NPAI Co-Lab: First-Party Data survey

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The NPAI Co-Lab is an initiative of the News Product Alliance to enable newsrooms to use AI-powered tools to extract strategic value from their first-party data (i.e. the data - qualitative and quantitative - that audiences communicate about themselves to news organizations). This survey will help us understand what sources of data local newsrooms work with, how they work with it, and what opportunities and pain points they see. We'll use your insights to develop solutions that fit local newsrooms' specific context and needs.

If you have questions, please reach out to Greg Emerson, NPA Co-Lab product lead, at greg@newsproduct.org and Ariel Zirulnick, who is assisting with the user research, at ariel@arielzirulnick.com.

Please complete the survey by April 21.

Thank you for your partnership!

Your newsroom *

Name(s) and role(s) of anyone contributing to this survey from your newsroom *

Email contact *

How would you describe the size of your newsroom? *

Very small: 10 employees or fewer

Small: 10-50 employees

Medium: 50-100 employees

Large: 100-200 employees

Very large: 200+ employees

How would you describe the role of product management within your news organization? *

Select the statement that best reflects your organization.

Execution-Focused / Support Function – Product management primarily responds to requests from other departments, focusing on project execution with limited strategic influence.

Cross-Team Connector / Problem Solver – Product management influences decision-making by advocating for audience needs, balancing internal priorities, and facilitating collaboration across teams.

Strategic Leader / Agenda Setter – Product management plays a central role in shaping the organization’s direction, driving innovation, and aligning teams around long-term strategy.

Other:

Who in your organization leads conversations on audience insights? And who is responsible for collecting and managing audience data? Describe these roles and who they report to.

Who else in your newsroom regularly works with audience insights? *

Which statements best describe your organization’s current capabilities in utilizing first-party data for actionable insights?

Data Collection, Management, and Cleaning: We are focused on enhancing our methods for collecting, managing, and cleaning first-party data, including establishing ethical data protocols.

Integration of Platforms and Tools: We are working on centralizing data from multiple tools to create a cohesive and seamlessly integrated database.

Insight Extraction and Application: We are developing AI tools to extract insights from integrated data and enhance personalized engagement strategies

How important is improving first-party data collection and management to your newsroom’s strategic objectives?

Essential: It’s a top priority; we’re actively investing resources to enhance our capabilities in this area.

Important: We recognize its value and have initiated steps to improve, though it’s not our highest priority.

Moderate: We acknowledge its potential benefits but have not yet prioritized efforts to enhance our practices.

Minimal: It’s on our radar, but we have no immediate plans to focus on it.

Not Considered: We haven’t explored this aspect in our strategic planning.

Clear selection

(optional) Please use this space to elaborate on how, if at all, your newsroom thinks about or uses 1st party data to segment and reach your audiences?

Whether you're already using 1st party data to segment and serve your audiences and have had some success already or you haven't thought about this at all, we want to hear where your newsroom is at.

Which of the following types of 1st party data does your newsroom collect? *

Select all that apply

Dedicated email inbox for pitches/audience feedback

Audience surveys (Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, etc.)

Hearken or similar audience-facing modules to submit questions and ideas

Audience revenue data (such as email addresses and other data collected when someone becomes a member, subscriber, or donor)

Comment section engagement

Insights from story product engagement (text-to-speech, chatbots, quizzes, etc.)

Live event registrations

Reporter/editor emails that allow audiences to write in with questions/reactions/suggestions for coverage

Site registration data (demographic or other information such as email address collected when creating user accounts)

Email/newsletter data (i.e. Mailchimp or email audience analyzers like Glueletter)

SMS / Text chats with audience members

Customer care data (Zendesk or similar platforms)

Other:

Required

What would your newsroom be able to do if it could get regular insights from these sources of data and connect them? How would this help you with your revenue, journalistic impact, or operational goals? *

What risks or hurdles do you face in working with and utilizing 1st party data? *

How open would your newsroom be to integrating a new tool or product to help you mine 1st party data for insights? *

Very open, it’s something we recognize as an immediate need

Somewhat open, but may have to convince leadership of the priority

Unlikely, but please keep me in the loop

Not at this time

Finally, do you have any questions for us?

Thanks!

We appreciate your time and contributions to the work of the NPAI Co-Lab! We'll be in touch with any followups.

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