Analytics for VRT News
Deredactie.be is Flemish public broadcaster’s online news platform. They provide their readers with the most recent news accompanied by more in-depth articles and video reports. Deredactie.be stands for providing credible news and relies as little as possible on sensational news items.
The goal
Deredactie.be and VRT news in general, is an organization that has grown from decisions based on instinct. Therefore, at the start of this project, the main objective was to take numbers into account when decisions were made about the news items, content on social media, …
What we did
Approach
During 4 months, our experts assisted the editors and journalist of the online newsroom in clarifying the charts they got to see every day. This daily report was expanded with web analytics- and social media numbers. Real-time numbers were continuously reported as well. These numbers aimed at delivering the most valuable insights for fast decisions.
For this, (real-time) analysis tools such Parse.ly, Analytics and ComScore were extensively tested and used. In addition, visual dashboards made sure that the editors were able to make data-driven decisions at each given time.
The results
Eventually all data-related innovations provided for a gradual change in the online newsroom’s mind-set. Journalists will have a better view of what the reader wants. Decisions are therefore from now on not only based on gut feeling. Data is now playing a major role in every decision.
Next steps
After the need for data on the website and social media use of the reader became clear, an audience manager was appointed. The manager is responsible for monitoring and reporting the charts. In this way, the data-driven approach is maintained.
