”

bobgriendling.bsky.social•95 days ago

Stop writing about the political game would be a start. Do we think the average person cares?

That said, I, too, am unclear what the future holds. Perhaps having several writers report on an issue, with transparent POV.

Tofel mentions increased analysis pieces, POV w/o transparency

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Yes I agree that ‘horse race’ coverage of politics massively lets readers down. I don’t see much discussion of that among political journalists (tho there is lots outside the political bubble).

jayrosen.bsky.social•95 days ago

It means you are always on close watch for opportunities to inform that arise when the people you serve show an intense interest in something current. It means building an alert system for such moments. It means listening to audiences in a deeper way so you know what they think of your coverage.

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Without wishing to sound disrespectful, this seems either the basics of the job - knowing what stories concern your readers, and seeking to add the necessary context - or inadvisable - ‘people will click on crypto coverage so let’s do a profile of the hawk-tuah girl’.

dicktofel.bsky.social•95 days ago

Part of what I was trying to get is to cover what people actually care about, rather than what we think they should (or think they do without having determined it).
One example from the cycle just past would be the lingering impact of inflation. Hope that helps.

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Ah, thank you for your reply. Yes, it is definitely true that covering headline inflation rather than the lingering impact of higher prices was a blind spot.

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

… I guess healthcare insurance is another example which we’re seeing at the moment has high salience (in the US; in the U.K., where I’m based, it’s the NHS - whose failings are widely covered but probably still not as much as people care about it). I guess my question is - would covering these … >

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Perhaps I’m spoilt by working in a newsroom which is doing some of this already. But what I’d like to address is how we communicate with the people who aren’t already reading us (or our rivals. Or anyone in the fact-based community). That seems to me to be the vital challenge we face as journalists.

bobgriendling.bsky.social•95 days ago

Curious which readers FT would like to reach.

For general news sources, I think it's asking audience what concerns them, a Rosen's "citizens' agenda," and then dig for what sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild would call the deeper story. There's a lot behind the anger over inflation and nativism.

kateallen.ft.com•95 days ago

Obvs am not official spox on our strategy but we’ve been pretty successful in recent years in growing our readership base beyond the business core to the wannabe-well-informed generalist. When I look at the deterioration in some erstwhile quality outlets, I think we can offer better to their readers

jayrosen.bsky.social•95 days ago

I'm sure Dick Tofel would be game to address those questions. https://dicktofel.substack.com/p/thinking-about-the-people-formerly

rodo12.bsky.social•95 days ago

They had a chance to stand up for righteousness and democracy but they chose their filthy pockets instead.

stevebrant.bsky.social•95 days ago

IMHO @dicktofel.bsky.social is ignoring the reality the Press now lives in (where Trump/GOP/Putin seeks to destroy it). His musings come off to me as "mental masturbation". Sorry to be so blunt, but countering the impending loss of Press Freedom as well as Democracy should be everyone's focus!

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