As we grapple with how to create revenues with our online brands it's obvious that we must understand more about our audiences than just whether the number of unique users is increasing month on month.

How much of our audience are regular visitors or eager participants in our online comment forums? How many are based abroad and how many are just dipping in to follow a link to one page?

Our Winter 2010 meeting of the Digital Editors’ Network will allow you to compare notes with other digital editors and see how your site measures up to industry trends.
 
Editors from four of the UK's leading news organisations will "lift the bonnet’"on their strategies to engage audiences – and  the metrics they use to measure the success of their efforts – in a Chatham House Rules-discussion in Preston.

The programme will run from 1:30-5pm on February 25^th, with registration & lunch from 1pm in the Adelphi Conference Room at the University of Central Lancashire.

The discuss aims to assist you as you address some linked challenges:

 (1) advertisers who seek not just large audiences, but engaged prospective customers; and

 (2) executives who are seeking to plug budget shortfalls by introducing paywalls around all or some of their online content and activities.

Participating in the panel discussion will be:

• Dave Higgerson, head of multimedia of Trinity Mirror regionals 
  
• Ian Brogden, digital editor at Cumbrian Newspapers
• Jane McFarlane, assistant news editor Northcliffe Media's Derby Evening Telegraph 
  
• Martin Hamer, digital editor at Johnston Press' Lancashire Evening Post.

All those attending the event are asked to contribute to the discussion by completing this survey. Responses will remain anonymous.

The discussion will be chaired by François Nel, director of the Journalism Leaders Programme, who will  also present the results of the survey and  related findings from a two-year study into the online activities of newspapers in Britain’s 66 cities. 

The programme will end  with a discussion about ideas to cover the election online led by Nick Turner, Head of Digital Content Development for the CN Group.

The Digital Editors' Network is sponsored by Northwest Vision & Media and the School of Journalism, Media & Communication at the University of Central Lancashire, home to England's oldest university journalism programme.

For addtional programme details and #den2010 updates, contact or follow Nick Turner at @nickincumbria / Nick.Turner@Cumbrian-Newspapers.co.uk , or François Nel @francoisnel / FPNel@uclan.ac.uk