The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of the oldest and most venerated publications in the United States, with 20 Pulitzer Prizes to its name. With an online monthly audience of over 7 million people and 1.4 million registered users, The Inquirer’s work is a cornerstone of the Northeast’s publishing landscape.
Challenge
- Simplify a time-consuming, manual workflow
- Free up time to expand presence on newer, video-first platforms
- Arrest declining Facebook traffic
Approach
- Use Echobox automation to reduce manual workflow
- Dedicate time to video creation and audience engagement
Challenge
The Philadelphia Inquirer faced the dual challenge of expanding its content distribution across a growing number of social media platforms while simultaneously optimizing its workflow to balance traditional traffic generation with direct audience engagement. Operating within a dynamic news cycle and with a lean social media team, The Inquirer urgently needed a solution that could significantly reduce manual workflows and enhance performance.
For Ray Boyd, Director of Syndication and Social Media at The Philadelphia Inquirer, workflow was the heart of the issue. “We’re on pretty much all of the major social platforms, but our footprint is getting quite large and is continuing to grow and that presents challenges with bandwidth. And so it’s really important for us to make sure that we have the right tools to support that growth.”
“There’s really not one platform anymore, and click backs to the site aren’t our only success metric, either. It’s really about direct engagement on these platforms and building relationships.” Their previous system necessitated extensive manual intervention, consuming valuable time that was increasingly needed for evolving strategic priorities, particularly the development of social video content.
Approach
The Inquirer’s previous social solution came with AI features, but Boyd and his team were unconvinced.
“We didn’t have much trust in the automated options that we had before,” Boyd recounted. “It was very manual. So our team spent a lot more time throughout the day posting manually to Facebook and X and other link driven platforms. But this meant much less time on platforms like Instagram and pretty much no time on TikTok.”
“There’s really not one platform anymore, and click backs to the site aren’t our only success metric, either. It’s really about direct engagement on these platforms and building relationships.”
In response to these challenges, The Philadelphia Inquirer sought an intelligent solution that would provide confidence in automated posting while retaining the necessary flexibility for human oversight and strategic adjustments. Their selection of Echobox was driven by its robust AI capabilities, its reputation for responsive support, and its demonstrated willingness to develop features tailored to their unique needs.
“What really appealed to us about Echobox was the automation,” Boyd told us. “I was really curious about how the tool would learn what stories perform well and prioritize those. And then Echobox being able to differentiate between a normal story, a breaking news story and an evergreen story also really appealed. Because those decisions we’re making in a moment. And so having a tool that could do that was something that we were really interested in.”
Furthermore, The Inquirer embraced a hybrid automation model. During non-staffed periods, such as evenings, Echobox’s automation assumes full control. Its AI learns and prioritizes stories based on predicted performance, with its ability to differentiate between normal, breaking, and evergreen content being a key factor in building the team’s trust in this autonomous operation. During staffed hours, the social team maintains an “approvals” workflow on Facebook. Here, an editor reviews Echobox’s recommendations, allowing for quick, human-driven tweaks to captions, photos, or timing, ensuring “a human touch” is always possible.
Beyond the core social team, Echobox access was strategically extended across teams. Comprehensive cross-training ensures continuity of social coverage, particularly for event-driven content during off-hours, reinforcing the principle that “the news doesn’t stop.”
“Our onboarding with Echobox aligned with us ramping up our TikTok strategy because it created much more time for the social editors to be able to plan, script and shoot social video.”
But for Boyd and his team, the benefits of working with Echobox goes beyond the solution itself. The Inquirer also highly valued its collaborative partnership with Echobox, praising its responsive customer support and its openness to feedback and feature requests, such as discussions around enhancing image-link post capabilities and custom branding.
Results
The implementation of Echobox has yielded significant benefits for The Philadelphia Inquirer, enabling them to navigate the complexities of modern news distribution far more efficiently.
Foremost among these was an increased bandwidth for strategic initiatives. By introducing automation into their workflow for example, The Philadelphia Inquirer successfully free up an incredible 26 hours each day – crucial time for the social team. “Our onboarding with Echobox aligned with us ramping up our TikTok strategy because it created much more time for the social editors to be able to plan, script and shoot social video.”
“Since last year, we’ve gained roughly 25,000 new followers on TikTok alone. Our Instagram rate of growth is way up. It’s the time savings from Echobox that have allowed us to devote the necessary time to the platforms and get that growth.”
“That’s the great benefit. We’ve seen massive gains in terms of social video viewership and engagement on Instagram and TikTok — platforms where there are younger audiences that we want to introduce ourselves to, and we need the time and the bandwidth to do that. There was no way that a year ago, with our previous solution, we would have been able to devote as much time as we have devoted to those platforms. Since last year, we’ve gained roughly 25,000 new followers on TikTok alone. Our Instagram rate of growth is way up. It’s the time savings from Echobox that have allowed us to devote the necessary time to the platforms and get that growth.”
All in all, The Philadelphia Inquirer save a total of 26 hours every day across all of their social pages.
Conclusion
For The Philadelphia Inquirer, Echobox has unequivocally proven to be more than just a social media management tool; it stands as a strategic partner fundamentally empowering their newsroom. By intelligently automating routine distribution tasks, Echobox has successfully freed valuable editorial time, enabling The Inquirer to invest in critical new areas such as social video production and direct, in-platform audience engagement. This pivotal strategic shift is essential for publishers aiming to thrive in a multi-platform environment where content consumption habits are in constant flux. The Inquirer’s experience serves as a compelling demonstration that by embracing AI-driven automation, news organizations can achieve both significant operational efficiency and enhanced strategic agility, ensuring their vital journalism reaches audiences precisely where they are, when they desire it.
And would Boyd recommend Echobox to other publishers? “Oh yeah, I would definitely recommend it.”
