I vividly remember the 12th of April 2019. I cannot remember the occasion, but there were drinks in the newsroom. The community team was just my co-worker Andy and myself.
A couple of hours earlier, I had a meeting with a senior manager discussing the community team’s content strategy. He wasn’t too fond of the things we’ve planned for the day. We had prepared a call to find the best kebab shop in Switzerland. “This won’t work,” he said.
During drinks, the call attracted more and more readers and finally made it to the first place of concurrent readers.
You can imagine the satisfaction we felt. It was our debut success. Today, the resulting article is still placed in the top search results in Google.
Sometimes, it’s best to trust your gut and ignore the superiors. Sticking to the overall understanding of community-driven journalism wouldn’t have helped us create the stories we told.