The Daily Mail’s head of newsletters, Josephine Forster, is trying to improve her readers’ lives.
“They want to know how topical things will impact their lives, and what they can do about that,” she said. “You have to work a bit harder to meet that need. But it can be the difference between a 10-minute read of an article and somebody being willing to come back again and again.”
At the end of May, the Mail launched a a six-week weight loss program — “The 30g Plan” — fronted by nutritionist Emma Bardwell. Promoted in print and online, it was months in the making and built around audience demand.
“We know weight loss is something our subscribers are very interested in and have very set views on, as they like common sense and practical fixes,” Forster said. “Emma’s plan is sensible and fits into the real world. She’s got her own story about how she used it in her own life. That is bang on for us.”
The series, which includes recipes and shopping lists and answers audience questions, illustrates a wider journalistic trend of helping readers live better. Sometimes called “service” or “utility” journalism, the approach provides content for people who want help with everyday decisions — moving, relationships, personal finance, food — and aims to offer a service beyond questions that AI can easily answer.
Providing guidance was the inspiration for Pensions & Prosecco, an independent publication from journalist and audience strategist Katie Binns and wine expert Elizabeth Hawthornthwaite.
Binns wrote about money and (U.K.) pensions for publications like The Times of London for years. “The thing with pensions is that they’re so easy to put off,” she said. “Lots of people don’t really know where to start, and I wanted to see if there was a format that could help change that.”
Pensions & Prosecco launched last November with live events, a newsletter, and social content. The events, so far only held in London, are small — around 30 attendees each — in order to be genuinely useful. Prosecco is always served, along with alcohol-free options.
“It’s a lot of confidence-building,” Binns explained. “Traditionally, journalism has been brilliant at helping people understand the world, but now I think people want journalism to help them navigate it. That doesn’t mean journalists becoming advisers or campaigners, but instead that we have to think harder about what someone can actually do after they’ve read a story.”
Pensions & Prosecco aims to turn intention into action. The same could be said of the new AI chatbot being developed by U.K. consumer brand Which?
Which?, the U.K. equivalent of Consumer Reports, long offered advice on the best items to buy and advocated for consumers’ rights. Now the publication’s leadership is exploring how AI could make that advice more personalized.
The move is part of a broader investment into health and wellbeing consumer advice, aimed, in particular, at younger and female audiences. New content areas include vitamins and supplement reviews and guidance on skincare, sleep, and exercise equipment.
Meanwhile, The New York Times’ Wirecutter has joined with American Public Media /a> to launch a weekly radio show that aims to “make trustworthy, practical guidance more accessible to listeners seeking clear, independent advice in their daily lives.”
That word “trustworthy” is key. Trust in AI and creators is lower than trust in established news brands, leaving a gap publishers can fill.
Bloomberg has increased the number of explainers and other types of service journalism it produces. In June, it launched Bloomberg Money.
The site had always run some personal finance stories, but “we noticed in our analytics that those stories, especially the ones that were more service-oriented or actionable, tended to overperform,” said Katie Boyce, head of digital editorial at Bloomberg. “We decided it was something we really wanted to double down on and make a push for subscribers.”
The aim is to supply fairly sophisticated personal finance coverage, with the assumption that Bloomberg readers already have a baseline understanding of how to manage their money. “It really plays into the topics we think a Bloomberg audience would care about,” Boyce said, “whether it’s personal investing, real estate, or retirement.”
The hub, with the tagline “Everything you need to navigate your financial life,” has both U.S. and U.K. versions. It is cross-platform and includes explainers, original reporting, practical guides, a weekly TV show, a free newslettersent out three times a week, and a live dashboard of key financial indicators.
Boyce has been pleasantly surprised to find that 62% of those using the hub so far are new to Bloomberg, while there has also been “strong engagement” from the existing subscriber base. Subscribers who read Money stories were 13% more active than average in the first month.
Bloomberg journalists do not offer financial advice, but Boyce said the initiative is still all about “helping people make smart decisions.”
“Our journalists are asking experts the right questions so our users can learn from them and make informed decisions. If readers finish a story having learned something they can take away, then we’ve done a good job in terms of utility.”
Pensions & Prosecco’s Binns agreed that the best evidence journalism has worked is what people do next.
“The things I care about the most are when people tell us about the actions they’ve taken — when someone says they’ve checked their state pension forecast for the first time, increased their pension contributions or booked their complimentary financial advice session with our sponsor after an event,” she said. “It just feels like we’re solving real audience problems, rather than simply talking about what we think matters.”
That sense of listening to the audience has also informed Forster’s experience at the Mail. The 30g Plan series was originally aimed at existing subscribers, but, put behind the new Mail+ paywall, it’s attracted new readers too.
Any publisher would want to keep new visitors, and, to that end, the Mail has just launched an entirely new newsletter, The Reset, which is “all things weight loss” and covers anti-aging, skincare, and some wellness features through a lifestyle lens. “We felt that was the best kind of way to keep these people and show them that we’d listened to what they were concerned about,” Forster said.
Boyce was keen to emphasize that journalism can’t only be about utility — it has to be unique and leverage expertise unavailable elsewhere. But, she said, “I think expectations have changed. Audiences expect to be able to take something away from the journalism they’re consuming. It’s not enough anymore just to give a headline or answer a simple question. AI and social have really taken that over.”
Ultimately, usefulness is becoming a core part of subscription strategy, as well as a way of attracting new audiences.
“People still want information, and they want good information, but information on its own isn’t enough,” said Binns. “They want context and someone to explain why something matters, what’s normal, what needs attention first, what can wait and what a sensible first step looks like.”
“Our journalism needs to help users learn something new, understand why a headline matters, and get a sense of what to expect next,” Boyce added. “If you can make it actionable and personal, there’s real value in that for subscribers.”
Sarah Ebner is an award-winning journalist and former executive editor at the Financial Times, where she was director of editorial growth and engagement. A specialist in newsletters and subscription journalism, she has also worked at the Telegraph, The Times and the BBC, and previously wrote for Nieman Lab about news organizations and belonging.
