Robin Kwong, special projects editor of the Financial Times, writes about how the newspaper is getting the most out of its newsroom experiments.
Kwong writes, “Whether it’s telling readers to send in tips via WhatsApp or getting a reporter to use Snapchat for live coverage of an event, many newsroom experiments take the form of using a new tool or platform. But it is important not to let the tool frame your goal. So, for example, instead of setting a goal of ‘using Snapchat for the first time,’ you could frame it instead as:
“‘To figure out what type of stories lend themselves to live Snapchat coverage.’ Or: ‘Our target audience is on Snapchat. We want to figure out how we can reach them there.’ Or: ‘We’ve tried it once before and got good results. This time, let’s figure out whether we can simplify the logistics so we could be doing these once a week.’
“This is partly because the goals of the tool or platform may not be the same as your own goals. For example, your organization’s intention to drive traffic back to its own site could clash with, say, Snapchat or Instagram’s goal of keeping users on their platforms.”
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