Over the last few months, Mike Henry of Paragon has teamed up with Izzi Smith of Listen Again Tomorrow to host a series of virtual “What Now Conversations,” where public radio broadcasters could gather and learn from one another. They graciously invited me to co-host the third discussion, which focused on digital metrics, with Michelle Conrad, Paragon’s Digital Consultant.

For this session, we decided to do things differently: Instead of hosting a presentation on Zoom, we opted to use a platform called Remo, which allowed us to break the attendees into small groups where they could talk to each other. This allowed a free exchange of ideas between radio broadcasters from markets large and small across the country.

One of the reasons we structured the event this way is because, unlike with radio ratings or revenue numbers, there is not necessarily a one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to the question of which digital metrics are most important. This is especially true when dealing with mission-driven organizations like public radio stations, where the specifics of that mission can vary from station to station.

Michelle and I kicked off the conversation by pointing out that once upon a time, stations only had the ability to measure two things: ratings and revenue. With the rise of the internet, we now have a plethora of metrics we can track, from likes and shares to downloads and page views.

There’s a temptation to think that just because we can quantify something, it is important. In reality, some of these metrics are more important than others. Which? The ones that have a direct impact on the station’s performance and its ability to achieve its mission.

So we posed the question to the group to answer among themselves: “Which metrics are most important for your station and why?”

I have often found that radio station staffs have not had open discussions about which numbers really matter. As a result, there is little consensus within the building. Two people at the same radio station can look at the same numbers and draw radically different conclusions: one might see success where the other sees failure.

That’s why it’s so important to take the time to build consensus among the staff about which metrics matter, and what the baseline is for success when looking at those metrics. So we once again invited the attendees to break into groups and trade ideas for building consensus around digital metrics.

While different stations may do different things to track and build consensus around their digital metrics, we invited Cody Newell, the Audience Insights Analyst at KERA in Dallas to show us the digital dashboard that he uses.

If you’d like to watch Cody’s tour of the KERA digital dashboard, which was built in Google Looker Studio, it starts at 10:15:

To illustrate how digital dashboards may vary from organization to organization, Cody is tracking KERA-TV (PBS), KERA News (NPR News), KXT (Triple A), WRR (Classical), and the newly acquired Denton Record Chronicle.

Code dug into the details of the metrics that he looks at, including page views, retention, and engagement. But he also pointed out that quite often, he’s digging into the data to answer a specific question.

“Communication is one of the biggest things,” Cody said. “You just have to stay in constant communication with everyone and make sure that you’re really, really staying consistent with your messaging.”

Thank you to all the public radio broadcasters who showed up for this discussion and thank you to Mike Henry and Izzi Smith for hosting these events. It’s important that public radio broadcasters continue these peer to peer conversations.

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