At the RTDNA 2025, I led a breakout session titled Innovative Products: Meet Your Audience’s Needs Without Sacrificing Your Mission. The session was designed to address a tension that many modern newsrooms face. As audience behavior shifts rapidly, how do you innovate without losing the core purpose of journalism?
This conversation was grounded in the work I had done across newsrooms, platforms, and research environments where audience engagement, product thinking, and editorial integrity intersect.
The session brought together journalists, editors, and media leaders navigating shrinking resources and increasing competition from large technology platforms. The goal was to move beyond abstract ideas about innovation and instead provide a clear framework for how newsrooms can make smarter, more intentional product decisions.
What the Conversation Explored
The session centered on a fundamental question facing modern newsrooms. How do you build products that truly serve your audience without compromising the core mission of journalism?
We explored how audience needs are evolving and how newsrooms can move beyond assumptions to make more intentional product decisions. I guided the conversation toward understanding audience behavior not just through metrics, but through patterns of trust, relevance, and habit. We discussed how audiences discover content, what keeps them engaged, and why certain formats or narratives resonate more than others.
A key part of the discussion focused on media products. Many newsrooms are operating with limited capacity, so we unpacked how to prioritize efforts that deliver meaningful impact using available products rather than building. This meant identifying where audience demand intersects with editorial strength and focusing innovation in those areas.
We also addressed the tension between growth and integrity. As platforms shape distribution, newsrooms often feel pressure to adapt in ways that can dilute their mission. I led a conversation around how to navigate this reality thoughtfully, ensuring that experimentation does not come at the expense of credibility or public trust.
Rather than framing the session as a presentation, I approached it as a shared working space. Participants reflected on their own newsroom challenges, exchanged ideas, and applied the frameworks in real time. The conversation became a collective effort to rethink how journalism can evolve while remaining grounded in its purpose.
Slides from the presentation: https://shorturl.at/1ECMl
What This Represents
Speaking at RTDNA placed my work within a broader industry conversation about the future of journalism. The Radio Television Digital News Association is one of the leading professional bodies dedicated to advancing ethical and innovative journalism, bringing together practitioners committed to strengthening the field.
This session reflected a natural evolution in my career. I have moved from producing and curating content to helping define how that content is structured, distributed, and sustained. It was an opportunity to not only share what I have learned, but to shape how other journalists think about building products that serve both their audiences and their mission.