We need a new storytelling tool kit to attract and better serve our audience on mobile. On a small screen, what’s the best way to tell a particular story: digest, explainer, bulleted live updates or what-we-know lists, photo, video, graphic, audio, games, curation, or some combination? And what are the tools to make that happen as efficiently as possible? The USA TODAY Network's senior product manager for messaging, leading strategy and development roadmaps for newsletters, notifications and alerts, Derrick Ho, is leading this session. @derrickhozw

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5Ws & 1H of Mobile Storytelling
Derrick Ho, USA TODAY Network
@derrickhozw | derrickhozw@gmail.com
A handy guide for making smart decisions in an ever-
evolving landscape
Digital traffic is now primarily mobile.
● US adults will spend an average of 3 hours, 35 minutes per day on mobile
devices in 2018, an annual increase of more than 11 minutes, according to
e-Marketer. By 2019, mobile will surpass TV as the medium attracting the
most minutes in the US.
● Pew Research Centre: Digital News Fact Sheet
http://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/digital-news/
But where and what on their mobile devices are they consuming?
● Social media apps
● Search
● Maps
● E-mail
● Music
● News?
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-used-smartphone-apps-2017-8
What does it mean for a news organization?
Keep in mind these things:
● Distribution and publishing: You no longer are just publishing on
your own app. Consider harnessing the power various platforms but keep
objectives in mind.
● Formatting and writing: The regular story is still relevant, but how do
you write and reformat for each platform?
A framework to help determine what is your publishing and audience
development strategy
This framework can be scaled from a specific story to an event to overall product
strategy. It allows you to start small, but can also be applied newsroom and
possibly corporate-wide.
Who: Who in the community are you targeting?
● Can you really be all things to everyone today?
● Segment your audience: Behavioral vs demographic

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● What is the objective for each segment of your audience?
● Poynter: Oh, so that's what a funnel is
https://www.poynter.org/news/oh-so-thats-what-funnel
What: What is it these folks want to know?
● Survey your readers
● Lenfest Institute: From Russia via email - How readers helped
develop The Washington Post’s World Cup newsletter
https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/solution-set/2018/06/14/russia-
via-email-readers-helped-develop-washington-posts-world-cup-
newsletter/
When: When is the best time to connect with your readers?
● Understand your target audience’s habits
● Nieman Lab: Here’s what you need to know to build successful
paid newsletters, popup newsletters, morning digests, and
community newsletters
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/heres-what-you-need-to-
know-to-build-successful-paid-newsletters-popup-newsletters-
morning-digests-and-community-newsletters/
Why: Why will readers click on that headline or engage with you?
● What makes your content on that platform uniquely valuable?
● Why will they find it so essential that they can’t take the risk of not
reading it everyday?
● How much personalization is too much personalization?
● NPR: Users Want Personalization. (How) Should We Give It To
Them? https://npr.design/users-want-more-personalization-
how-should-we-give-it-to-them-e573dfbefb0f
Where: Which screen are you connecting with your target audience on?
● Different apps attract a different type of audience
● The Atlantic: How Instagram Threads Became the WikiHow for
Gen Z
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/how-
instagram-threads-became-the-wikihow-for-gen-z/561998/
How: How are you measuring success?
● Consider being more granular about assigning KPIs. Each
newsletter may have a different KPI depending on your objectives.

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Regardless of the platform, there are some common concepts when
dealing with mobile
● Screen is small
● Mobile is urgent
● Fighting for attention
● Text size is variable and can be controlled
Writing and formatting for mobile
● Be considerate: Small screen and very intimate and can be very intrusive.
Respect that space and you can create a deep personal relationship
● Conversational & visual
● Summaries work well at the story level and across many formats
● Use the scroll to your advantage
● Brevity & bite sized
● Contextual
● Can be designed to be addictive:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/should-you-design-for-addiction-or-
for-loyalty
Do you have room to create something from scratch?
● Start with human-centered design
● IDEO: What is Human-Centered Design?
http://www.designkit.org/human-centered-design
Additional reading
● Damon Kiesow: Digital editing means tripling your W’s
https://medium.com/media-stack/digital-editing-means-doubling-your-
ws-f24381151048
● McClatchy - Tim Grieve: Ten questions to ask before starting a
newsletter https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g-
wgDsDk1YYqYH_B58-AAJ_Z-JF8npqxRf9bVmz7HLk/edit
● New York Times: What’s in a Newsletter? At The Times, There’s a Secret
Sauce https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/insider/newsletters-
briefing.html
● NPR: Take our playbook: NPR’s guide to building immersive storytelling
projects http://training.npr.org/digital/take-our-playbook-nprs-guide-
to-building-immersive-storytelling-projects/
● Nieman Lab: Wellness apps, but for news: Can Neva Labs build a news
reading experience that feels healthy?
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/wellness-apps-but-for-news-can-
neva-labs-build-a-news-reading-experience-that-feels-healthy/

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● Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab: Smarticles: What We’ve Learned (So
Far) From Testing an Intelligent New Story Format
https://medium.com/the-guardian-mobile-innovation-lab/smarticles-
what-weve-learned-so-far-from-testing-an-intelligent-new-story-
format-52610535a394
● Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab: A better audio/podcast player:
https://medium.com/the-guardian-mobile-innovation-lab/uncovering-
the-potential-of-mobile-audio-a-new-experimental-player-and-a-new-
show-f2eb13af066
● Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab: Introducing LabRdr: An Experimental
Offline News App That Knows You https://medium.com/the-guardian-
mobile-innovation-lab/introducing-labrdr-an-experimental-offline-
news-app-that-knows-you-23f3c960ce37
● Nieman Lab: AMP in newsletters on Gmail:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/02/google-amp-is-now-coming-to-a-
gmail-inbox-near-you-do-we-want-it/