THE REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM
2. Audience Strategies and Publisher Innovation Following the shock of COVID, the key mood in our survey this year seems to be around consolidation when it comes to product development. Although some media companies are focusing on advertising and others on subscription, the success of both models ultimately depends on deeper engagement with audiences via websites, apps, newsletters, and podcasts. In terms of audience-facing innovation, most effort this year will go into podcasts and other digital audio (80%), followed by building and revamping newsletters (70%) and developing digital video formats (63%). By contrast, ‘shiny new things’, involving technology that has not yet reached maturity, such as applications for voice (14%) and the metaverse (8%) appear to be largely on the backburner. More resource will go into audio and newsletters this year 80%
Podcasts and other digital audio
70%
Email newsletters
63%
Digital video (live, short form, longer documentaries) Applications for voice platforms (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri etc)
14%
8%
Applications for the metaverse (AR/VR)
None of the above/Don't know
2%
Q15. When thinking about innovation, where should the focus be in the year ahead for your organisation? N=231.
2.1 Audio Everywhere Growing consumption of digital audio has been a trend for a few years, driven by a combination of smartphones, better headphones, and investment in podcasts from platforms like Spotify, Google, and Amazon. But in the last year we’ve seen the rapid development of a much wider range of digital formats such as audio articles, flash briefings, and audio messages, along with live formats such as social audio. The rise (and fall) of Clubhouse, known as the first ‘airpods social network’, has been well documented but almost all the major platforms, such as Twitter (Spaces), Facebook (Live Audio Rooms), Reddit (Talk), quickly produced clones to allow users to create impromptu discussion and events. The jury remains out on how compelling audiences will find these features when the hype dies down.
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