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Beyond the article: new formats winning attention

How publishers are boosting engagement with content rich experiences suited to a mobile-first audience

16th September 2025

Publishers are looking at ways to create new digital formats that complement the traditional article

On Thursday last week, Pugpig attended the Press Gazette Future of Media Technology conference in London. As expected, AI dominated the agenda, however, what stood out was the balanced conversation which not only addressed the risks but also explored how media companies can harness emerging technologies.

One topic discussed was how publishers can design the next generation of news products for increasingly mobile-first audiences. In a panel titled “winning video strategies for publishers”, speakers highlighted a decisive shift from article‑centric publishing to a more format‑diverse approach. They pointed to the increased importance of video, which has been shaped by changing attention patterns.

Publishers are increasingly rethinking how stories are packaged to better match user intent and context and are exploring formats that drive habit and time spent. This is neatly summarised in a recent article from The Audiencers that lists ten different formats that publishers can look to, to create alternative structures and interactive treatments that have the ability to outperform the traditional article for engagement.

In today’s Pugpig Media Bulletin, we’ll unpack practical moves publishers can make to build more engaging digital formats and look at how they can look to integrate them into product and editorial workflows.

Attention is shifting: from article-first to format-diverse

Most newsrooms still invest the bulk of their effort into linear, text‑based articles but that centre of gravity is shifting. Teams are increasingly looking to package stories in formats that meet audiences where they are and in the precise moments they’re most engaged. With search referrals softening and channels like Google Discover offering limited, volatile upside, driving deeper engagement has become critical. As a result, more publishers are adopting new content formats to capture and hold attention in a mobile‑first world.

The change is most visible on mobile apps, where sessions are often more frequent than web. At Pugpig we are seeing the benefit of offering users a more diverse content experience. Benchmarks from our Pugpig Media App report show that apps that lean into richer, digital‑first formats deliver stronger engagement across key engagement metrics.

Content-rich experiences deliver higher engagement

In the Audiencers piece, they outlined a rich menu of formats that can sit alongside the traditional article to lift engagement. This included an evolution of text-based content through threads and sequential explainers that break a story into feed‑native, digestible steps. They also looked at ways to enhance interactivity through polls, swipeable galleries and push notifications.

Non-text formats are another area where they suggest investing, with audio being one of the standouts. In our recent report we found that nearly half of all Pugpig apps now include an audio component, and listeners who engage with it spend nearly twice as much time in the app as those who don’t. Historically, in-app audio took the form of podcasts but publishers are increasingly using AI‑powered text‑to‑speech summaries to allow them to serve their articles in another format. Some of the apps we looked at with particularly high engagement allow users to queue audio to listen later. Foreign Affairs, for example, introduced an audio header, letting listeners easily queue all audio articles within a specific timeline.

Content consumption formats are changing because many are adjusting how they consume media. INMA data has shown the importance of vertical video with 17% of adults now getting news via TikTok, rising to 63% for teens. As we wrote about late last year, publishers like the BBC have reported notable gains in app video engagement after adopting vertical formats, and there are commercial, advertising benefits too. Jonathan Levy, Managing Director and Executive Editor of Sky News pointed out to the Press Gazette event that digital video inventory is five times more valuable than display advertising.

The strategic takeaway is to build defensible, distinctive products. In the last talk of the day at the Press Gazette event, FT Strategies pointed out that there’s a small window to prepare for the AI shift by serving niche needs with experiences that large AI models can’t easily replicate. Creating a community is one approach to this and it could include live and in‑person events. It can also be replicated digitally by allowing users to comment on articles on the site or in the app. When offered as a subscriber benefit, this feature doesn’t just boost habit, it makes the value of membership tangible.

Start small, think cross‑format, measure what matters

Expanding beyond the article can be challenging for news organisations, so we would advise to start small. Pick one or two formats that play to existing strengths, then build a cross‑format workflow where new formats relate to existing articles and allow users to go deeper into a subject without leaving topics stranded. This may require an operating model shift. Connie Krarup, Media Lead at Q5 noted at the Press Gazette event that many newsrooms are actively retooling their processes to ship a more diverse mix of content.

Defining success up front is vital and it should bias toward engagement. Optimise for time spent, interaction, completion and return frequency. This will require development of format‑specific KPIs, screens per session or pageviews alone will undervalue immersive experiences like audio, live blogs or vertical video.

Finally, use technology to lower the cost of experimentation. The AI conversation isn’t just about risk, it’s also about efficiency and speed to multi‑format. As tooling improves, it becomes far easier to version content across formats, build habit‑forming journeys and win back attention from social feeds with experiences that feel native to owned platforms.

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