08 Aug How News Organisations can connect with GEN Z
Is Gen Z going to be the toughest puzzle for the news industry to crack? We think this is a question definitely worth asking. Importantly, it’s one that publishers across the board should already be deploying teams and task forces to address.
It borders on the truism, of course, to say that media organisations are only as strong as the audiences they can bring in. Over the years, as the industry has navigated its way through different generations of consumers, this process has involved slow adaptation rather than radical change. The runway for change in a digital ecosystem has been long but the point of lift-off is nearing. Millennials may have provided the bridging audience between the old and the new, but publishers of all hues and sizes will soon have to reckon with a new generation of news consumers who happen to be true digital natives.
So let’s jump straight into it. Here’s a long list of what you need to know about Gen Z:
l The exact age range of Gen Zers is a subject of some dispute. Many say it is people born between 1995 and 2015. Others say it is anyone born in the digital age. But Bente Zerrahn, the innovation catalyst at Axel Springer and a member of Gen Z, prefers to think of Gen Z as people born into the social age. “People born in networks: You were born with the Internet and grew up with social networks. It’s a paradigm shift in how you approach the world. It’s about the network and interconnectedness of things as opposed to one single source.”
l Having never lived in a world without digital technology, Gen Z is the most digitally savvy sector of the population. Going beyond a mobile-first mindset, Gen Z embraces a mobile-only approach to information.
l These digital natives have spent their lives on the internet, have significant spending power and “are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet”. This is the reason many companies, both inside and outside news, are trying to determine what Gen Z wants.
l According to Pew Research Center, Gen Z is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation and is on track to be the most educated as well.
l Growing up in a post-information age world, Gen Z has naturally become large consumers of media. They’ve created daily, digital habits when it comes to where they get their news. Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even TikTok are no longer simply social media platforms; they’re an outlet where Gen Z consumes traditional news.
l A recent survey from Statista shows that 50% of Gen Z-ers get their news from social media on a daily basis. Nearly nine in 10 US Gen Z adults spend more than an hour on social media each day, and nearly half spend more than three hours with the platforms, according to a Creatopy survey.
l “They’re farther along,” said Corey Elliott, executive vice president of local market intelligence for U.S.-based Borrell Associates. “They grew up with the Internet. They’ve always had connected devices. They can find out things a lot faster than we could ever find out things. If they want to know something, they don’t go to the library. They go to YouTube.”
l They are a generation willing to demand more from any entity, including the media.
l By 2032, it is predicted they’ll be the primary demographic companies will be targeting. And the numbers are significant, as they have become the largest generation, comprising about 32% of the population, with what could likely be the greatest purchasing power among all demographics in the future. This means understanding their platforms, their unique consumption habits, world views (global and interconnected), their desire for authenticity and accuracy, and how they can work best on media outlets’ staff – in flexible, collaborative ways.
l Gen Z represents the capabilities and characteristics essential to digital transition: lifelong digital connectivity, a preference for collaboration, a growth mindset, and deep commitment. They hold the key to finding a sustainable future for news media but need to be allowed to turn it. The challenge is making space for their expertise
and increasing their operational influence, especially at senior levels It is much easier to set up a new company around these principles than migrate an existing one on to
them.
l “They are more engaged in more ways than people give them credit for,” said Michael Bolden, CEO and executive director of the American Press Institute. That was the
conclusion of a study released last year showing that 79% of young Americans say they get news daily. The survey of young people ages 16 to 40 was conducted by Media Insight Project, a collaboration between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute. An estimated 71% of this age group gets news daily from social media.
l Within the newsroom, as the chapter will show, the impact of Gen Z on leadership, culture, talent, and structure is clearly discernible.
HOW TO APPEAL TO ENGAGE AND RETAIN GEN Z READERSHIP
- Choose a compelling format, and offer “news snacks” Zoomers turn to social media platforms for news coverage. Most of them say they get their news on a mobile device; a recent survey from Statista shows that 50% of Gen Z-ers get their news from social media on a daily basis and use smartphones exclusively to consume the news.
News organisations have started to recognise the importance of engaging in these spaces. In some cases, these efforts involve adapting existing content using new formats,
but in others it may require an entirely new approach involving bespoke content, a diverse agenda and more editorial freedom assigned to younger journalists. The continued
growth of the youth-orientated networks makes this work more vital than ever.
During a webinar last year, Kirsten Eddy, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Reuters Institute, University of Oxford, shared some findings from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022: that Facebook use has plummeted among 18- to 24-year-old users; WhatsApp and Instagram have seen their numbers continue rising; and TikTok, which launched only in 2019, has been embraced by younger users and is becoming the fastestgrowing network for news. Forty per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds, in fact, use TikTok, and 15% of them use it for news. “We see TikTok along with Telegram widely used — most recently in the Ukraine war,” she said. “We hear people talking about its addictiveness
and presentation excelling — even if it lacks in trustworthiness.”
News media companies that master the art of social media platforms will give themselves an edge in attracting younger users. However, content cannot simply be reproduced from newspapers, but should be tailored to fit new media. Also important to keep in mind – Gen Z tends to not consume news at any specific time.
Unlike older users, they don’t feast on news at one sitting but instead graze throughout the day. Small bite-sized “news snacks” are therefore the need of the hour. “Nowadays, you have much more a behaviour of snacking, where you’re brushing your teeth or waiting for your train or something, so you’ll just scroll through things and see everything that has happened,” Axel Springer’s Zerrahn, points out. And they want information to be easily accessible: “It doesn’t matter where your information is from as long as you can access it when you need it.”
However, to get casual consumers to take the next step and leave social media for a news organisation’s site, it is vital that the website is clean and easy to use, Zerrahn adds. Curated content is a good hook, as Gen Zers will go deep down a rabbit hole if the content is well researched, compelling, and relevant.
Among publishers, the American digital media company Group Nine has found success in this sector – creating original content in bite-sized form across the board to appease Gen Z’s desire for rapid, easy-to-access information. And although strong opinions or a more comedic approach to news may not come naturally to many journalists steeped in traditions of objectivity and impartiality, several journalists have experimented with a different tone and platform. Digiday reported that The Washington Post is one publication that has successfully utilised video journalism to connect with Gen Z by creating a series on TikTok during the pandemic.
These minute-long videos by ‘TikTok guy’ Dave Jorgenson, combine relevant news with comedy and are relayed in a personable way as opposed to a formal retelling of what’s happened. These TikToks have gained a lot of traction for The Post, with their account now surpassing 1 million followers. This is an example of creating content for a particular demographic using visual content designed to work on a mobile phone.
We must add an important caveat here, and that’s not to get too carried away with the potential of TikTok. Short form content is a good direction to go in and experiment with, but the sands around platform regulation are constantly shifting and we don’t know what the scenario could be even a year from now.
- Get your facts straight
The communications firm Paragon notes that Gen Z is transforming journalism not just in the way they consume media but in what they think of it. They’re notorious for being critical and expect transparency from companies and accuracy when it comes to reporting. They want to support those with similar values as them. Entertainment companies,
celebrities, retail brands and news organisations have all fallen victim to the online critics and trolls who are Gen Z.
Being one of the most educated generations of our time, with 57% of Gen Z being enrolled in college during 2018 according to Pew, it makes sense that they would favour accuracy in reporting. Guesses, assumptions, glossing over the truth, or avoiding a major point will only cause an outpour of criticism from the younger audience. In her talk, Zerrahn said that one of the biggest fears of many Gen Zers is spreading fake news. Her generation is very in tune with the way information can be manipulated online, which means they have high expectations of the content provided by publishers and will quickly drop them if they smell foul. With the increase of fake news and misinformation, this generation has learned that being critical of what they read is an important skill to foster. Setting out facts clearly and accurately then, is particularly crucial considering studies show that influencers and celebrities on social media have been found to be among the key distributors of misinformation about issues like vaccines or the link with 5G networks. In India, for instance, a survey showed that internet personalities were most trusted as reliable sources of information. Against this background, journalists and news organisations have an even more prominent role on these networks to provide truthful, credible information. Some media organisations have already ventured into this arena: The Guardian, for example, produces the “Fake or for Real?” segment on Instagram, where a young journalist goes over the week’s claims using the platform’s quiz feature. - Be authentic
Research from EY found that 92% of Gen Z respondents said authenticity was more important than any other personal value. As part of being true to themselves and their values, it’s important the brands they follow and trust are also true to their values. While brands should put more effort into meeting the needs of Gen Z readers, it needs to be done authentically — not as a marketing ploy. Gen Z has no patience for superficial slogans and bland platitudes about corporate values, and is sensitive to companies that don’t walk their talk, which means a company can lose followers and customers if it tries to be something it’s not. Brands that want to appeal to Gen Z need to adhere to their values and own up to mistakes when they are made. They can also win points by tackling human issues that are top of mind for younger readers. Zerrahn recommends that publishers avoid cringe-worthy content: a serious, tradition-rich media organisation does not need to post dance videos on TikTok to appeal to Gen Z. Instead, she urges news outlets to be true to who they are and reflect that online. - Give them the news but don’t overwhelm
Gen Z is interested in consuming news about issues that affect them, and that they are passionate about. These include climate change, racial injustice, and health care, and addressing such topics and presenting accurate, fact-checked news can help drive interest and retain consumers. However, as a generation that has grown up with and witnessed intense catastrophe in the form of global warming, 9/11, housing crises, recessions, and now even full-blown war, Gen Z has been found to avoid news about crises, sometimes even turning away from news altogether to spare their mental and emotional health. .The 24/7 format is particularly disturbing in this regard. In fact, the overall number of people who say they often or sometimes actively avoid news grew from 29% in 2019 to 38% in 2022. The trend can be across markets, though it’s more pronounced in some countries than others — avoidance has doubled in Brazil and almost doubled in the U.K. since 2017. Zerrahn believes that news publishers should work to make the news more understandable and provide a balance to relieve the intensity of constant breaking news. She suggests using AI as a way to help with identifying which headlines work for younger readers. “That’s very much something that we have to keep in mind — that we have different audiences,” she said. “They have different things that interest them but are relevant to them, too. And that’s the bridge you have to gap. It’s nice to have all the cat videos, but also there’s breaking news — and [you need to understand] breaking news is not equal to breaking news for everyone.” - Remain Relevant
While some networks, such as Snapchat, have a separate space for news, others like Instagram and TikTok blend news stories in with videos and images that other users share. Given that the algorithms are mainly driven by popularity and relevance, content needs to be highly engaging to reacha wide audience. This is perhaps even more important for newsrooms who are actively using – or are planning to use – TikTok, where users spend the most time ‘flopping’ through hundreds of videos on the ‘For You’ page.
Considering some platforms are not exclusively news-related, publishers need to work extra hard at staying relevant. Staying relevant is particularly vital now: Gen Z does not display the same brand loyalty earlier generations have, especially when it comes to media consumption. Gen Z-ers, 50 % of whom Statista shows use social networks for
their daily news, don’t get news from one source but pull from a variety of outlets, with a heavy slant towards digital. In a climate in which brand loyalty is of no value, companies have to find ways to remain relevant on their news feed instead of focusing on getting Gen Z to consistently read their articles, subscribe to their newsletter,
or be loyal to their brand. By creating content that is relevant to their lives, brands have found a way to gain Gen Z’s trust over time. This is the approach that The Washington Post has taken, “With our focus on reader revenue at the bottom of the funnel, loyalty is incredibly important to us. But in order to get to a place of loyalty, it starts with a relationship at the top of the funnel… A lot of what we’re doing is exposing people to The Washington Post [and] getting them to start to develop that affinity to trust in our brand.” At the core of retention is building habits in young readers. With its student membership programme, The Wall Street Journal has taken a proactive approach in leveraging the student market, keeping in mind that student audiences are large, consume a great deal of content, and will support their future growth goals.. By acquiring subscribers at a younger age, lifelong relationships are created.
IS GEN Z WILLING TO PAY FOR NEWS
This is another crucial issue that Zerrahn discusses, wishing to dispel the myth that her generation isn’t willing to pay for media. “We may not have reached our full income potential, but people in Gen Z are willing to and do pay for a wide range of content,” she says. She goes on to place the onus on the publishers, who she believes have to work to provide Gen Z with the content they deem worthy of payment.
That it is paramount to deliver the news that this particular audience needs and appreciates is a view Danyelle White, vice president of strategic initiatives and community engagement of nonprofit Salk Lake Tribune, also echoes. She believes the Tribune’s nonprofit model to be compelling to young readers. “We have seen some strong indicators
that Gen Z is willing to support us philanthropically, even if they aren’t necessarily quite ready to subscribe,”
White said to an Editor and Publisher journalist. “I certainly didn’t have my own newspaper subscription in my early 20s.”
White also believes in playing the long game. “I don’t necessarily feel like the win is in converting them to subscribers at this stage,” she said. “If they’re following us on Instagram and engaging us there regularly, or if they subscribe to the newsletter, great! If they are excited about seeing us at an event table and feel comfortable telling
us what they think by approaching or emailing us, that’s all great. It’s a little bit of a longer-term play to convert them down the road, but they might donate $5 via Venmo, which we recently got.” The Tribune, in fact, has recently invested time and resources in trying to reduce friction on the payment side, including Apple Pay and PayPal, Venmo and, potentially, Google Pay as well.
Let’s explore the the idea of how Gen Z and younger Millennials pay for or donate to news, with the help of some excellent recent research from a report titled Funding News, based on a representative sample of nearly 6,000 news consumers 16 to 40 years old, and itself part of a larger series of studies of these audiences conducted by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute.
In all, the study finds that 51% of Gen Z (16- to 24-year-olds) pay for or donate to news, and that number rises to 63% among younger Millennials (25- to 31-year-olds) and to 67% among older Millennials (32- to 40-year-olds). “The numbers suggest a real potential for sustainable revenue — if news organisations, whether legacy or start-up, can create content Millennials and Gen Zers find valuable,” the report notes.
The report has some really insightful findings:
l Overall, news payers or donors younger than 40 skew older. Among 16- to 40-year-olds who pay for or donate to news, 42% are older Millennials, 29% are younger Millennials, and another 29% are Gen Z. Yet, the report notes, it is important to note that paying for or donating to news is not uncommon even among this youngest generation of news
consumers. About half (51%) of Gen Z pay for or donate to some type of news content or source.
l New media formats have special appeal to people younger than 40. Americans ages 16 to 40 are more than twice as likely to pay for or donat to email newsletters, video, or audio content from independent creator (47%) than to traditional sources like print or digital newspapers (22%).
l A majority of Gen Z and Millennials, regardless of race or ethnicity, pay for or donate to some type of news. However, Black (68%) and Hispanic (63%) Americans are slightly more likely than white Gen Z and Millennials (57%) to pay for or donate to news. Sixty per cent of Asian Americans pay for or donate to news sources.
l News payers or donors share some common behavioural characteristics.
In general, Americans ages 16 to 40 who pay for or donate to news spend a great deal of time online, are more likely to actively seek out news, and use traditional
and social media sources to get news daily than those who do not pay for or donate to news.
For example, 31% of those who pay for or donate to news text with family or friends about the news they consume daily compared to 13% of those who do not pay for
or donate to news.
l Yet despite being more active, the majority of Gen Z and Millennials who pay for or donate to news “bump” into news more than seek it out. “Data shows that
a majority of Gen Z and millennial payers or donors are “bumpers” (54%) rather than “seekers,” who constitute 45%.
l News payers or donors use a variety of social media sources to get news. Gen Z and Millennials who pay for or donate to news use, on average, two social media
sources at least daily to get news and information, while those who do not pay for or donate use only one. Further, payers and donors are more likely than those who do not pay for or donate to use platforms such as Facebook (45% vs. 33%), YouTube (45% vs. 27%), or Twitter (30% vs. 13%).
l Payers or donors are just as likely to feel worn out by the news as those who don’t pay for or donate to news content. Gen Z and Millennials who pay
for or donate to news are just as likel as those who do not pay for or donate to news and Americans ages 16 to 40 overall to report feeling worse the longer they stay online and connected (31%, 28%, and 30%, respectively).
Key Takeaways for News Media
l Engaging Gen Z and Millennials on social media should be an integrated part of subscriber and donor retention strategies. While news organisations may be prudent to prioritise developing relationships with any audience on a channel they own — especially as social media companies change how they handle news — social media will continue to influence Millennials and Gen Z, the report finds. This is true even for the payers or donors in these generations, most of whom still say they bump into news rather than seek it out (54% vs. 45%) and get news from social media more often than directly from traditional media sources (77% vs. 56%). Social media strategies should be robust enough to include identifying and cultivating relationships with new Millennial and Gen Z audiences but also speak to existing payers or donors. Challenges like creating a smooth sign-in process for digital subscriptions or to access membership perks may be especially important in this context.
l News fatigue doesn’t mean Gen Z and Millennials won’t pay for or donate to news. Despite the need for news organisations to address news fatigue, the report finds that Gen Z and Millennials are still willing to pay for or donate to news. Supporting a news mission they believe in may be important to them. That means relaying a news organization’s mission becomes critical when creating more ways for people to pay or donate.
l News organisations can learn from the appeal and approach of independent creators. While many Gen Z and Millennials pay for or donate to newspapers (and other legacy sources like magazines or public broadcasting), nearly twice as many have paid for or donated to support email newsletters or video or audio from
independent creators. News organisations should evaluate potential reasons for this, such as perceived authenticity of individual voices; the format z or style of content;
or even the often-multiple ways individuals can support creators, through recurring or one-time payments.
The Shift To Video Is Imminent:
This is also a big subject to address, because although the numbers with regards to engagement with news are encouraging, most experts believe that video formats will increasingly hold the answer when it comes to engaging Gen Z.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022 says that the majority of 18-24 year olds mostly read news online (55%) while 17% watch, and 19% do both equally. However, this is likely to change. News UK’s Richardson, expects that “watching” news will increase in the next few years as the volume of short-form, fast-paced, highly visual, and well soundtracked video increases across digital media and platforms adapt to meet the preferences of Gen Z.
TikTok is hugely popular, with 67% of 13-17s in the U.S. (Pew Research Center) and 40% of 18-24s across all markets (Reuters Institute) using
it. The video-only platform is also acting as the product development department for established platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, who are rethinking their offering in an effort to incentivise content creation and increase engagement by serving more video.
The move towards visual storytelling and discovery algorithms that surface the most engaging content, as opposed to content from your social graph, will raise the stakes for news brands who have built followings as it creates a more competitive environment for views. This shift creates big opportunities to reach new audiences if news brands can tailor content to discovery algorithms.
User behaviour also shows that watching is increasingly preferable to reading. A recent Ofcom report showed that TikTok is the fastest growing news source among adults in the UK. The velocity is significant, rising from 1% in 2020 to 7% in 2021. Additionally, amongst 18-24 year olds who use TikTok, 15% say they use it for news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022 — all regions).
Secondly, Google has revealed that internal research showed 40% of Americans aged 18-24 used TikTok or Instagram to search for information and recommendations.
This represents a significant shift away from text-based search results to information communicated via video.
We feel obliged here to stress an editor’s caveat once again – engage with the possibilities of TikTok. Just don’t become too reliant on the platform!
GEN Z IN THE NEWSROOM
The impact of both groups on leadership, culture, talent, and structure is clearly discernible, but emergent rather than clearly contoured. Here are the
characteristics that stand out. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms now fall under the umbrella of “newspaper readership”, which means newspaper readership is getting younger and younger. This means media companies are now tasked with creating relevant, authentic content that captures the attention of younger consumers. For this, and for media outlets to start adapting to the habits of Gen Z to avoid shrinking audiences, members of this new generation must be brought into the newsroom.
As digital software publisher Twipe says, allowing for younger voices in the newsroom is an effective business strategy: not only can it make publications feel more relatable to
Zoomers, it also helps older readers understand the new generation more easily.
In fact, Borrell’s Elliott sees a mutually symbiotic partnership by introducing these Zoomers into the newsroom environment: “Gen Z-ers have intelligence [on this demographic]
that the older folks don’t necessarily have, so there can be an exchange of wisdom and intelligence here through the generations. And Gen Z is still learning about news and journalistic integrity and things like that. That’s what the older folks have. So we all benefit.”
Creating Collaborative, Intergenerational and Flexible Workspaces
Axel Springer’s Zerrahn echoes the idea. Building multi-generational teams that bring together younger
and older professionals would, in her opinion, help employees “learn from one another and offer a variety of perspectives.” To develop a long term strategy that will attract Gen Z, she suggests companies consider having dual leadership roles with an experienced manager and a younger employee who has a knowledge of how younger generations operate.
Tech and business departments should work together, too, to create products that fit within the business model but will attract younger users, she said.
The idea of building these connections is key, according to Zerrahn, who believes Gen Z looks at the world in a “network way”. “It’s really this thing of trying to connect things and becoming a network organisation, becoming a network newspaper,” she says.
Another important tip she dispenses is for media outlets to simply listen to their younger members. “Put young people in a position where they have a voice and create an environmentwhere they feel safe speaking up,” she says. “Because these are the users of the future. They should, in some way, be involved in the product of the future.” While this involves some straying away from the traditional hierarchies in the media industry that are often based on seniority and experience, it also lends Gen Z the ability to make an impact, which they consider an important value. As Amit Das, director of human resources and chief human resources officer for Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. in India, writes in a column for INMA: “Gen Z does not work for you; they love to work with you.”
For this kind of climate of collaboration to be fostered, the workplace needs to be reoriented to meet the demands of and cater to the work culture of the new generation. Amit Das believes the media should encourage a role-based organisational hierarchy, promote term strategy that will attract Gen Z, she suggests companies consider having dual
leadership roles with an experienced manager and a younger employee who has a knowledge of how younger generations operate.
Tech and business departments should work together, too, to create products that fit within the business model but will attract younger users, she said. The idea of building
these connections is key, according to Zerrahn, who believes Gen Z looks at the world in a “network way”. “It’s really this thing of trying to connect things and becoming a network organisation, becoming a network newspaper,” she says.
Another important tip she dispenses is for media outlets to simply listen to their younger members. “Put young people in a position where they have a voice and create an environment where they feel safe speaking up,” she says. “Because these are the users of the future. They should, in some way, be involved in the product of the future.” While this involves some straying away from the traditional hierarchies in the media industry that are often based on seniority and experience, it also lends Gen Z the ability to make an impact, which they consider an important value. As Amit Das, director of human resources and chief human resources officer for Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. in India, writes in a column for INMA: “Gen Z does not work for you; they love to work with you.”
For this kind of climate of collaboration to be fostered, the workplace needs to be reoriented to meet the demands of and cater to the work culture of the new generation. Amit Das believes the media should encourage a role-based organisational hierarchy, promote Publications in Uganda, spoke of the importance of restructuring benefits and perks to appeal to younger employees. Incentives companies offer have to be made attractive and more relevant to Gen Z; mortgage programmes offered in Uganda, for instance, hold no promise for a generation that does not intend to buy homes.
How to Unleash Gen Z’s Potential in the Newsroom
Lucy Keung, experienced strategic advisor and author, writes in her book Hearts and Minds: Harnessing Leadership, Culture and Talent to Really Go Digital, of some of the key shifts media organisations can make — even if they only have limited resources — to truly unleash the potential of their younger employees. These shifts are in alignment with some of the key characteristics and generationally defined aspirations and needs of Gen Z.
Let New Talent Hit the Ground Running
The agreed-upon assumption is that new talent, keen to explore other opportunities and learn and grow, will stay for three years at most, so it’s critical that they can contribute quickly. Das believes, like many other leaders, that Gen Z is highly mobile across both geographical borders and functional corporate structures, resulting in them experimenting with different roles and opportunities. “They love to dabble with multiple roles throughout their career, which would fulfil their aspirations, instead of engage
in a linear career progression,” Das notes. For them to make an impact in their short time at a company, Keung recommends that onboarding be shortened, training accelerated
and new and interesting projects be introduced quickly. Onboarding needs to equip them with the knowledge and connections to allow them to be involved in real projects as fast as possible. Then on, their ability to impact should be accelerated by creating opportunities for them to connect with top leaders, and putting them on projects that matter. Keung recommends that new hires are checked in with monthly – ask if this is the job they were sold, what their month has been like, and if they have the resources they need.
EQ-based Leadership
Gen Z looks for and responds to empathy. Leaders who are open about their own development path, who really listen, and who coach rather than tell, will succeed in leading organisations where they need to go. Keung believes that wholly harnessing individuals’ talent isn’t going to happen with top-down traditional management and demonstrates
that Gen Z interviewees were clear about the leadership approach that motivated them the most, an approach that is two-way and collaborative, facilitates rather than dictates, is transparent, and displays trust in subordinates:
“If I was a leader? … Well, you’d want to motivate your team, and you’d want to all aim for the same thing, but you just don’t want to isolate people into thinking that you’re always right, you’re always in charge. It’s okay to say, ‘Actually, I don’t know what that story’s about. Tell me more. Tell me why it’s significant.’ Just find out more.” – Keung’s Gen Z respondent.
Build Career Paths; Create
Opportunities to Lead
Gen Z has a very strong selfactualisation drive; they are keen to learn, grow, and develop, and operate perennially in skill-acquisition mode. The more companies can meet this
need, the higher their motivation and performance. Companies should offer ways to learn and build skills, and can do so in various ways. Keung suggests “promoting” juniors to more senior roles temporarily while their managers are on annual holidays, and providing opportunities to work with different parts of the organisation or swap departments for a while. These employees are fit for cross-functional projects, which are fast becoming the basic building block of digital transformation, and their ability to acquire and master different skills should be leveraged.
Additionally, the path to leadership is often opaque for many in newer roles, although traditional hierarchies in older, more conventionally siloed newsrooms are set in stone.
Employees may lead highly strategic but temporary structures (project teams or pods), and their roles may stand outside existing definitions of leadership functions. There is no
clear path to the top for an increasing number of the newer roles inside news organisations, particularly the hybrid digital roles and for those working in areas like data journalism, editorial development, or newsroom product. As newsrooms contract and mid-level leadership roles evaporate, companies need to consciously scan for opportunities to provide leadership. Keung recommends creating pathways to connect the bottom of the organisation with the top – via shadow boards, reverse mentoring schemes, and regular lunch meetings. This way, they can not only raise concerns but also bring their ideas to those at the top.
Provide Feedback
Gen Z employees need and want a sense of progression in their career. It is important, then, that strong performance is acknowledged and weak points addressed and guided
to improvement. With growth, development, and career progression being top priorities, employees crave critique on performance so that they know what trajectory they
are on, and to be mentored and coached well. Keung recognises that even if managers completely understand this need, often they lack the time or skills to meet it;
few managers naturally have inbuilt coaching and mentoring skills. Also, if managers lack the budget or scope to reward performance, they may try to avoid feedback situations. She strongly recommends investment in building coaching and performance management skills in all team leaders.
Catering to Personal Values
Gen Z is highly value-driven. A commitment to personal growth is as strong as career growth — there is a strong desire to acquire knowledge, to maximise creative and intellectual potential, and to contribute. These employees feel the need to create change, and they are so keen for their work to have meaning, that they may choose personal values over company values if the need arises, and are not afraid to question authority when necessary. It is therefore important that their values are in harmony with those of their company and that they be given the scope to work on passion projects that match their personal values.
lEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS AND NETWORKS TO TARGET ZOOMERS
An INMA report on What Gen Z + Media Need From Each Other, published in 2022, has some interesting case studies on experiments run by news publishers to appeal to Gen Z:
Funke’s TikTok channel
The TikTok channel DuHastDieWahl created for Funke Zentralredaktion in Berlin is dedicated to imparting political knowledge to young people between the ages of 14 and 19. To do this, it often takes articles from Funke’s newspapers and use the information to create videos – which makes for a great symbiosis between traditional journalism and the modern TikTok channel. The channel even brings top politicians to the platforms to answer questions raised by young people.
Funke’s TikTok videos deal with serious issues while sporting a fun and modern look –typical TikTok tools are used to adapt to the creative environment of the platform With filters, emojis, and sounds, Funke is creating entertaining videos that provide educational value. Young people are learning new things while simply having fun.
In less than one year, DuHastDieWahl gained almost 70,000 followers, while some of the videos have reached more than 3 million viewers. It is Funke’s most successful social media channel of all time.
But to us, this project is far more than an effective step to raise brand awareness. Thanks to this channel, young people get to know the importance of independent journalism. Funke acts against hate speech and fake news on social media.
The Australian’s Instagram quiz
Over the past two years, Instagram has become a key focus for The Australian’s digital strategy. Today, The Australian has the fastest-growing and most engaged Instagram account owned by any subscription-based news publisher in Australia, with 49.5% of its audience aged 35 or under. The Australian is focused on growing quality audiences who will have a long-term connection with the brand. They set the audience’s expectations about what they will see and how they will see it — including the tone, frequency of posting, and style of content.
Epitomising their goal of building and delivering on audience expectations is their most popular Instagram execution: the weekly quiz. Tens of thousands of people engage with the general knowledge quiz every Saturday by using the native features on Instagram Stories, like the poll and quiz stickers. The publisher delivers the content the audience values at the same time, in the same place, and in the same format every weekend, which has allowed them to build strong engagement habits and traffic referrals.
The publication seized the opportunity to apply the same principles of regularity, the familiarity of design, and valuable content to the items they published “on the grid” (or in the Instagram feed). They have since welcomed a 22% increase in followers and clocked a 919% year-on-year increase in comments and a 398% year-on-year increase in average daily reach.
The Australian also learnt the value of images with text: a year’s worth of data showed them that on average, images with text were significantly outperforming photographs with no text on them. They then devised a recognisable style that could facilitate the telling of complex stories in an engaging mobile-first way.
The new brighter templates offer enormous freedom in storytelling, giving them the autonomy to allow our Instagram audience to sample and engage with the significant breadth and rigour of their editorial proposition.
This also consistently and strategically drives subscriptions from Instagram. In the three months from May 2021, when they changed strategy, the outlet saw a 173% increase in traffic referrals from Instagram.
Dagens Næringsliv’s stock market game
As Norway’s oldest business news operation, Dagens Næringsliv’s coverage of markets and the economy is very credible, but it doesn’t quite cut it with younger readers. Audience insight work taught them that young people did want to learn about stocks. In particular, Gen Zers tend to be more interested in finances at a younger age, and DN wanted to capitalise on that interest.
In collaboration with longtime software partner Norkon Computing Systems, they decided to develop a gaming universe on DN’s platform, Fantasy Fund. Norkon’s goal is to get
you playing in two minutes or less, whether you know anything at all about stocks and trading or not.
Here’s how it works:
l Players create their own fund by picking stocks for 1 million (fantasy) Norwegian kroner and naming their fund.
l Players must pick stocks from no fewer than five listings at the Oslo stock exchange. Their stake in each stock can easily be changed by using digital levers, but they can also sell off some stocks and invest in new companies.
l Players compete against each other, and every week the fund that gives the highest return is named the winner. After 10 weeks, an overall winner is crowned champion. The developers used rankings, competitor lists, and other features known from gaming to improve engagement. Many efforts were made to appeal specifically to younger audiences, including the name Fantasy Fund (at odds with DN’s “no English, please” language policy) and the design profile. Video played an important part in the social media outreach efforts, targeting financially interested young people. In addition to attracting potential players with knowledge and a desire to win, they awarded attractive prizes each week during the game as well as to the overall winner.
The newsroom committed to producing and publishing stories about saving and investing throughout the game’s duration. This was in part consumer-oriented stories
giving advice, but also critical and investigative stories about actors and institutions looking to profit on the newfound interest in stock market investments.
In total, the game attracted 21,275 players in a 10-week period. DN.no set several new records for signed-on registered users during this period. Many of the Fantasy Fund players were registered users or subscribers. Still, 10,000 new DN (free) user accounts were registered in just six weeks, the same as total registration growth in 2019. After the 10-week period, a whopping 54% of the players were under 35, and 24% of players were Zoomers who are 25 or younger — and that the youngest player group was the most
FINAL WORDS
“I think that the pandemic changed the type of information we want to consume, how we want to consume it, and the velocity at which we want information coming to us,” says Miki King, president of Arc XP, a cloud-based digital experience platform owned by Amazon, in a report on the state of publisher audiences jointly produced with Digiday. “From a technology standpoint, I think publishers have to active. be willing and able to observe and ask what tools are available today and what’s different from what was available three or four years ago. I think that Gen Z is going to point them in the right direction, but they have to be ready to listen and tune in to what today’s younger audiences are
signalling.”
“Publishers need to come together on a quarterly or six-month basis to understand what it is that they are doing to speak to this audience today,” she continued, “Not, ‘we launched this thing 18 months ago, and it did really well.’ That won’t cut it anymore. They need to be thinking on a six-month basis in terms of how to attract these audiences, and I think that structuring the decision-making and the conversation to include those voices is critical.”
“Talent is key,” said King. “Who publishers hire and who they have at the table making decisions have to reflect the audiences they wish to serve.”
The Innovation in News Media World Report is published every year by INNOVATION Media Consulting, in association with FIPP. The report is co-edited by INNOVATION President, Juan Señor, and senior consultant, Jayant Sriram