At the Online News Association’s 2017 conference, in the exhibitor booths on the Midway, in panels on products and business revenue, and in sessions from conference sponsors like Knight Foundation and Chartbeat, the topic of metrics and impact was not the separate track that it’s been in years past, but rather an essential part of nearly every conversation.
Before the conference started, Parse.ly’s Clare Carr said this is the state of the industry now. “I expect to hear more about newsrooms that have adopted basic metrics and analytics and are now saying ‘what’s next?’ in terms of, what do we do?” she said. Indeed, some of the most popular sessions covered subscriber segments, push notification analytics, knowing your audience in order to cultivate membership, and rich metrics for engagement. Metrics that measure the success of news products got an especially large amount of attention in a year of innovation in mobile, email newsletters and digital subscriptions.
Whether you couldn’t attend the conference or just couldn’t get into the standing-room-only rooms, here are MetricShift’s highlights of ONA 2017.
Newsletter Metrics
Fascinating new way to look at #newsletter metrics @jacqueboltik on new study from @ShorensteinCtr due out next week @ONAConf #ONA17 pic.twitter.com/AytXUTd3dA
— Susy Schultz (@Susys) October 5, 2017
@mhess4 talks newsletter analytics. Open rate industry standard is 22%. #ona17NL #ona17 pic.twitter.com/DZD4elfMTI
— Benét Wilson (@benetwilson) October 5, 2017
Newsletter vanity metrics are unfortunately wide-spread — but think need a convo about how biz/funding-side leans on those metrics.#ONA17
— Bill Gray (@BGPublic) October 5, 2017
Podcasting Metrics
Success metrics from @tamarcharney: Sheer audience numbers. Sponsorship. Engagement & impact of podcast. #ONA17 #ONA17podcast
— Greg Cohen (@Greg_Cohen) October 5, 2017
Key metrics for podcast: how often are pl sticking w/ the episode(s); downloads, “eh” according to @TamarCharney. #ONA17 @UMKnightWallace
— Azi (@Azi) October 5, 2017
Facebook Live Metrics
That is one beautiful spreadsheet. Analytics are always important. Always. #ONA17 #ona17fblive #spreadsheetporn pic.twitter.com/acwJuMHzWE
— Kelly Jones (@kelly_metz) October 7, 2017
On qualitative FB Live metrics: What kinds of questions are we getting? How many? Quality of questions? #ONA17
— Rachael Hawk (@thisisrachael) October 7, 2017
Push Notification Metrics
The metrics for alerts are "dreadful" and don't tell publishers whether the audience values the alerts #ONA17 #ONA17push pic.twitter.com/sjXEA550OJ
— Nicole Hernandez (@NRHSJax) October 7, 2017
YES – you can measure one type of success in push (tap-through), but you can't measure failure, which is just as important #ONA17push https://t.co/QvQXd5cY3O
— Greg Emerson (@emersongreg) October 7, 2017
Metrics can’t tell publishers what they want to know – whether audiences value their alerts @beteprown says #ona17 #ona17push pic.twitter.com/h5PCXhmxj7
— Torrey AndersonSch.. (@torreyla) October 7, 2017
Video Metrics
Loyalty and attention. Newsrooms need to start paying more attention to these metrics and build growth strategies around them #ONA17 https://t.co/2WCtjXlvvl
— T M (@reshmanuel) October 7, 2017
Metrics in Product Management
Experimentation can show proof of concept. Show the metrics around how things could work. – @mitrakalita #ONA17
— Lauren Boyer (@laurenboyer) October 6, 2017
#ONA17 #GSD #realtalk: If there is no audience or money for your idea, STOP. Prove with metrics what you should be doing
— Jodi Leese Glusco (@jmgl) October 6, 2017
A: Explain how the initiative would build on past successes. Show metrics if possible. Talk benefits (incl. revenue $ if possible) #ONA17
— Celeste Côté (@CelesteCote) October 6, 2017
.@@Hqu: Product managers must deliver the success metrics that they promise their team. #ona17product #ona17
— Tracie Powell (@TMPowell) October 5, 2017
New Frontiers in Metrics
Biggest technical challenge in newsroom analytics: getting complicated metrics into actionable insights, according to @EchoboxHQ #ONA17
— Ade Astuti Kidwell (@adeastuti) October 6, 2017
.@nasrhadi "Journalists hate dashboards and we keep giving them more [analytics] dashboards." #ONA17
— ICFJ Knight (@ICFJKnight) October 6, 2017
Does your newsroom have a "big board" of analytics up on a screen? #ONA17MW #ONA17
— Lauren Katz (@Laur_Katz) October 6, 2017
Standard metrics can be hard to dig into, particularly those for audience, since many analysts don't have the technical knowledge #ona17
— Rebecca Viser (@rlviser) October 6, 2017
Good solution to automating analytics-based promotion from @nasrhadi: Machine recommended, but human approved. #ona17
— Jonathan Groves (@grovesprof) October 6, 2017
He says new metrics are needed to help evaluate relationships overtime rather than basic engagement. Bots/AI could help maintain them #ONA17
— Mick Côté (@MickCote) October 6, 2017
Audience Engagement Metrics
https://twitter.com/LexiBelc/status/916016741678972929
@emersongreg is crushing this audience engagement session. Smart insights about which metrics to measure — and how to improve. #ONA17 pic.twitter.com/GtQbNohzdW
— Susan Shain (@susan_shain) October 7, 2017
Big thank you to all who came to talk [more] about AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT at #ONA17uncon >> SLIDE DECK HERE >> https://t.co/kYaqD4SUzL
— Greg Emerson (@emersongreg) October 7, 2017
And a final word…
On analytics presos at #ONA17: remember that audience data is descriptive, NOT prescriptive. Take any "you should" with a truckload of salt.
— Kelsey Arendt (@KelseyLArendt) October 5, 2017
Jason Alcorn (@jasonalcorn) is the Metrics Editor for MediaShift. In addition to his work with MediaShift, he works as a consultant with non-profits and newsrooms.
