You're working in journalism in one of the most scary but exciting times in its history, what are you going to do now? You're… going to Disney World? If you can afford it, maybe you should. Why? Because, like Disney, you're in the business of creating experiences. At least you should be.

That's the gist of an essay, "The Third Way to Media Success," published this week by Miller-McCune Research. Chronicling work by Northwestern University journalism researchers, the piece challenges publishers to find a middle ground between spoonfeeding audiences what they think is good for them and blindly following analytics.

Drawing on examples from the Food Network, The Arizona Republic and Popular Science, among others, it proposes a "'third way' that couples creative expertise with deep knowledge of audience experiences to build long-term reader and viewer loyalty."

Rather than framing their work according to terms used by journalists like "news" and "features," the essay offers, content creators should frame their work according to terms used by their customers, like "makes me smarter," "feels good," "kills time," and "talk and share." In other words, they should seek to create experiences their audience enjoys.

 A source in the article, whose firm publishes a Web portal for health care professionals, put it even more succinctly.

"Real success for any community-based site is getting people to come back on their own,” said Mike Alic, Advanstar’s vice president of strategic planning. “To do that, you need to be part of the narrative of their life.”

Another piece out this week, Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow Joy Mayer's interview with California Watch public engagement manager Ashley Alvarado, struck a similar theme. Following a discussion of what engagement means and some of Alvarado's duties and projects, Mayer concluded:

We learn early on as journalists that people love pets and babies. Ashley also knows that they love to see themselves in the news, and for California Watch, that means covering what they’re invested in and have a personal stake in. They’ll come back over and over for that.

We recommend giving both pieces a read. Each is a "makes me smarter" experience.