#17 Introducing Personalization Where the Newsroom Usually Says No — At the Top of the Homepage. Ivar Krustok & Tarmo Paju, Delfi Estonia

Content Personalization in news products has typically been placed in low-risk areas—below articles or in separate recommendation modules further down on the page.

What happens when it is introduced higher up the page? We talk about the top!

In most news products, around 80% of clicks happen on the top part of the page. Very few readers scroll far enough to engage with content further down. This makes the top section both the most valuable and the most sensitive area to change.

In this episode of Insight Shapes News by Kilkaya, host Nils Ove Håland Riise speaks with Tarmo Paju (Managing Editor - Development and Innovation) and Ivar Krustok (Chief AI Officer) from Delfi about their approach to testing personalization in a more visible editorial context.

Delfi did not begin with the homepage. The work started in the sports section—a high-volume environment with frequent updates and a loyal audience. This provided a controlled setting to test how personalization affects both editorial workflows and user behaviour.

Even in this setting, the questions were familiar. Editorial teams need to understand how content is selected, how priorities are set, and what level of control remains. All the things that we question with Black box personalization creating echo chambers...

The discussion focuses on how Delfi structured this work. Personalization is applied within defined boundaries, where editors can prioritise, override, and adjust outcomes. The system is based on simple signals, including whether a story has already been read, combined with editorial input.

This changes how the front of a section is managed. Some manual work is reduced, while responsibility for key editorial choices remains.

🎧 Topics we cover:

• Why personalization is usually limited to lower parts of the page
  
• Why Delfi chose the sports section as a starting point
  
• How personalization behaves in a high-volume news environment
  
• What editorial control looks like in practice
  
• How pinning and override functions are used
  
• Why transparency matters for internal adoption
  
• The role of simple behavioural signals in ranking content
  
• How workflows change for front page editors
  
• What to consider before expanding to the homepage
  
• The relationship between relevance, coverage, and editorial responsibility

If you work with editorial strategy, product, or personalization, this episode examines how these systems can be introduced without disrupting core editorial principles.

🎧 Subscribe to Insight Shapes News for conversations on journalism, AI, personalization, and structural change in the news industry.