Ryan Restivo is a newsroom product chief and the founding father of YESEO, an viewers optimization instrument designed to assist journalists apply search engine marketing finest practices with out disrupting editorial workflows. He at present serves as director of product at Newsday Media Group, the place he works throughout cellular, over-the-top streaming platforms (OTT), which ship video content material instantly over the web, and data-driven newsroom merchandise. He beforehand held roles spanning editorial growth, app redesign and newsroom coaching.
Restivo constructed YESEO throughout his 2022–23 fellowship on the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, affiliated with the College of Missouri, following in depth conversations with editors about discoverability, workflow friction and the bounds of conventional search engine marketing instruments. The Slack-based app has since been adopted by many newsrooms and used on a number of tales. His profession sits on the intersection of journalism, product and rising know-how, with a give attention to sensible instruments that meet journalists the place they already work.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
What newsroom downside had been you attempting to resolve if you constructed YESEO, and the way did conversations with editors form the product in a different way than if it had been constructed purely as an search engine marketing instrument?
The spark got here from an actual newsroom downside. I’d heard concerning the Reynolds Journalism Institute fellowship and I began a doc with a bunch of doable concepts, however none of them turned the challenge.
Just a few weeks later, an editor got here to me with a query: Why wasn’t an area story displaying up on the primary web page of Google? We put every little thing right into a Google Sheet, headlines, descriptions, what rivals had been doing, and it turned apparent fairly shortly: the important thing names within the story weren’t displaying up in our headline or description. That hole was the “aha” second.
That’s what pushed me towards the thought of constructing one thing that would assist greater than only one newsroom. And I’d constructed a Slack instrument years earlier after I was studying to code, so these two issues — an actual editorial downside and my consolation with Slack — got here collectively within the earliest model of YESEO.
Editors formed the product all through. Throughout the fellowship I did a variety of interviews and qualitative analysis. Surveys are nice, however conversations assist you get to the “why” and see what individuals really want.
One function that’s nonetheless in YESEO at present got here instantly from an editor interview: if you paste a hyperlink, the app can break down whether or not the key phrase you care about is definitely in your headline or description, and the way usually it seems. I constructed the primary model shortly, then refined it as a result of the counting was imperfect at first.
After which in late 2022, when giant language fashions began to take off, it modified how I believed concerning the instrument. I spotted I might use what customers had been already getting into to generate recommendations, like a number of headline choices, with out pretending the instrument could possibly be “the professional” for each market. I desire giving individuals choices they will adapt with their very own judgment.
Many newsrooms are debating whether or not viewers instruments belong within the CMS, Slack, or standalone apps. Out of your expertise, the place does YESEO match finest — and why?
I constructed it for Slack as a result of, proper now, that’s the place work will get completed. My method has at all times been accessible, sensible innovation, one thing individuals can simply set up and attain in the course of their workflow.
An enormous problem early on was making it installable throughout a number of Slack workspaces, so totally different newsrooms might use the identical app. Since March 2023, there have been greater than 650 installs, and the instrument has been used on greater than 18,000 tales. My greatest fear at launch wasn’t “Will this be excellent?” It was, “Will anybody even discover it?” Individuals discovered it and used it.
That stated, instruments can belong elsewhere. It relies on what’s most handy for somebody to do their job. For some groups, a CMS integration may make sense. For others, a standalone net instrument may.
I’ve additionally heard from a couple of those who YESEO impressed them to construct instruments inside their very own newsroom, which is without doubt one of the finest outcomes you may hope for.
Would you broaden YESEO past Slack — to net, Outlook, Google Docs, or Groups?
After I first launched it, the query I received most was, “The place’s your Groups app?” However then I’d ask individuals what they considered Groups — and a variety of them instructed me they hate it. That didn’t really feel like an incredible course to chase.
Extra not too long ago, I’ve had an opportunity to double down by way of a JournalismAI Innovation Problem partnership with The Oglethorpe Echo on the College of Georgia. We’ve been constructing options that assist them perceive sources higher. An online platform might ultimately assist with a few of that work, however it’s an enormous endeavor. It’s one thing I’d discover, however realistically that’s extra of a “subsequent 12 months” challenge.
With Google search evolving and AI summaries altering referral patterns, what search engine marketing practices nonetheless matter for journalists in 2025 — and what ought to they cease worrying about?
The fundamentals nonetheless matter, all of them. Each sign we’ve seen up to now suggests you must hold doing stable search engine marketing finest practices: write robust headlines, use correct key phrases, and ensure the story delivers on what it guarantees. Write good tales that serve customers and create an expertise that helps individuals.
It sounds easy, however some newsrooms are nonetheless catching as much as the basics. And whilst search modifications, the tried-and-true practices are nonetheless what’s going to make you profitable.
For journalists or product-minded reporters who need to work in newsroom innovation roles, what abilities or experiences matter most in 2025, and what’s the easiest way to begin carving out that path inside a newsroom?
Probably the most vital abilities is the flexibility to study shortly. Whenever you step into knowledgeable atmosphere, particularly proper out of undergrad, you abruptly have a variety of programs to study on day one. With the ability to choose up new instruments and workflows is what helps you develop.
I didn’t construct a instrument for a newsroom till lower than 10 years in the past. Early in my profession, I took jobs that weren’t an ideal match, like testing fantasy video games, as a result of I wanted a foot within the door. However these abilities helped over time. The whole lot builds on itself.
The information product world can really feel huge, however it’s additionally small. Individuals know one another. It may be exhausting to interrupt in, so it helps to search for alternatives in information or adjoining to information that allow you to construct expertise. Over time, the abilities compound and make you extra distinctive.
And other people method information merchandise in a different way. My method is mirrored in what I constructed with YESEO, however for those who put the identical instrument in another person’s arms, it’d go in a very totally different course. That’s why shaping your worldview as you construct abilities is vital.
For college students graduating quickly who really feel like they’ve a variety of abilities however don’t know the way to bundle them, what’s your recommendation?
I graduated in 2008, which wasn’t a good time. I took the primary job I might discover. Typically getting a foot within the door is tougher than individuals suppose — and simply getting in issues.
As you consider alternatives, I’d give attention to values: What’s vital to you now and long run? Examine your values to the roles on the market. That may give you readability on what you’ll truly be good at, and which jobs may look fascinating however don’t match what you need.
That sort of readability takes time. It’s a course of.
For Restivo, that very same mindset — studying, adapting, and assembly journalists the place they already labored — is what formed YESEO and continues to information how he builds instruments for the newsroom.
