Behategia, The Basque Media Observatory, has completed the BEHA project, through which 60 media outlets will be able to better understand their digital audiences. Two custom designed tools give them the opportunity to track data and to define their strategies based on that information.
This project began in 2021 with a first step that involved evaluating and updating the basque digital media audience system. 8 media outlets were chosen for this purpose (balanced sample selected for its character, type and geographical extension, representativeness and attributes). A dyagnosis was made, a proposal was developed and eventually, a tool was implemented on the sample, so these 8 media outlets could receive and read their web traffic coming through GA4 with an easy-to-use control panel designed ad-hoc. This was carried out along with constant monitoring of their needs and obstacles.
Afterwards, this research was expanded to 60 basque media outlets and the tools and resources were unified for all of them. 60 panels were set up and basic training was given to them. Once they had the possibility of keeping the track of their web traffic with these panels, the next step was to bring in the Data culture to the staff of these media outlets, so they could begin to focus on their existing data and make decisions or changes according to these analyses. At the same time, The Observatory started the development of a new tool that would collect traffic data from more sources in addition to web data (Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, Newsletters and apps). As a result, each media outlet would be able to receive their digital traffic data all-in-one place (the tool is called Behategia Analytics) and they would also have the chance to compare their data with their “colleagues/competitors” by sharing their own aggregated data. As basque media outlets work in an environment of competition and cooperation both at the same time (they compete with each other for financing and they cooperate among them for strengthening the Basque speakers community), sharing data and knowing each others’ traffic evolution helps them to better read their own situation, as well as enabling collective research.
At the present time, sharing this type of data among different actors is very unusual and thus, it is remarkable to have a community of 60 media outlets working together in such a project, happy to share and to learn from each other. To accomplish this task, an agreement had to be discussed, accepted and signed by all of them previously, a job that took quite an important amount of time but was completed successfully. The last step has been to connect every media outlet to the tool Behategia Analytics, achieving this goal recently, in September 2025.
This project has been supported by the Euroregion New Aquitaine Euskadi Navarra and the Basque Autonomous Government.
