Recently, I was chatting with a colleague who told me he covers five communities. He’s expected to write five to 10 stories daily. I shook my head and asked him, “How can you ensure depth and breadth with that workload?” His response? “It’s about quantity. Not breadth and definitely not depth.”
This is more than a content treadmill. It’s what I call the Service Trap: the belief that the service we provide is so important that it excuses whatever it takes to get the work done. The truth is, that isn’t a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for burnout.
But what if there were a different way? What if we started looking at our output as a product, not a service? Too often, we think “product” means a fancy app or a new website. But product isn’t about tech. It’s about intention.
Your weekly newsletter isn’t just a rundown of links. It’s a product. Your annual election guide isn’t just a series of articles. It’s a product. Your high school football scoreboard page? That’s a product.
This isn’t about semantics, it’s about strategy. An “article” is a single output. A “product” is a complete experience. It is designed to meet a specific audience’s need with a beginning, middle and end.
I know what you’re thinking. This sounds like more work. But a product mindset isn’t about adding to your to-do list. It’s a filter that helps you subtract. It gives you permission to say “no.”
Here’s the shift: A reporter’s instinct is to find a good story, but a product thinker’s instinct is to find a clear problem — and stories are just one possible solution. When you start with the problem your community is facing, you unlock more durable and impactful answers.
Share with your network
You also might be interested in:
The American Press Institute is hosting a Local News Summit on October 6-7 in Boise, Idaho to identify and advance solutions that help local news leaders design experiences and products that encourage individual and community well-being. Apply for a remaining spot.
Three frameworks for how journalists can engage with non-news experts and researchers to help solve a problem, rethink a beat or collaborate on an experiment
Most newsrooms have one impact story. They tell it the same way to everyone, and then they're surprised when it lands with some audiences and dies in the room with others. The story wasn't wrong. It just never got translated.
