Meet the Stanford Journalism alums centering audience needs in the newsroom

Journalist Nisa Khan (MA 2020) remembers the day she found out that her story explaining birth control access in California had been printed out at a friend's gynecologist office. Donald Trump had just been elected president for a second time, and there was growing uncertainty around reproductive rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. 

 Knowing the information was being shared with women in such a direct way made Khan realize the impact she was having as an audience engagement reporter with KQED, San Francisco’s public radio and television station. Khan said an important lesson she learned as a student in the Stanford Journalism Program is to focus on local audiences and the everyday needs of citizens, even when reporting on national issues. 

“This idea of … how we can help people on a local basis, Stanford really nourished that and emphasized that,” she said. 

This mindset, Khan said, is infused in her explanatory pieces that help listeners and readers navigate their lives in the Bay Area. Her reporting spans a wide range of topics from how to save money on utilities to what to do during a wildfire emergency. More recently, Khan has focused on public transit and reproductive rights. 

The goal, she said, is to help keep the public informed and make sure that information is accessible. 

“It’s a lot of … what are people searching for?” Khan said, or discussing on social media. She takes into account the risks of trusting such content, but it does provide a pulse of what type of information people desire at the moment. “I still think that there's some kind of power in that, using it as a jumping off point to actually confirm if that's what people are talking about,” she said. 

Khan said this focus on what the audience needs is critical in a climate where many people distrust the media. 

“[It’s] a way of rebuilding [trust],” she said. “This is where you can come to us, this is verified news on this very specific thing in your community.”

Professor Jay Hamilton, the vice provost for undergraduate education and director of the Stanford Journalism Program, said Khan’s approach is similar to Sesame Street’s mantra of “you have to reach before you teach.”

“The same logic applies in journalism,” Hamilton said. “You need to think of a person’s incentive to read or watch, how it might affect their lives as a consumer, audience member, or voter, when you’re reporting.”

To counteract plummeting public trust, experts say, news organizations must deepen their understanding of audience needs and strengthen their connection with the communities they serve. Stanford Journalism graduates are helping lead this shift by applying product thinking, producing new storytelling formats and reimagining how news is delivered to create more engaging, accessible and audience-centered experiences.

Fabienne Meijer (MA 2019) credits her time at Stanford, and specifically Hamilton’s Perspectives on American Journalism class, in helping her think about how journalists need to examine their value to their communities. 

“Journalism used to be gatekeepers of information, we’re not anymore, we’re just one voice among the many and that means we need to make very clear why people should come to us, trust us, consume us, support us, not just with money but with their attention, their time and resources,” Meijer said. “Product thinking is a way to counter that, to gain empathy for the people who consume us.”

Meijer is the head of journalism products for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a network of investigative journalists focused on organized crime and corruption. Her day-to-day responsibilities include leading user research, interpreting analytics to understand user behavior, and working closely with editorial and technical teams to improve the organization's distribution platforms and products. These include the website, applications, podcasts, newsletters and a YouTube channel — ensuring each one delivers clear value and relevance.

“If we don't turn our attention to what is the information that people actually need, and how can we bring it to them in a way that that helps them, we're going to make ourselves irrelevant,” she said. 

Serdar Tumgoren, who teaches data journalism, computational journalism and how to build news applications, said user-centered design is woven into many of the Stanford Journalism classes.

“It’s really trying to put ourselves in the shoes of the person who's going to be using the tool or product that we're building, what they need, what their perspective might be, and trying to start from the ground up with that lens,” he said. 

Tumgoren said there is a sense of information exhaustion for many people, but newsrooms need to be able to differentiate themselves, continue their mission of providing factual information, and still have room to create fun and engaging products. 

“Can we do things that are fun and engaging and that bring people into our news ecosystem and make them want to spend time with us?” he said. 

Multimedia Professor Geri Migliecz said audiences of all ages are turning towards visuals for news information, and it's critical for journalism students to gain skills that align with those shifting habits. 

“The whole deal about delivering the news with visuals and audio … it's been building for 10 years, but it's really clear, that's how people want their news, that's how they're getting their news, that's how they're using the news now,” she said. 

At Stanford, Migliecz said, the focus is not about mastering a piece of software but on identifying compelling stories, choosing the most effective medium and presenting it in a way that engages an audience. 

“Stanford students shine when it’s about conceptual ideas and how to execute, and what medium and what technique and what way of telling the story really illuminates it for the audience," Migliecz said.

Bhabna Banerjee (MA 2024) said the focus on storytelling is what she remembers most about her time at Stanford. She recalls initially fixating on learning specific technical skills when she first started in the program, but later realized that it’s also important to think how an audience would connect with her work. Banerjee said this realization came after working on her thesis project interviewing survivors of the Eaton Fire in Southern California. Initially, she wanted to create a complex digital, interactive experience but realized the people she was interviewing, those who survived the wildfires, might not have access to what she wanted to create. 

“By the end of it, who are you writing the story for?” she said. 

Now as an opinion graphics editor at the New York Times, Banerjee produces data visualizations and graphics that accompany opinion pieces.She said she hopes readers are able to better comprehend complex issues and understand the nuanced arguments being presented to them. 

Sometimes, she said, keeping things simple is the best way to serve and engage audiences. And, the story needs to always be central. “The medium is only half the picture,” she said.