© Illustration by Jean-François Desserre
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.
Key takeaways to copy & share
> 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
