User Needs

Align every story to a specific audience need so coverage serves a clear user need.

Use this model if…

  • …you want to create measurable, audience-driven change. Applying the User Needs model can improve workflow efficiency and boost engagement.

  • …you need a simple, consistent framework to center audience needs in daily story decisions.

  • …you are looking for a shared vocabulary that unites editorial, product, data, and business teams, making collaboration and decision-making easier.

I find traditional ‘personas’ can be too narrow for newsroom work—useful for marketing, sure, but we focus more on people’s questions and needs around business, finance, and economics.”

Jennifer Hicks, The Wall Street Journal

Origin: Abraham Maslow’s 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, introduced the hierarchy of needs, demonstrating that human behavior is driven by motivations. Since then, many other needs-based models have emerged. Among these is industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss’s approach, which translated human-centered design principles into product design in his 1955 book, Designing for People, emphasizing that products should be built around user goals. Drawing from this tradition, Dmitry Shishkin’s 2016–17 BBC project distilled the User Needs Model for News, showing that aligning journalism with specific user needs significantly boosts audience reach and loyalty.

What does the model really do? It reframes planning around action verbs such as “update”, “inspire”, and “guide”, enabling editors to examine coverage from multiple angles, including success, gaps, and overproduction. Because the model is need based rather than people based, it excels at diagnosing the content mix and boosting engagement metrics. It translates every story idea or published piece into a small, universal set of reader motivations.

Examples of needs:

  • Know (fact driven)

  • Understand (context driven)

  • Feel (emotion driven)

  • Do (action driven)

Inspiration & examples:

Templates & guides: