Go with your gut, not with the clicks: In a saturated media environment, news consumers most value news that is relevant to them - a factor that can't be sussed out in a newsroom by measuring clicks, according to new research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. "To the extent that journalists prioritize news stories with civic value, they should trust their instincts rather than relying on the unreliable seismograph offered by 'Most Read' lists." He found that the participants ranked their article choices based on what was most relevant to them personally or to a friend or family member they could imagine sharing the information with. Here's the perspective of Victoria, a 21-year-old student: "I think a lot of these I've chosen is because of personal relevance, something that's happened in my life or to my family, and that's why it's obviously more important to you, so you seek the information." Others explained they'd share celebrity news with their in-laws or Airbnb news with their kids who use it. So what do these consumption findings mean for newsrooms? It's a good reminder that pageviews shouldn't be the decisive metric and that personalization of news - still theoretical or a work in progress for most news organizations - has some merit in helping news consumers access the news that is actually relevant to them. "When we use [the word] personalization people about ads following them around the internet," BBC's R&D lead producer Tristan Ferne said. The New York Times has also experimented with personalization, such as geotargeting and tweaking the homepage based on the time of a reader's last visit. Read more