User Needs for News
User Needs for News
User needs for news is a strategic and planning framework used by newsrooms and journalists to maximise audience engagement. As the name suggests, this approach is used to ensure that news articles, videos and other content is commissioned, created and published from angles which address the specific needs of the audience.
It draws from principles of human-centred design and User-centered design, in which the needs of the audience, or end user influence how the product or design is developed and created.
Proponents argue that if done correctly, newsrooms can create content that is more relevant for audiences.[1] - and audiences will engage for longer, and with more regularity.
Origins and background in news media
While news is most often associated with the relaying of facts, consumers have long read, watched or listened to news for a wide variety of reasons.
"Back in the 1940s, Bernard Berelson (1949) described how people living in New York felt a sense of companionship and connectedness from reading the newspaper, and from the 1970s onwards, researchers have detailed a wide range of ‘uses and gratifications’ – such as entertainment and escapism – that people can find through news or other forms of media use."[2]
News outlets had - and have - different ways of communicating information to publishing simple updates. Opinion pieces bring a personal perspective to any issue or subject; interviews allow readers to feel inspired or moved by a direct experience. Concise explainers provide context and background to unfolding events.
In short, before user needs was named thus, they mostly certainly existed.
The BBC was among the first to formalise a user needs approach, and in 2016 it developed the first user needs model[3], from which many subsequent frameworks have evolved. In this, the BBC identified six core reasons (needs) readers sought out news:
- Update me
- Keep me on Trend
- Educate me
- Give me Perspective
- Inspire me
- Divert me
These were not selected from inside the newsroom: it followed a thorough analysis of audience engagement and came from cues from the audience themselves. They discovered, for example, that while 70% of their published content on one of their news sites (BBC Russia) could be classed as updates, but in fact Update Me content accounted for only 7% of page views.
Data analysis is a key part of the user needs process: those applying this framework to their own newsrooms must combine audience-centric planning with post-publication data analysis in order to ascertain what works, what doesn't - and why.
Development and versions
Since 2016, many other news organisations have adopted, adapted or created their own user needs framework. These organisations include (but are not limited to) The Conversation[4], The Atlantic[5], Berlingske Media[6], and Vogue[7].
Dmitry Shishkin, the editor who had developed and championed the original BBC model, started working with editorial analytics company, smartocto, to finesse the user needs framework, and in 2022 together they announced User Needs 2.0[8]. This expanded the original six user needs to eight 'universal needs'.
In 2026, smartocto, together with Dmitry Shishkin, announced the creation of user needs for sports, which recalibrated the user needs to fit the needs of sports audiences. In this framework, there are currently 11 user needs[9]
- ↑ [1] "Why user needs have the power to stop audiences feeling overwhelmed by the news". Journalism UK. 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2026-09-02
- ↑ [2] "More than 'just the facts': How news audiences think about 'user needs' | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism". reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ↑ [3] White, Madeleine (2023-03-15). "#9. The model that transformed the BBC". Audiencers. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ↑ [4]"Identifying brand-specific user needs with The Conversation". smartocto. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ↑ [5] Lab, Emily Goligoski "The Atlantic spent two years studying what readers and listeners need. Here's what they found". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2026-09-02
- ↑ [6] Radcliffe, WAN-IFRA External (2026-01-27). "From user needs to digital innovation: 5 lessons from leading Danish publishers". WAN-IFRA. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ↑ [7] Zaffarano, Francesco (2021-03-23). "How Vogue is growing audiences by focusing on readers' needs" Medium: Hacks/Hackers London. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ↑ [8] Khalil A. Cassimally "User needs 2.0: a plug-and-play model to be more valuable to audiences" The Audiencers. 6 March, 2023
- ↑ Shishkin, WAN-IFRA External (2026-02-16). "Introducing the Sports User Needs model: A new framework for audience-centric sports content strategy". WAN-IFRA. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
References
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