How the New York Times uses Instagram to find new audiences for tough stories
LILA KING·11 DÉCEMBRE 2017
As 2017 comes to a close, we're asking some of the top news & publishing accounts on Instagram to share what they’ve tried and learned on Instagram this year. The New York Times (@nytimes) has published some stunning work on Instagram Stories this year, helping difficult but important stories reach new audiences. We asked Times Social Media Photo Editor Kerri MacDonald (@kermac) to share their approach.
This year the @nytimes Instagram story has developed what feels like a fresh new format for news – part photo essay, part linear narrative, part prompt to go deeper. How do you describe the format you’re using, and how did you land on it?
KM: Our goal, in most cases, is to tell full stories on Instagram Stories. Ours tend to be longer than most, but we aren’t too concerned about the length. The challenge we give ourselves is to tell a full tale, as elegantly as possible. That doesn’t always mean that we’re telling the exact same story you see on nytimes.com; we might focus on one character or detail. Some require more space and time than others. No matter what, we always begin with the imagery: “Are there enough good images here to tell this story in a vertical format?” From there, we read the story and cut it down, looking for key facts and telling details.
Most of your Instagram Stories are connected to longer pieces that appear in the paper or on your site. How are the Instagram versions different from what you publish in other places?
KM: We almost always use more images on Instagram. Every photo or video assignment is different, but in most cases the journalist files a lot more imagery than we publish on nytimes.com and in print. On Stories, we make use of many of the outtakes available to us — if they make sense and suit the story. Photos and videos with clean backgrounds, which allow us to use text without disrupting much of the content of the image, are key. As we mentioned earlier, we often go a bit more narrow on Instagram Stories than we do with our reporting in print and on nytimes.com.
Some of your Instagram Stories take on really tough subjects, yet I find myself watching all the way to the end. How do you think about capturing and holding attention in such a short, ephemeral format?
KM: It’s amazing to watch people engage with some of the more difficult subjects we’ve covered here, like the global ape trade, the last ISIS holdout in Mosul and teen girls who had bombs strapped to them by Boko Haram. We receive quite a few messages along these lines: “Thank you for being there. Thank you for telling this story.” It’s essential for The Times to tell these kinds of stories on Instagram. When putting these pieces together, we lean toward a basic rule of storytelling: find a way to allow readers to connect. Find some emotion. We also keep in mind that many of our followers won’t have seen the original story, or any related coverage on this subject. We try to provide the necessary background so that no one feels lost.
Walk us through the mechanics of producing your Instagram story. Like, how do you get the text to stay the same size from frame to frame?
KM: The simple answer is this: We spend a lot of time on it! The longer answer: Before posting on @nytimes, we always post on a fake account and have a few different people look at the test story. That way we can make adjustments — big and small. Does the story feel too long? Does the text flow from slide to slide? In terms of the font, we tend to try to stick with the size that Instagram offers when you start typing, so that it doesn’t vary much from slide to slide. When we create text that builds on itself, we save our first slide, continue typing, and save the second. Type placement is so important here, particularly when you’re working with strong imagery. We try to make it complement the images, rather than distract from them.
What kind of feedback do you get – from your community and/or from your newsroom – on your Stories?
KM: Feedback from our followers is, in our minds, one of the most important aspects of Instagram Stories. If we receive dozens of messages, that’s great; if we see chatter about a story we’ve posted on other social platforms, that’s fantastic. We’re always curious to watch people share our Instagram Stories in their own Stories, too. The feedback depends on the subject, of course. We posted a story about making pizza and people called it “sensual.” As I mentioned earlier, people often thank us for covering sensitive and difficult subjects. A lot of people tell us they like seeing long stories here. That’s one of the primary reasons we’re sticking to that format.
What metrics do you pay most attention to with your stories?
KM: We’re always looking to see the total number of people our Stories reach, focusing on the first and last slides. Completion rates are important to us, and we track swipe up data, too. And as I mentioned above, we’re really interested in seeing how younger audiences respond to our Stories, too.
Where do you look for inspiration? Any favorite Instagram Stories from others?
KM: Everywhere, including Stories by the photographers who work with The Times, advertisements and other publishers. We have a Google Doc that includes screen grabs of inspiring things we see in others’ Stories. The list includes a great use of the poll feature by @natgeotravel; a nice text treatment on a Q&A by @apartmenttherapy; another great use of text by @lemondefr; and some eye-catching text-only cards by @teenvogue. Some of the photographers who’ve caught our attention here recently: @kendrickbrinson, @hlswift, @jasonhenry, @malinfezehai and so many more.