Content personalisation strategies in the UK news media and their impact on operations across media organisations.

This thesis investigated the adoption and implications of content personalisation strategies within the UK news media industry. It contributed to the discussion about the increasing need for news organisations to adapt to audience fragmentation in a competitive digital environment. Grounded in journalism and media business studies, the research explored how journalists, editors, and other media professionals perceive and implement content personalisation, analysing its impact on their roles, organisational practices, and audience engagement. This research aimed to produce new knowledge in relation to wider content personalisation practices across the UK newsrooms, which are beyond automated solutions (achieved through cookies, personalised news feeds and newsletters, etc.), that are more frequently discussed in the literature. The study employed a qualitative methodology involving 24 semi-structured interviews with media professionals across diverse UK news organisations, supplemented by grey literature analysis, such as industry reports and companies’ data. The thematic analysis identified recurring patterns and themes, revealing the way editorial decision-making, audience online behaviour and data about user content consumption habits impact journalistic work and processes of personalisation implementation. Key findings highlighted differences in personalisation approaches between financial, business, and general-interest media, demonstrating how audience-specific strategies are shaped by the nature of the content, users' demand, and organisational goals. A significant contribution of this research was the development of the empirical model that outlined the process of content personalisation implementation across newsrooms. Also, the thesis offered a new taxonomy of content personalisation strategies that distinguished between editorial and automated. This developed classification advanced existing theoretical frameworks and addressed how content consumption habits and audience preferences are implemented through editorial practices and technological tools. The findings also reinforced the strategic importance of personalisation for audience retention and subscription models, while raising ethical concerns about the influence of audience metrics on journalistic autonomy and diversity of content. The research also acknowledged the limitations of this study, including the sample size of interviews and its focus on the UK media. It proposed areas for future exploration, such as longitudinal studies, the exploration of audience perspectives on content personalisation, research on the growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) within the UK news media sector, and quantitative validation of the empirical model designed as one of the outcomes of this thesis. Apart from that, the study provided actionable insights for media professionals operating in the evolving landscape of content personalisation, and also contributed to the discussion about the balance of technological innovation with journalistic integrity and societal responsibilities.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

PhD thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Westminster

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Bortnovskaya, Maria

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• D'Arma, A.
• Verdegem, P.

Identifier

oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:x3y2v

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:x3y2v