Why “data journalism” is good for the news business

March 22, 2011

Why “data journalism” is good for the news business

Data journalism—where presenting data in useful, compelling ways becomes “the story”—is a growing part of journalism. In a recent article, UK data journalist and educator Paul Bradshaw explains how it’s also good for news organizations and journalists…

In Data journalism: Is it worth it? (published in InPublishing magazine), Bradshaw notes:

“When Simon Rogers first asked to publish data on the Guardian website, someone asked: ‘Who on earth would want to look at a spreadsheet online?’ It turned out that over 100,000 people would regularly hit the website to do just that. One person’s audit, it seemed, was another’s sticky content.”

Interactive presentations of data—from searchable databases to interactive data visualizations and more—have become a proven way to drive traffic and increase audience engagement. Unlike story-format news content, this traffic spike often lasts not just for a day or a week, but for weeks, months, or even years. And high-traffic pages mean higher ad rates.

Data journalism also includes data about journalism—and about any other kind of content that news organizations publish. This represents still more news business options.

Bradshaw recommends that news organizations create Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to distribute structured data about their content, so that others can repackage it or create a mashup by adding data from other sources. APIs attract the attention of programmers, who can create new and innovative data-based tools, experiences, or services that news organizations can implement—and which can be another channel for advertising or other revenue streams.

Bradshaw notes that the Guardian offered “Hack Day” events where programmers collaborated to develop products based on Guardian APIs. These events “led to all sorts of outcomes from personalized mobile editions, applications which would alert people to events and route them to the location, even a tool which suggests recipes based on an image uploaded by the user. The Guardian says they benefit from ‘being able to reach new markets that we might not otherwise find. We grow our vertical ad network through high quality partners [taking part in hack days]. We’re also able to offer our end users innovative, clever and useful interactive services provided by experts outside of our domain.’”

Bradshaw’s article also discusses other opportunities for news organizations to offer data-supported or data-focused services. This insight is useful for developing new business strategies—since in an age where news and other content is ubiquitous, it’s far easier to sell services than content.

By Amy Gahran, 03/22/11 at 4:47 pm
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Tags: business models, data