Survey says...Miami Herald readers like 'positive' stories

Visitors to the Miami Herald's website like "positive" stories, writes Megan Barrow, the paper's audience engagement editor.

"Something to keep in mind as you choose stories!" Megan tells the Herald's happy scribes.

See for yourself.....


On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Barrow, Megan mbarrow@miamiherald.com wrote:

Francis, our awesome market research analyst, and I took a look at the past 8 weeks of data that we'd been tracking -- uplifting and/or fun stories that the newsroom had been marking with a "+" on Facebook.

Anecdotally, people like "good" news. I know that you, at times having made the grave error of mentioning your profession in public, have been admonished that the media is nothing but bad news, and nobody reports good news anymore, etc.

Well, OK. we didn't actually mark that many stories as "positive." 39 out of 1552 stories posted in two months. This isn't scientific, of course; the criteria were totally vague. There could have been more.

But what we found was pretty amazing. Compared with the overall average, these 39 positive news stories did way better.

- The number of people who interacted with the post (they may have clicked the link to go to MiamiHerald.com, or commented, or looked at a photo, or clicked like/share) was 86% greater.

- The actual number of interactions was 84% greater.

- Of our "fans" (people who have clicked "like" on the Miami Herald page itself), 32% more of them clicked on good news.

- A big takeaway was that people who are not "fans" -- people who are much tougher to reach, and who we need to reach -- 147% more of them clicked on good news.

That means, random people (so to speak) are either going to MiamiHerald.com, or commenting, or in some way interacting with our stories when the story is "good." So on Facebook, at least, it's a way to show people what we have, and hopefully keep them as readers.

Something to keep in mind as you choose stories!

Megan Barrow
Audience Engagement Editor
Miami Herald
3511 NW 91 Avenue,
Miami, FL 33172
mbarrow@miamiherald.com
t. 305-376-4896
twitter: @mtbarrow


________

From: Barrow, Megan
Date: Thu, May 14, 2015 at 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: Good news on Miami Herald Facebook's "positive" news
To: MIA Newsroom

Whoops, forgot to give you some examples. And here's the spreadsheet with the raw data: https://docs.google.com/a/mcclatchy.com/spreadsheets/d/1dSwJOS8aUxz_n2SmhbZdJrbxJA4nTCEL5JhjxZmziG4/edit?usp=sharing

Stories include:

It took less than two minutes for Sunny Isles Beach police officers Tracey Cabal and John Childress to rescue an intoxicated man from jumping off the Northeast 163rd Street Bridge.

Photo gallery: Nicklaus Children's Hospital hosted a beach day for ventilation-assisted children. hrld.us/1FzudfR

University staff was impressed by Miami Beach freshman Rebecca Rauch-Thane's science fair project, which tested for heavy metal soil contamination in Virginia Key and Key Biscayne.

Senate President Andy Gardiner has turned his personal journey as a father to a child with Down syndrome into a legislative mission.

The newly renovated Venetian Pool in Coral Gables reopened this weekend. Check out the upgrades:

Megan Barrow
Audience Engagement Editor
Miami Herald
3511 NW 91 Avenue,
Miami, FL 33172
mbarrow@miamiherald.com
t. 305-376-4896
twitter: @mtbarrow