In an era where information is abundant, more and more publishers are taking a long, hard look at the content that they are producing and questioning whether it is actually valuable.

For example, Hearst UK, which owns brands such as Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and Men’s Health, is now asking its reporters to think about why they are pitching an article. 

Editorial staff are asked to fill in a spreadsheet that explains the reason for the article — whether it is for SEO, Google Discover, social, or a newsletter — as well as a suggested headline.

“What’s happened in practice is we found new ways of using the journalists’ time, so we’ve launched more newsletters, and we write more for Apple News. So in all, the output is probably the same, but the actual number of articles written for Web traffic has definitely gone down,” said Malcolm Coles, audience growth director. 

“So, just by doing less — but what we’re doing is more effective — means we’ve freed up time to do other important things: communicating with members, member-only newsletters, that sort of thing. And everyone’s happier because who wants to be in the bottom bucket?… . People can see that the work they’re doing has a much greater impact, so the journalists end up more pleased.” 

Hearst’s goal is to create deep, valuable memberships around each of their 16 specialty magazines, according to CEO Katie Vanneck-Smith.  

“I think there are many publishers that have leaned too far into search engine optimisation or have tried to play at the algorithms, and they’ve become vanilla publishing as a result. They are not going to do well against the backdrop of generative AI because they haven’t stayed true to the brand,” she said. “They haven’t remained differentiated. They’ve not invested in what makes us uniquely different.”

We saw a similar shift with The Times in the UK and Switzerland’s Ringier already. 

For decades, we have produced far too much content. Now, news brands are wondering what actually delivers value as audiences turn away from news due to information fatigue. 

The solution takes another form as well: The news is being repackaged in smaller bundles of content so that readers do not feel overwhelmed. We see this with The Economist’s Espresso app or the Financial Times’ FT Edit. 

France’s Les Echos is also experimenting with a highly curated selection of content. One key feature: It is matching this selection against user needs.

Their editors pick nine to 15 articles from the 120+ pieces produced daily, serving different reader needs such as “inform me,” “get inspired,” and “unwind,” with a fixed percentage drawn from each category. Their three core criteria: balance (information that is useful for understanding the world and taking a step back), calm (many voices grounded in evidence-based, balanced arguments), and impartiality, Editor-in-Chief Célia Pénavaire said.

In other words: Human judgment is even more important at a time when news consumers face a flood of information in an AI-mediated ecosystem — and your odds of success are arguably higher if this is twinned with the audience’s needs.

Or as NDTV Chief Product Officer Rohan Tyagi said: After “almost a decade of extensively writing for algorithms,” the question is now “how do we have more empathy for the readers and start writing for them?”

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Banner photo: Adobe stock image by oatawa.

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