Means, Not an End (of the World) The Customization of News Personalization by European News Media

Abstract

How do news organizations design and implement personalization technologies? This paper makes the first inquiries into this complex process by documenting and analyzing the news personalization efforts of some European news organizations. The technological ability to use complex algorithmic agents to deliver tailor made information to individuals based on digital profiles has revolutionized the business of digital information intermediation. Various personalization techniques are reasonably good at matching pieces of information (ads, goods, and services, news, etc.) to people who are the most likely to appreciate them. These techniques scale extremely well. As a result, we have witnessed the emergence of a few extremely powerful information intermediaries, such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Spotify who are in the business of matching information from third party sources with global audiences. In recent years, algorithmically curated information delivery also started to have an impact on the distribution of news. This development is seen both as a threat and as an opportunity for news organizations. On the one hand, as algorithmically edited platforms grew to control access to audiences, and they captured the majority of ad revenues that previously financed the production of news, personalization seems to threaten news organizations ability to directly access their audiences, control their distribution, and grow their revenues. The success of platforms, on the other hand, carries an implicit promise, that by using similar algorithmic personalization techniques, news organizations can also do something similar, and increase their audiences, their engagement, and their ad revenues. Personalization is often seen to be the ideal tool to regain control of the news distribution process and reconnect with audiences. We conducted sixteen interviews with editors, technologists, product and business managers from a dozen European quality news organizations to understand how these different professions see and interpret algorithms’ ability to help news organizations to address the challenges they face in the digital era. Our study reveals a process that is substantially different from what previous studies suggested. The design of personalized news services is part of a complex overhaul of the news business in face of all the challenges it faces regarding revenues, distribution, and legitimacy. We found that rather than seen as a panacea which would help news orgs better compete with platforms on their own turf, personalization usefulness is assessed by its ability to support the re-imagination of the news business including how news is produced, delivered, and financed.