For a long time, the metrics that defined newsroom success were clear. They revolved around reach, exposure and volume.
Pageviews, sessions and impressions were the KPIs that made it into daily reports and weekly dashboards. These KPIs shaped editorial strategies and justified business decisions. They worked, largely because they aligned with the realities of the time. When advertising was tied directly to traffic, the equation felt logical. More visitors meant more revenue.
But logic has shifted.
Today, readers live across devices, platforms and private spaces. They encounter news in fleeting moments and rarely engage directly with a publisher’s homepage. At the same time, revenue models have moved away from advertising towards subscriptions, memberships and deeper reader relationships.
In this new context, the old KPIs tell only part of the story. Worse, they risk obscuring the most important question newsrooms must now ask:
