International News Organization Building Its US Audience

Immediate pain point: A prominent international news organization needed to grow its US audience but lacked clarity on how to target and serve racially and ethnically diverse American news consumers.

Facing an urgent market opportunity, the client engaged Springboard to uncover how diverse Asian American news consumers perceived its product and what would make its editorial offering more compelling. This was a sensitive change for a legacy brand: the organization had to expand reach without losing its core identity.

The trigger for the research was a clear belief that US growth depended on better targeting and a more inclusive editorial approach. The central question the project addresses: how can the organization reshape its editorial strategy and audience targeting so it resonates with racially and ethnically diverse Americans while sustaining its existing readership?

Differentiator: Recruiting Asian American news consumers through Springboard's specialized Asian American recruiting service. Interviewing Asian American news consumers using a highly experienced Asian American interviewer.

Process (first → last)

1. First, we collaborated with the client to co-design the interview guide.
2. Then we recruited participants from a variety of Asian national origins.
3. Next, we hosted and conducted remote qualitative interviews with the recruited news consumers.
4. Finally, we performed analysis and interpretation of findings and synthesized insights for the client.

Our role vs. the client’s: Springboard co-created the interview guide with the client; Springboard led recruitment, session hosting, interviewing, analysis, and interpretation. The client participated in guide development and received synthesized insights.

Delivered actionable editorial directions in five weeks.

1. Five-week turnaround from preparation to final report
2. Several editorial directions with strong Asian American and cross-over reader appeal were identified
3. Relatively minor editorial & staffing shifts were shown to have high potential for increasing relevance and engagement

Business impact: These insights enabled decision-makers to prioritize low-cost, high-impact adjustments to news coverage and staffing, increasing interest among Asian American news consumers while preserving broad audience appeal.