Metro faced the all-familiar challenges for publishers: platform reliance and volatility, paired with the loss of their ‘distinctive voice’ after the pandemic. Editors and reporters felt stretched in too many directions, often incompatible with one another. Innovation was needed.

Having secured the budget for three new roles to address the missing skillsets, the key to success was to maximise existing resources through restructure and extensive training. Metro de-siloed SEO, Social Platforms, and Communities, aligning them to the common goal of reviving Metro’s voice and authority. Staffers moved to roles better suited for their skills (and business needs), energising the team.

To give effective advice, the audience team had to understand the ins-and-outs of each team.

Growth editors implemented Focus Weeks, starting with a data deep-dive and a kick-off meeting with editorial section editors to discuss staffing challenges, upskilling needs, as well as frustrations and visions for the future. Throughout week one, growth editors sat with the editorial team to understand the minute-to-minute running of the desk. Then, a bespoke plan was crafted to fit each desk’s unique needs – aligning editorial, SEO, social platforms and community drives. The length of Focus Weeks varied according to size of operation.

Desks were trained across data insights, headlines, basic SEO, social platforms, story sourcing, and storytelling – as well as the user needs framework.

Audience identified the niche areas where Metro holds authority, as well as the topics to cut off entirely. Each desk developed a new workflow, in which key topics must go through SEO optimisation before publishing, and coordinate with social platforms producers for holistic traffic experiments.

Editorial desks now take part in what they call ‘data headlines’, a rotating task where a reporter must look at their section data for the day before and share insights with their team. Working with the growth editors, some desks completely revamped their operation. Changing shifts’ start times and responsibilities, they shed outdated workflows and adapted to the needs of today.

Following the success of Focus Weeks, the team developed Spotlight Weeks, where they worked with selected reporters for months to develop their beat and voice.

Through these Focus Weeks, where audience embedded themselves in editorial desks to rework the value of Metro’s output and establish efficient workflows, the newsroom has achieved fantastic results across a variety of KPIs.

Story count was reduced by 30%, while pageviews grew by 10% and users by 18%. The average pageview per story doubled. Focusing on strengthening key verticals and reducing churn of unrelated trends, their pages per session went up by 5% across Web and Desktop.

Off-platform revenue grew by 98% thanks to highly targeted, bespoke content, and their Instagram following grew by 20%. The launch of 14 WhatsApp channels amassed more than 250k followers and their unique newsletter subscribers grew by 31% YoY, with their pageviews referred from newsletters up +165%.

What’s more, the workflows for deep collaboration are now established, with monthly deep-dives, strategy adjustments and experiments.

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