We caught up with the team behind RAD. They’re the squad put together to make the Next Generation project happen.They’re the team that tests, learns, and evolves along with their audience. Their mission: To reach these new digital audiences and produce information content for and by millennials.
RAD: The beginning
Although they were aiming for a younger audience, they didn’t want millennials to be their sole target since a broader range of people now get their news online and enjoy more creative formats. So that’s where they got the idea to target the so-called “digital citizen.”
The digital citizen is someone who uses the Internet regularly and effectively, as members of the online community.
A whole new take on journalistic content
They follow the same journalistic approach and standards as they would with content intended for Radio-Canada’s conventional platforms. What’s different is the way stories are chosen. Right now, they’re mostly in “deep dive” mode and cover stories from multiple angles, with a younger perspective, to try to inform their community as thoroughly as possible about a topic. Unlike a newsroom, they don’t have to react to breaking events. They tell stories that capture the zeitgeist, pique our interest, and get people talking.
Ever-changing audiences
Their audiences are constantly changing. They’re open-minded and insatiably curious.
Before launching the initiative, they had profiled their target audience using data and reports. After a few months of posting content, they realized that they couldn’t rely solely on research and statistics – that there are real people behind the numbers. So, each week, they take the time to learn lessons from their interactions with the community, allowing them to evolve along with our audiences.
In the months ahead, they want to tackle issues that have received less attention in the past, explore new approaches for covering the big stories, and experiment with emerging formats, while continuing to inform people in original ways. And that, in a nutshell, is what the RAD lab is all about.