New EIC Shontell wants to turbocharge the Fortune brand

Sara Guaglione of Digiday spoke with incoming Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell about her plans.

Here is an excerpt:

What are your first orders of business when you start your new job?

I want to put some systems in place to turbo-charge the subscriptions business even farther at Fortune. I need to know what people are subscribing to and why — what about Fortune makes readers feel like they need to subscribe, that they have to read, when there are a million other publications to choose from? We could define that a bit more, and make that a really obvious answer for people. I want to bring some clarity to that. Part of that is picking areas we want to go deep on for readers, so we don’t boil the business ocean. What can readers come to us for that we are known for that they can’t get anywhere else? That can be tech or finance or investing or markets.

We can also put more data into the hands of the newsroom to inform them, guide them and help them pick the stories that have the most impact and that people care about. More visibility with data is important. It helps the newsroom measure success in a way where they feel what they’re writing about is sustainable. KPIs for a features writer for the magazine is going to be different from what a breaking news reporter is looking at.

Read more here.