Reportr.net

The fragmentation of audiences presents new challenges for news editors. Content is now consumed by different audiences through different media, presenting all sorts of editorial dilemmas.

In the past, you could be fairly sure who your readers were. But as Edward Roussel, the online editorial director of UK’s Telegraph newspaper, explained in a speech on Thursday, this is no longer the case.

“Groups like ours that are used to having a one-size-fits-all strategy where you know that the competitor is The Guardian or The Times, now need to think far more carefully about who are the audiences, plural, that they’re targeting, and then look at each of those audiences and determine who your competitors are on an audience-by-audience basis,” he said.

In the Telegraph’s case, one big difference is the average age of readers. On the web it is 42, compared with 56 for the print product.

In his view, this means that senior editors need to think more carefully about the different demographics of the audiences of their various products.

“You require more of your heads of department, a far wider set of skills. But if you don’t do that, you may see your audience very rapidly shrink away.”