Implement user needs in your newsroom: email course for publishers

Hello! 🎉 Welcome to the user needs email course, by Khalil A. Cassimally.

By the end of the course, you’ll know how to get internal buy-in to implement user needs, how to align user needs with your organisation’s vision, how to operationalise user needs, how to make sure user needs is for the long haul, and more.

You’ll also get frameworks and templates to help with certain phases of the implementation. And, as a bonus for those of you who make it till the end, a deck that summarises the course for your future reference.

1. What is user needs?

Media organisations need to become more audiences-informed. And many are.

The future of our industry lies in the value we provide to people. Creating that value is grounded in journalism that addresses the needs of people.
This has become widely accepted within our industry over the past few years.
Now, we’re at the phase of: “okay, how do we become more audiences-informed”.

The user needs model is one way for media organisations to become more audiences-informed.

User needs is a model that provides us with a set of needs that most people have when they’re consuming news content.
It is not about telling the newsroom what it should or should not cover. It merely acts as a guide to do a story from an angle the audience values.
The model captures people’s needs to: know what’s happening; understand what’s happening; be entertained or inspired; do something.

> Read more.

User needs has been implemented by many media organisations. And they’ve reaped the rewards.

BBC News Russia tripled its audience in five years by focusing on producing content that addresses the underserved needs of people.
The Conversation saw large increases in reader engagement and pageviews when it created a vertical that serves the needs of young professionals.

User needs works. And the good news is that anyone can implement it in a newsroom.

2. An email course to guide you in implementing user needs

I’ve developed a free email course that goes into the practicalities of implementing user needs.

The course is intended for people in the newsroom who want to give user needs a go for the first time. And also for those who are currently implementing user needs in their newsrooms.
Each email will go deep into the nitty gritty of implementing user needs, with actionable insights, frameworks, templates, and more.
Oh, I’ve written the emails in the smart brevity format (to-the-point sentences, bullet points FTW!).

Subscribers get six emails over the course of six weeks. They cover:

Understanding user needs and how to get internal buy-in.
How to prepare for implementation
How to do a user needs audit
How to build a small, cross-functional team that will serve user needs
How to focus on creating valuable content
When, and how, to scale a user needs operation

3. Who am I? What’s my experience with user needs?

I am an advocate for more audiences-informed approaches in the media industry, and an audience development expert. I want to bring newsrooms closer to audiences.

I first came across user needs by reading the now famous blog post by user needs godfather Dmitry Shishkin many years ago. I’ve been in contact with Dmitry and have been advocating for user needs since.
I pioneered the implementation of the user needs model at The Conversation, initially within its UK newsroom, before overseeing deployment across more of its newsrooms worldwide.
I also do consultations, advise and mentor teams and individuals at media organisations around the world.
I geek out about user needs and audiences-informed journalism on LinkedIn.
And here’s my email.