This Week: When Good Intentions Meet Bad Systems
The weekend's here, which means it's time to catch up on anything you missed—or share something with someone who might actually find it useful.
This week I kept bumping into the same problem from different angles: organizations that genuinely want to serve their audience but have built systems that make it nearly impossible.
We're Chasing the Wrong Numbers
Monday's piece on serving your audience vs. chasing traffic started with a confession: I helped build a website where traffic was soaring and the comment sections were so toxic our interns joked they needed therapy.
The penny CPM sales should have been the wake-up call, but we kept optimizing for the wrong thing. When your revenue depends on impressions, every editorial decision gets filtered through that lens. A thoughtful five-minute read can't compete with a 47-page slideshow.
Here's what I learned: audience-first asks "What does our audience need that aligns with our mission?" Audience-only asks "What will get the most clicks?" They're not the same thing.
I Was Wrong About Platform-First Publishers
Tuesday I had to eat some crow. Social media just beat TV news as a primary news source, and publishers like Courier Newsroom—who I used to think were doing it backwards with their sparse websites—suddenly look pretty smart.
When 54% of Americans get news from social media, maybe building for websites first actually is the backwards thinking. Still keeps me up at night though: what happens when the platforms move on? We've seen this movie before.
Nobody Actually Owns Your Audience
Wednesday and Thursday hit the same coordination problem from two angles. Who owns your audience? It's a question that makes most CEOs squirm because the honest answer is: everyone owns a piece, no one owns the outcome.
Marketing builds the brand. Customer success handles the churn. Product manages the experience. Sales drives conversion. But nobody connects the loop between what was promised and what was delivered.
The missing role in newsrooms is the same problem with different job titles. When audience is everyone's job, it becomes no one's job.
Stop Guessing, Start Asking
Friday was about what actually moves the needle—and it's usually not what we think. I'm a rabbi's son from the Bronx who once sold death insurance over the phone. What are the odds I can guess what the person behind me at Dunkin Donuts wants to read?
The breakthrough science story that got buried by Eagles pregame coverage. The pothole reporting tool nobody used while homemade Phillies shirt stories set records. The Spanish-language show that worked better when we made it bilingual.
Analytics tell you what happened. Talking to people tells you why.
Making Audience a Verb
Saturday's piece on stop guessing, start asking was about treating your audience as collaborators, not demographics. The best content decisions I've made came from putting my ego aside and actually listening.
Like the Spanish-language TV show that started as an organic conversation after a community event. Or the editorial roadmap that emerged from commissioning actual research instead of relying on our "experience."
Show up where your audience already is. Turn comments into conversations. Follow up on stories after the cameras leave. It's not rocket science, but it requires humility.
The common thread? Organizations that care about their audience but have accidentally built systems that make serving them harder, not easier.
Next week we're diving into "Revenue Without Regret"—how to make money without compromising the relationships you've worked to build.
What hit home for you this week? Hit reply and tell me—I actually read these things.