Great question, Lisa. We haven’t defined this in any official way, but I can share a few anecdotal observations.
1. Headlines matter. I can’t stress this enough. A shareable local story with a weak headline is more likely to fall flat.
2. Timing matters in some cases. If something’s buzzing now and we create content in a few hours, the content won’t be as successful. This of course doesn’t apply to our evergreen categories (Place Explainers, Curiosity Stimulators, Awe-Inspiring Visuals).
3. Many times, we found stories fell flat because they just didn’t affect enough people. Affect can mean different things. A story about a big storm affects me because I could lose power. A cool time-lapse of my city affects me because I’m impressed by the visually appealing scenes of a place I live. A News Explainer affects me because I learn something. But a story about a traffic jam on the interstate will only affect me if I’m taking that route. A story about a city council meeting will only affect me if the issues discussed somehow interest me or alter my life. So often it comes down to knowing the region, the audience and the topics that make it tick.
Anything we posted that wandered from these three points tended to fall flat.