User Personas
Turn audience research into memorable human archetypes that anchor everyday decisions.
Use this model if…
…your newsroom wants clearly defined reader groups, and you need a shared reference that keeps editorial, product, and commercial teams aligned around real user goals.
…you are planning a product redesign and must ensure every design and coverage decision stays grounded in what a specific reader persona needs.
…you collect plenty of analytics but struggle to translate numbers into everyday actions, and you need a narrative tool that turns data into a relatable story that guides tone, format, and platform choices.
We identified six local audience segments, then focused on three key targets: two digital growth segments and one retention segment for print readers. We developed user personas for the growth segments.
Sami Hannukka, Keskisuomalainen
Origin: The concept of user personas originated in the 1980s tech world. Alan Cooper, a pioneer of user-centered design, introduced the method of creating fictional user archetypes to help software teams focus on real user goals and behaviors. His 1998 book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, popularized the approach, advocating for personas as a way to humanize data and drive intuitive product design. Journalism has since adopted this method to better serve diverse audiences. By identifying distinct user segments and their motivations, newsrooms use (audience) personas to move beyond one-size-fits-all content, enabling more targeted, engaging reporting and product development.
What does the model really do? A persona model synthesizes user research into a human-centered sketch of a typical user. The resulting persona includes a name, face, and story, giving life to what would otherwise be abstract data points. In the newsroom, these personas serve as mental reminders. Instead of always referring to raw data, journalists can use a persona’s narrative and preferences when making decisions. Creating "human" profiles should be done only if it genuinely supports internal understanding, not as a goal in itself.
Examples of personas:
Jack Billingham (Detroit Free Press)
Rachel (Audience persona example by HubSpot)
Inspiration & examples:
Rediscovering the design personas the Guardian used nearly a decade ago – The Guardian
How the Detroit Free Press is using personas to better gauge readers’ interests – Detroit Free Press
Templates & guides:
Simple and effective Persona Template by Roman Pichler
Personas – A Simple Introduction by IxDF
Beyond Print Toolkit: Audience personas by The Lenfest Institute