Piecing together engaging content experiences : Spotlight on the puzzles team

PA’s Head of Puzzles Peter Stirling provides a fascinating insight into how his talented team pieces together brain-teasing content experiences. 

Talking more about some of the new products his team has been working on, Peter also sheds light on what products have proved popular with audiences, what role AI is playing in the work they deliver, and what does the future look like for him and his colleagues.

• This year, have there been any new puzzle products you’ve added to the service you offer?

This year the team have started supplying content for an excellent new digital puzzle called Word Hunt. This is a bespoke job created specifically for Mail Plus, the Daily Mail’s App. Word Hunt is a fascinating new type of Wordsearch on steroids, where the words can be spelled out in any direction, complete with an intricate scoring system. Create a free account to try out the puzzle here.

• And this year, what have been some of the puzzles to have proved most popular with audiences?

Apart from Wordle, which continues to be a stand-out phenomenon, the most popular puzzles are still the old favourites, particularly crosswords, sudokus, and quizzes. This is the case in both print and digital outlets.

• What would you say is the unique appeal of a puzzle?

A recent survey suggested that 84% of UK adults have done at least one puzzle over the previous year. This enduring popularity is due to a number of factors, but in particular, puzzle fans find the act of solving a puzzle a relaxing contrast to the other ways in which they engage with the media, particularly around news, etc.

• AI continues to dominate the headlines, have you found its use beneficial within your department?

We are making use of AI in some of our production processes. One example is converting basic quiz questions into multiple choice style. We simply have to train AI to produce three plausible incorrect answers to go with the correct answer. This was a job that previously had to be done by a human. All resulting quiz questions still need to be thoroughly checked of course, but this is a great labour saving device.

• We’re seeing more and more publishers embrace digital, how is your team adapting to this trend?

Yes – whilst print puzzles still account for the majority of our revenue, digital puzzles become increasingly more important. As a result of this we are nearing the end of a development project which will result in many improvements to our digital puzzle service, and a number of brand new puzzles. Some of these (such as Killer Sudoku and Futoshiki) are popular fixtures on many print puzzle pages, but we are also working on some exciting puzzle products that are digital only. These should be ready to launch first thing in the New Year, so watch this space!

To find out more about PA Media’s puzzle products, click here.