Why we renamed the Audience Help Desk to the Service Desk

We used to call this work the Audience Help Desk. That name made sense: many newsrooms were being pushed to “do audience” without the time, staff, or support to do it well.

Over time, though, the work kept moving past audience tactics. The questions we were getting were not only about distribution or growth. They were about what a newsroom can reliably do for people week after week, and how to make that work sustainable inside a team.

That is why we changed the name to Service Desk. It is a more honest description of the support we provide: helping teams design and run journalism as an ongoing service, not just publish content, but grounded in real information needs and delivered through real workflows.

A big part of that shift is bringing the tools of service design into an advisory setting. We use practical methods like journey mapping, blueprinting, and iterative testing to make the work’s utility is tangible, not just well-intentioned.

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Content vs. product vs. service

• Content is what you publish (stories, newsletters, videos, explainers).
• Product is the design of the interface/experience people use to access that content or interact with the newsroom (site/app, newsletter template, onboarding flow, membership).
• Service is the repeated promise you make and keep (for example: “we help you understand local school policy changes” or “we help you report a corruption tip safely”), including how people discover it, use it, and get support when something breaks.

The purpose did not change. We still work alongside newsrooms and journalism support organizations. We still focus on practical methods and measurable benefit for real people in their real lives, not prestige or buzz.

You may still see “Audience Help Desk” in older materials. It refers to the same initiative. The new name reflects where the work has gone, and where we believe journalism needs to go next.