Journalism Needs to Be Helpful

I’ve been thinking about ways to improve this newsletter, and starting next edition, you’ll see some new features gradually appearing. One key piece of feedback I’ve received from the readers of the Dutch edition is that they want more practical tips, so I’ll be focusing more on that. I’ll also make adjustments to improve readability—so there’s always something valuable to take away, even if you don’t feel like reading a thousand-word piece.

I thought about the request for practical tips, and you have a point: maybe I lean too much into analysis. A typical journalist trait, perhaps. Because let’s be honest: constructive journalism or service journalism still tends to stay on the margins of the industry. There are Smart Living sections, columns, and newsletters, but they mainly cover topics like health, smartphone use, sustainability, parenting, and recommendations for books and series.

Experiencing It Firsthand

It seems that a topic only gets a practical angle when it’s experienced firsthand—or when a journalist at a major newsroom goes through it. At WAN-IFRA last year, Rasmus Nielsen wondered why we see service journalism about the best hotels in Tuscany but not about how to get your first mortgage. What journalists experience firsthand and what the average person experiences can be very different.

During the pandemic, this was different: we saw service journalism covering economic, scientific, and geopolitical issues. In-depth Q&As that were constantly updated, podcasts answering audience questions. In a reflection on the first lockdown, I wrote four years ago:

“We were all in the same boat. We had the same questions about the unknown virus and challenges with remote work or income loss. This resulted in fantastic Q&As and guides pointing to the best sources on COVID-19, plus practical tips for staying at home. (…) We showed readers that we had the same questions and problems as they did. And I think this happens more often than we acknowledge. But we act as if it doesn’t. That, because we are objective journalists, we don’t experience these struggles—we describe the problem, and that’s it.”

Something else happened during the pandemic: trust, interest, and engagement with journalism all increased. Melissa Bell, co-founder of Vox, said this last year:

“(…) the fact that the COVID trust spike happened and then the trust in journalism went back down. That to me feels like we’re making a product that people know has value, but they’re not consistent at recognizing that value. So it’s our job to figure out how to better market that product to the world (…). How can we further set ourselves apart in this moment or use this as a moment to set ourselves further apart.”

During the pandemic, newsrooms published much more about the everyday problems people faced, and trust, interest, and engagement with news media increased. Coincidence?

Breaking the Us vs. Them Mentality

To build a stronger relationship with our audience, we need to stop thinking in terms of “us” (journalists) and “them” (the audience), as Mattia Peretti wrote recently. Recognizing that we are in the same boat, so to speak. Given the current geopolitical developments, I wonder how long it will be before we find ourselves in another crisis.

How do we break the us-versus-them mentality? I think it starts with a simple question for your audience: how can we help? But this requires one important thing: listening properly, without an agenda. Not immediately rushing to create a flashy newsletter just to get more people into the subscription funnel.

Journalists often congratulate themselves on the essential role they play in democracy: the watchdog, the fourth pillar, the thorn in the side of power. But as I’ve written before, that position is shaky. And not just our position—the entire international order that ensures our freedom took a serious hit last week.

Do newsrooms need another crisis before they extend a helping hand to their audience, or can they do so before the next disaster strikes?

Tips & Resources

• This article on The Listening Collective offers great advice on gathering audience input, including: “How do you get people talking? It’s not always shoving a microphone in their face—it might be kind of leaving them the space to talk.”
• The News For All report I referenced in my previous newsletter also has solid starting points on how to engage your audience in journalism.
• The Trusting News newsletter provides weekly tips on how to be more transparent with your audience. In this edition, they share questions you can ask to bring the news closer to your readers.
• In The Netherlands, De Volkskrant’s Open Redactie is a great example of consistently incorporating audience questions and ideas into the newsroom.