Last year, Ringer Media International brought in Dmitry Shishkin - pioneer of the user needs model - as a new CEO to grow its non-Swiss titles through his ground-breaking strategy.

Most recent iteration of Shishkin's user needs model has eight needs — update me, educate me, give me perspective, divert me, inspire me, help me, connect me, and keep me engaged — but many newsrooms have adapted and slimmed that model based on their missions and audiences.

User needs help newsrooms reprioritise what content they publish to better meet the needs of their audience. Doing so helps combat news avoidance and foster news engagement.

Newsrooms often find they overpublish on one user need (update me), and leave the remaining seven needs underserved, wasting valuable resources.

So how is it going for the Ringer titles since Shishkin joined? Four editors shared their insights.

The problem: Google Analytics was putting "update me" stories among the highest page-view articles, and journalists have come to rely on these simple and quick-hit stories. On closer inspection, they typically have low engagement.

The hunch: Audiences want something deeper. "Educate me" stories also have quite high page views but are not published with the same regularity as "Update me" stories.

The test: Initial experiments with the "Educate me" stories showed that they often lend themselves to lifestyle content, but are more time-consuming to produce. As a result, editorial output was reduced by 14........

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