How do you balance editorial and data-driven decisions?

1 Know your goals and metrics

Before you start creating or publishing any content, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. What are your goals and objectives for your digital publishing project? Who are you trying to reach and why? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will tell you if you are successful or not? Having a clear and specific goal and metric framework will help you align your editorial and data-driven decisions with your desired outcomes.

2 Use data to inform, not dictate, your decisions

Data is a powerful tool for digital publishers, but it is not the only one. Data can help you understand your audience's behavior, preferences, needs, and feedback, but it can also be misleading, incomplete, or biased. Data should not replace your editorial judgment, creativity, or intuition, but rather complement and inform it. Use data to test your assumptions, validate your ideas, identify opportunities, and optimize your performance, but don't let data override your editorial vision, values, or voice.

3 Experiment and learn from your results

One of the benefits of digital publishing is that you can easily and quickly experiment with different types of content, formats, styles, and channels. You can try new things, see what works and what doesn't, and learn from your results. Experimentation is a key way to balance editorial and data-driven decisions, as it allows you to test your hypotheses, explore your possibilities, and discover new insights. Experimentation also helps you avoid stagnation, boredom, and complacency, and keep your content fresh, relevant, and engaging.

4 Communicate and collaborate with your team

Balancing editorial and data-driven decisions is not a solo task. It requires communication and collaboration with your team, whether they are writers, editors, designers, developers, marketers, or analysts. You need to share your goals, metrics, data, insights, ideas, and feedback with your team, and listen to their input and suggestions. You need to respect each other's expertise, perspectives, and roles, and work together to create the best possible content for your audience. Communication and collaboration will help you avoid conflicts, misunderstandings, and silos, and foster a culture of learning and improvement.

5 Adapt and evolve with your audience

Digital publishing is a dynamic and evolving field, and so is your audience. Your audience's needs, preferences, expectations, and feedback may change over time, depending on various factors such as trends, events, technology, or competition. You need to be aware of these changes and adapt and evolve with your audience. You need to keep collecting and analyzing data, keep experimenting and learning, keep communicating and collaborating, and keep adjusting and refining your content. Balancing editorial and data-driven decisions is not a one-time or static process, but a continuous and iterative one.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?