Tagesanzeiger.ch receives an average of 450 reader ratings per article

The question is short and to the point: "Is this article worth reading?" This has recently been added to the end of Tages-Anzeiger online articles, and with a click on the Yes or No button, users can make their verdict. And the result of the overall readership can be seen immediately: Two blue bars show the proportion of yes and no votes, i.e. how satisfied the readership is with the article in question.

"This innovation is about more than a simple question," says Michael Marti, Head of Digital and Member of the Editorial Board of Tages-Anzeiger and SonntagsZeitung, "the feedback function is rather an expression of the conviction that qualitative feedback is crucial in determining journalistic quality.

The results, which Tages-Anzeiger Online will publish on Tuesday, are based on reader reactions to 1,192 online articles published in recent weeks. The feedback function has been used intensively during this period, with around 500,000 Tages-Anzeiger online readers giving a response to the question "Is this article worth reading?" That means an average of around 450 responses per article. There are individual articles that have received over 4000 ratings.

The texts of the Tages-Anzeiger are well received. The average rating of 1,200 articles is 80 percent, which means that on average 80 out of 100 users rate an article on Tagesanzeiger.ch as "worth reading. Individual articles, however, come off very badly, for example "63-year-old graces 'Sports Illustrated' cover", a Panorama article that only 23 percent of users rated as worth reading, while others have top ratings (such as "Saddam's warnings", an article that has been rated by 3,900 users to date, 99 percent of them as "worth reading").

The analysis of the ratings by department is revealing: The core departments, such as foreign, domestic and business, score well in the readers' opinion, whereas the ratings for Panorama stories are significantly lower.

How will readers benefit from the innovation? In the future, the editorial team will be able to recommend the best and most relevant content to its users more precisely. "Currently, a list of the most-read articles is prominently displayed on our front page - this must be supplemented as soon as possible with the top ten best-rated articles," says Marti. The rating function now offered on Tages-Anzeiger Online has been in operation on Tamedia's 12 app since its launch in October 2015. The user ratings, now a large and valuable data set, showed the 12 app editorial team what the readership values and demands in digital as well. These lessons are now also being incorporated into Tages-Anzeiger online. And if the system proves successful, a rollout to other Newsnet titles is possible.