Dina Shatner is the co-founder and CEO of Caledo, an AI-powered News Experience company, and co-author of The Age of News Experience, a book drawing on conversations with media leaders, research, and practical work.
> The Age of News Experience argues that for social platforms and games, experience is not a feature added to the product. It is the product, and that is what holds attention > Strong products do not add up to a strong outlet. Readers still meet a fragmented set of things unless you design how they move between them, an approach the authors call Experience Islands > The AXR framework runs audience to experience to revenue. Skipping the middle turns "reach younger audiences" into "make vertical video". Formats produce outputs, experiences produce behaviors. And repeatable behaviors connect audience value to commercial value > In video there is a passive-active pattern. Viewers happily let the next item start, but if it shifts too sharply they have to actively decide again, and that decision point is where they leave > So the unit of planning changes. Before launching anything ask what experience begins here, what the natural next one is, and what must stay consistent so it feels like continuation
Publishers have made real progress in becoming audience-focused. Newsletters, apps, podcasts, and other products are increasingly designed around particular audiences, moments, and needs.
But when researching our recent book, The Age of News Experience, we looked at neighboring industries and found that the strongest competitors for audiences’ time use “experience” far more ambitiously.
Social platforms and games do not treat experience as a feature added to a product. Experience is the product. It shapes every interaction, connects one moment to the next, and gives people a reason to stay.
This helps explain their ability to hold attention and points to publishers’ next opportunity: moving from strong products to a connected experience system built around journalism.
Experience must move above the product level
A crossword, newsletter, live blog, or short-form video series can each create a strong experience. But strong product-level experiences do not automatically add up to a strong outlet-level experience. Each may work well on its own while the audience still encounters the publisher as a fragmented collection of products.
Think about your favorite social platform. Its value does not come from one exceptional post, but from the continuous experience it offers through an endless feed that combines discovery, interaction, and personalization. While the content changes, the larger experience remains recognizable.
Gaming works similarly. Individual levels, challenges, and rewards matter. But their power comes from being part of a coherent experience that carries players forward.
Publishers operate within more rigid structures, but experience should still become an outlet-level north star. Instead of only asking how to improve each article, newsletter or video product, we should ask how these experiences combine into a recognizable system.
This means organizing the outlet around interconnected “Experience Islands” – recognizable products or environments with their own promise, rhythm, and audience value – and then deliberately designing how audiences move between them.
The New York Times offers one example of how this can work in practice. Its redesigned main app gives users a way to move between news, The Athletic, Cooking, Wirecutter and Games. Each remains a distinct experience, but they are made discoverable within one recognizable Times environment.
Amedia offers a local-media version of the same idea. Its +Alt subscription connects more than 100 local news brands with sports streaming, while a dedicated discovery app, website recommendations and newsletters help audiences move across the wider offer.
We have entered the Age of Experience
Audiences still seek information and fulfill particular needs. But they increasingly choose where to spend their time according to the experience surrounding that value and whether another worthwhile experience follows.
Where platforms provide a compelling sequence, attention accumulates.
Experience is more than a new way to describe “what users need.” It is a different way to organize what an outlet produces, how its products connect, and how audience value translates into revenue.
Asking “How can we improve this product?” therefore misses the sharper question: “What experience should audiences consistently associate with us, and what should lead them to the next one?”
Experience connects audience strategy with revenue
Publishers often move quickly from an audience goal to an output.
“We need to reach younger audiences” becomes “we need more vertical video.” “We need stronger habits” becomes “we need a daily newsletter.”
Those may be sensible decisions, but format alone does not explain why audiences will value the product, return, or move deeper into the publisher’s environment.
This is the logic behind the AXR framework: Audience → Experience → Revenue.
We developed AXR to connect audience strategy to revenue through the experience layer. That layer defines the audience moment, the promise, how the product fits into a routine, and the behavior it should create. Revenue can then follow through advertising, sponsorship, registration, or subscription.
For example, “a daily video briefing for younger audiences” is still mainly a format description.
A stronger definition would describe the audience moment, why the briefing is worth returning to, what should follow it, and which elements, such as the host, pace, promise, or format, must remain recognizable across the sequence, beyond this particular item.
That difference matters, because formats produce outputs. Experiences create behaviors. Repeatable behaviors (staying longer, returning more often, and moving to the next item) connect audience value to commercial value.
The most valuable experience is the next one
One strong experience is rarely enough.
Audiences do not open a social platform for one excellent post and then move elsewhere. They stay because another relevant experience is immediately available. Games create the same continuity from one level or challenge to the next.
Publishers still tend to optimize the individual item. Even when related content is offered, the connection is often topical rather than experiential. The next item may cover the same subject but feel completely different in format, pace or purpose.
In our work developing recurring video experiences, we see a passive-active pattern. After one video, many viewers prefer to remain passive and let the next one begin. But when the experience changes too sharply, they must become active again: reassess, choose, and decide whether to continue.
That decision point is often where they leave.
Continuity does not mean showing people more of the same. It means preserving enough of the experience promise while introducing new value.
Before launching a new product or format, publishers should therefore ask:
- What experience begins here?
- What is the most natural next experience?
- What must remain consistent so the next experience feels like a continuation rather than a new decision?
These questions change the unit of planning. Instead of producing one engaging item and hoping the audience finds another, the publisher begins designing the sequence itself.
The bottom line
The strategic question is no longer only which products to build, but how those products combine into a recognizable experience system.
The practical shift is to evaluate every product on two levels: the experience it creates on its own, and the role it plays in the sequence around it.
Publishers that design both levels can turn journalism into more time spent, stronger habits, and clearer paths to revenue. In the Age of Experience, the advantage will belong to outlets that make every experience valuable, recognizable and naturally connected to the next.
