If you can recognize the newsreader of the 8 p.m. news broadcast on the street, you're unlikely to recognize the journalist who wrote the last article you read. In print journalism, bylines and author bio pages tell you very little about the writer and their work.
Yet embodying one's medium, even in writing, allows readers to learn more about the journalist who wrote a particular article. In doing so, journalists can be more transparent about how they work, how they choose their subject and their expertise in discussing it. Younger generations seek information from sources they trust, according to a Financial Times study on young generations' relationship with media and information published in March. A reader trusts a source when it has expertise and credibility to discuss a subject, when they feel close to it, and finally when its intentions, biases and possible conflicts of interest are known.
Embodiment thus becomes essential for media seeking to reach a younger audience, particularly through social networks like TikTok and Instagram, but also to build trust more broadly. Some media outlets choose to put journalists on camera to show readers the faces of certain people working in the newsroom.
Yet this strategy is not the only way to engage your readership by emphasizing transparency and human connection. Underrated and underused in France, journalist bios accessible from media websites are a way to highlight the work of journalists behind the articles we read and, more broadly, the teams behind media outlets, as Contexte does—a media outlet designed for political professionals. In the United States, this practice is common; most major news sites have biographical profiles, more or less detailed, for their journalists. In France, the trend is different: some media outlets have created author pages that link a journalist's name to the series of articles they have written. When you read an article, you have the option to click on the journalist's name at its origin (at the top or bottom of the page); you'll be redirected to all the articles they have produced for the outlet.
The threat of artificial intelligence
An American habit that could be explained by "the figure of the celebrity journalist that exists even in print media in the United States and less so in France ", suggests Renaud Creus, director of communications at Mediapart, who accompanies these journalists' names with a few biographical lines and a statement of interests. On the American side, Edmund Lee, who heads the trust team at the New York Times (a cross-functional team whose goal is to establish strategies to strengthen reader trust in the newspaper), believes that France and Europe more broadly have "a more traditional mindset than in the United States " attached to writing synthetically and getting to the point.
In the digital age, with the proliferation of information sources and the arrival of AI-generated content, a byline alone no longer seems sufficient to show readers they can trust the article they're reading. Including journalist biographies is also a way for a news outlet to remind readers that its articles aren't written by robots. "Now readers can be more easily fooled, and we want it to be even clearer that humans are doing our work, not robots," says Edmund Lee. For this reason, the New York Times, which had integrated biographies into its site shortly after going online in 1996, began incorporating an enhanced version of them in September. "People want to know everything; their expectations are different from before," Edmund Lee says.
Journalists at the American daily newspaper must now explain in their biographical profile what they did before joining the newsroom, the subjects they cover, and the journalistic ethics they adhere to. The location where they work is also listed. "Readers have misconceptions about our journalists. Many think, for example, that we're all from New York, when that's not true. Most are actually from elsewhere and work elsewhere too," explains Edmund Lee.
Strengthen information literacy
By providing personal information about journalists, these media outlets strengthen both trust and transparency in how they work. The greatest innovation in the New York Times biographies is the section on journalism ethics. "When we tested it with readers, they felt it was the most important thing to know," says Edmund Lee. Through its journalists, the New York Times thus reminds readers that it is an independent media outlet with no connection to the subjects it covers.
Readers also learn in this section how journalists work. In the biography of journalist Vivian Yee, a reporter based in Cairo covering North Africa, you can read: " Aware that I am not from the region or culture I cover, I always try to better understand the place where I am, while questioning my own assumptions and biases. " Or to understand how a journalist handles their sources, as explained by investigative journalist Ben Protess in his bio: " I also take steps to avoid creating a conflict of interest. So when I meet a source, I pay for coffee or lunch and I don't accept gifts. "
Meet the needs of your community
Today, nearly 90% of the New York Times newsroom has adopted this new biography format, representing close to 600 journalists. However, implementing this innovation across such a large newsroom requires substantial resources. The trust team at the New York Times conducted research over two years to design these new biographies. They notably surveyed a limited panel of readers selected following interviews. A mockup was presented to them with several categories (their education and background, their ethics, their role, their work, where they work, etc.) to compose the biographies. They could remove or add categories and change their order. Engaging your reader community in the development and evolution of the media is also a way to nurture the trust relationship with them.
Next, it was necessary to convince the newsroom journalists to write their new biographies. Edmund Lee's team once again started by assembling a small pilot group of journalists to encourage others to do it gradually. The process remains the same for rolling out the new biographies. Once the journalists have written them following the guidance and examples from the trust team, they are reviewed and edited by that same team before being approved by their editor-in-chief. Once again, the time devoted to this follow-up and these reviews requires considerable resources that the New York Times has at its disposal.
But regardless of a media outlet's size, practices can be designed to implement biographies that meet readers' needs. In addition to an "team" page, all author bylines in Jours articles are clickable and present a biography of the person along with a photo. This page also includes a "contact me" tab with a contact form. Another example from Brief.me, a daily news newsletter, which features each media member under the "team" tab with a bio, photo, and declaration of interests. Without having specific categories, the biographies of these two media outlets, whose teams are small, combine professional backgrounds, preferred topics, and often also information about the person's personality.
Show the diversity of a newsroom
Biographies are "a way of bringing the newsroom to life, of showing that behind a website, articles, and bylines, there are also faces and real people", says Renaud Creus at Mediapart. "We're a newsroom with 65 journalists and just as many different profiles", he adds. In addition to being linked to article bylines, these biographical pages are also accessible from the bottom of the homepage by clicking on photos of newsroom members. Mediapart journalists are not currently required to fill them out. On their page, everyone must include their conflicts of interest statement, but they choose to write what they want without being constrained by specific categories. Mediapart's team has the near-term goal of establishing some guidelines and a framework covering their professional background, why they cover these subjects, and how they approach them, for enriched future biographies.
A similar approach is used by Contexte, which showcases its team (editorial and beyond) on its Team page through a photo gallery. Furthermore, this page displays only about twenty members and changes daily to highlight other company employees. By clicking on team member photos, you discover a short biography along with several links to their social media profiles and, lastly, their statement of interests.
Build trust in sources
If this information serves readers, it also serves journalists. Mediapart's editorial team biographies include links that allow people to contact them to share information. "They can find out who is covering the relevant subject, and it's also a way to strengthen the trust relationship," explains Renaud Creus. A finding echoed by Edmund Lee at the New York Times: "sources trust journalists more when access to certain personal information allows them to feel more comfortable talking to them." Adding links to social media, like links in general, also helps these pages rank better online.
Biographies help educate readers about information literacy while also showcasing a newsroom's values, particularly transparency and respect for journalistic ethics. "Adding biographies to journalists' names allows us to demonstrate the diversity and wealth of our newsroom while ensuring no single person is elevated above others", concludes Renaud Creus.
To go further
- A presentation of new biographies from the New York Times by the Nieman Lab.
- An overview of video use on social media to embody your made in Medianes media.
- Examples of media outlets that have created formats to tell their behind-the-scenes stories at Médianes.
