{"id":8457,"date":"2017-07-22T02:28:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T02:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/the-media-audience-is-like-a-capricious-woman\/"},"modified":"2017-07-22T02:28:37","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T02:28:37","slug":"the-media-audience-is-like-a-capricious-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/viewpoint\/2017\/07\/22\/8457\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe media audience is like a capricious woman\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikolay Torosyan for three years has been the editor of one of Armenia\u2019s oldest news websites, PanArmenian.net<\/a>. He received his professional education from the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University. He began at the Regnum agency and has worked as the chief editor of the news website eMedia.am.<\/em><\/p>\n

Actively engaged in journalistic activities for a long time, Torosyan has mastered the editorial skills that help to distribute time and resources correctly and keep journalists motivated.<\/em><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s information mess, he places importance on the correct delivery and selection of topics. Before publishing any story, Torosyan tries to find the answer to the key questions: for whom is the information and for what purpose.<\/em><\/p>\n

Are you able to create distinct content?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a long time we tried to work in the traditional way, then we understood that it\u2019s not interesting for us, we weren\u2019t getting pleasure from our work. We didn\u2019t have the results we were striving for and the audience we wanted. We felt that we had creative ideas that had remained dormant inside us for years. <\/p>\n

We began to use the team\u2019s potential, emphasizing photos, interesting design, the delicious humor. And most importantly, the editorial freedom. <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t think about interesting and distinct delivery in the case of all events in Armenia or abroad. In reality, we have a great selection: humor, trolling, infographics, interactive visualization, and so on. <\/p>\n

Sometimes we have many cool ideas, which we can\u2019t realize mainly for financial reasons. In such cases, we put aside the idea and move forward, since time management is important for the publication. <\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t bringing a lot of humor risky?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot depends on audience demand. It\u2019s important for us that the audience associates itself with us, becomes loyal \u2014 through interactive communication.<\/p>\n

We were one of the first to have online surveys and tests, to check the audience\u2019s knowledge of an issue.<\/p>\n

The audience both in Armenia and abroad is like a capricious woman: she likes it when she is surprised, heard, understood. <\/p>\n

The media in the world is constantly changing; the audience also changes. <\/p>\n

In the media industry, that change is due to social media. There are websites that decided to move to Facebook then saw that they don\u2019t work well like that and returned to being a website. Many have neither big resources nor ambition.<\/p>\n

That is, in your case humor helps to gather an audience and get good results with little money.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honestly, yes. We\u2019ve ruled out vulgar humor; we try to offer refined humor. We don\u2019t do humor for humor\u2019s sake; we do it for certain purposes. Often it brings fantastic results: increasing number of views, raising our image, expanding the connection with our audience. There\u2019s this rule: humor must be true, tasteful, and beautiful. <\/p>\n

When we began to create humorous content more often, our audience reacted quickly, writing that probably our team was joined by new employees who have creative ideas. In fact, that creativity was within us, the old employees. <\/p>\n

\"Nikolay<\/p>\n

What did we do? We placed importance on packaging. Because it\u2019s possible to write a really good story, but with bad packaging, it won\u2019t work. <\/p>\n

Success is team work; it\u2019s important how you write your story, how you edit it, how you share it on Facebook \u2014 with a special photo or without? with a link or without? and so on.<\/p>\n

In the case of a small market, isn\u2019t it hard to have distinct content?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many sites tried to find solutions, opening \u201cstyle,\u201d \u201csports,\u201d \u201chealth,\u201d \u201centertainment,\u201d and other sections, but media managers aren\u2019t satisfied with the results. Those sections aren\u2019t growing like the main site. Subsidiary brands can work more effectively; when a title or section separates from the newspaper and becomes a new product. <\/p>\n

Identification is important. That is, if a person is asked what he associates a particular media outlet with, he has an answer. For example, he associates the site with investigations, verified news about the war or health stories, and so on.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Armenia is not that country where there are topics that generate global interest. For example, Tesla cars aren\u2019t made here, which for a domestic or foreign journalist could\u2019ve been a source for an interesting or distinct news story.<\/p>\n

Can the media itself create that information opportunity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my opinion, the media doesn\u2019t so much dictate the agenda of the life of the country as reflect or resupply that agenda.<\/p>\n

Do you see a connection between our reality and the reality presented in the media?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In some cases, it\u2019s too black; in other cases, too pink. That is, we haven\u2019t been able to find the golden middle yet, since we too are a product of Armenian society.<\/p>\n

Every journalist embodies her society\u2019s defects and advantages.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re extremely pessimistic. The story that Armenia had record-breaking exports in 2016 won\u2019t be read as much as the story that describes how some person in Armenia hit some other person. I think the reason is people are programmed to consume negative information.<\/p>\n

It surprises us when we see that positive news stories sometimes get a big response.<\/p>\n

Recently we had produced a story on doctors fighting for the lives of the quintuplets born in Yerevan. The reaction went through the roof.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s the impression that the audience in Armenia doesn\u2019t demand the media to change.<\/p>\n

The profession of the journalist today is being transformed. How is this happening in Armenia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me say something simple: journalists must be able to read stories at least in English and Russian, since we live in a rapidly changing world. I don\u2019t understand journalists who several times a week don\u2019t read The New York Times<\/em> or The Washington Post<\/em>, don\u2019t watch special programs, don\u2019t read investigations, and so on. <\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t take an interest, don\u2019t dip into international news, they\u2019ll never understand what the global audience needs and what sort of information about Armenia will interest readers abroad.<\/p>\n

Today, competition among not only publications, but also journalists has increased. Recall the era of blogs, journalists competed with them, and now social media has thrust a new challenge. On social networking sites today there are users who have a larger audience than many media platforms. I won\u2019t even talk about the social media pages of famous people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a trend in the world that in Armenia is expressed weakly.<\/p>\n

Those pages can compete with the media, since the star or famous person, unlike the media, has a more dedicated and faithful audience, while the media outlet\u2019s audience varies.<\/p>\n

In Armenia, there are advertisers who would prefer to give money not to a media outlet, but to a star, who will upload a photo of their product on her Instagram account.<\/p>\n

This forces us to increase brand recognition online and among the public. And to acquire a more loyal audience.<\/p>\n

Interview by Gayane Asryan
\nPhotos by Gagik Aghbalyan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nikolay Torosyan for three years has been the editor of one of Armenia\u2019s oldest news websites, PanArmenian.net. He received his professional education from the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University. He began at the Regnum agency and has worked as the chief editor of the news website eMedia.am. Actively engaged in journalistic activities for a long time, Torosyan Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint","author_posts-gayane-asryan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}