How Quartz and BBC are reaching global audiences

The internet has made access to news easier for people around the world and together with the increasing popularity of smartphones, news organisations can now tap into global audiences faster and better than before.

But the challenge for both new and established media outlets remains finding ways to tell stories that people across borders can identify with.

In the relatively short time since it launched, US-based Quartz has managed to pass five million monthly readers on its website and expanded to include an Indian and African edition.

According to editor-at-large Bobby Ghosh, this is because Quartz's aim since the beginning was to be an international publication, rather than think of global audiences as an additional revenue stream.

"One of the great things about being a new media company is that we're not burdened by old-fashioned ideas," Ghosh told Journalism.co.uk.

There is the evolution of a new kind of globetrotting, internationalist reader. Where geography is simply the thing that you fly over when you're on a plane, borders don't mean that much to you anymoreBobby Ghosh, Quartz

He said that expanding in India and Africa is "a logical extension" of Quartz's business model, due to their thriving economies and large English-speaking and reading populations.

Ghosh pointed out that Quartz looks at stories through "the prism of the new global economy", because people want to know how their country's economy is shaping global events, but also how global issues impact them.

"In emerging markets, when you feel in your daily life that your country, your economy, your household, your job, your politics, are connected to the global economy, then you want to know more about that global economy.

But you don't want to know about it from the point of view of an American economist or a British journalist or a French commentator, you want to understand it from a point of view that is relevant to you."

By publishing stories that people care about from a "globalist perspective", he said Quartz wants to establish an identity that its audience identify with and share across all Quartz platforms, not just individual stories.

"Because we are new, we depend on our readers to share their enjoyment of our stories. Most of our traffic comes through social media sharing, like Facebook and Twitter and sharing is essentially built into our design and into the way we think of our business."

Ghosh argued that publishers produce a lot of "high quality journalism" and it should be available to an international market.

"There is the evolution of a new kind of globetrotting, post-national, internationalist reader. Where geography is simply the thing that you fly over when you're on a plane, borders don't mean that much to you anymore.

It doesn't matter where you're coming from, if you're smart about the way you do journalism and you recognise the growth of this new market, you can be a player."

The BBC's World Service arm produces news in 28 languages across TV, radio and digital and having a legacy means people know they can trust it.

The world is increasingly globalised and in many of these countries, young people are aspirational, keen to learn and thirsty for understanding and knowledge in their own language, but also in EnglishMary Hockaday, BBC World Service

Mary Hockaday, controller at the BBC World Service, said the approach is to first think of the journalism and "what audiences really value from us", before finding the best platform to reach people.

She pointed out that it is important to look "market-by-market" because even though the BBC has a big radio audience worldwide, in regions like the Middle East, TV has "definitely outstretched it".

The main aim of the BBC's WhatsApp experiment during the Ebola crisis was to provide health tips and breaking news bulletins to as many people as possible, often through short audio clips.

"The mobile is very, very widespread in Africa, but it's not always a smartphone. People don't necessarily have money for big video downloads, but what we did find is that WhatsApp is a very effective platform for reaching people with really simple, but really important information," Hockaday said.

She added that in other countries, like India and Thailand, social platforms have a "huge take up", and people use them to find news and interact with stories. 

Through Twitter Q&As and Facebook 'pop-ups', but also through more traditional mediums like the World Have Your Say discussion programme, the BBC wants to have a conversation and "draw in people that have real relevance to stories".

Hockaday explained that the challenges of trying to reach global audiences range from tight broadcasting regulations to issues of signal and access to mobile internet but, even then, it's important to find a way that will still give people "the core of the information".

"The world is increasingly globalised and in many of these countries, people are aspirational, keen to learn and thirsty for understanding and knowledge in their own language, but also in English."

• This story was adapted from a recent Journalism.co.uk podcast on how publishers can tap into global audiences.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).