The attention economy describes a competition for readers’ available time. It measures what a piece of content captures: views, clicks, time on page. That frame fills the publishing calendar without saying which decision each piece moves forward. It also costs the brand: to capture attention, the headline promises more than the text delivers.
The intention economy asks a different question: what was the reader trying to do when they arrived on this page? The answer determines what to produce.
What the intention economy puts in its place
- Usefulness: the content serves a task the reader has, instead of adding to what they have to sort through.
- The message: the headline states what the text delivers, instead of promising what will earn a click.
- A lasting relationship: the measure is what readers come back for, not the number of interactions.
- Demand: the subject comes from the questions being asked, not from the catalogue that needs selling.
Three principles of the intention economy
- Useful action. Each piece of content is tied to an identified intention: understanding a term, comparing two solutions, preparing for a decision. Content that serves no intention does not get produced.
- Control left with the reader. Readers decide what they consult and what they disclose. Content meant to help them understand stays accessible without a form, and no data is collected without their agreement.
- Verifiable value. The content delivers what its headline announces. That is what semiotics calls the reading contract: the relationship a publication offers its reader, and keeps to in every text. Eliseo Verón formulated this concept in 1985 to study how press titles are positioned.
Four families of content, four intentions
- Learning: training programmes, online courses, webinars, white papers.
- Choosing: comparisons, assessment grids, case studies, field surveys.
- Understanding: in-depth articles, barometers, state-of-play reviews, reports.
- Debating: opinion pieces, write-ups, critiques, first-hand accounts.
This is what content as a service covers: content that can be used directly and settles a question at the moment it arises.
From the intention economy to editorial intention
At the level of a single text, intention is a judgement call: it cannot be reduced to a marketing objective or a target persona. Four questions frame it:
- Why this message?
- Why now?
- For whom, and why us?
- What does it change for the reader?
A written intention can be checked at review. It requires useful formats rather than attractive ones, situated accounts rather than interchangeable ones, and reading paths that stay legible.
Keeping to an editorial remit in this frame means deciding, subject by subject, which intention the brand serves and which it leaves to others.
Frequently asked questions
What is the intention economy?
It is a frame that judges content by the intention it serves, rather than the attention it captures. The opening question is: what was the reader trying to do when they arrived on the page?
How does it differ from the attention economy?
The attention economy measures what content captures: views, clicks, time on page. The intention economy measures what it makes possible: understanding a term, comparing solutions, preparing for a decision.
How do you write the intention of a piece of content?
In one sentence, before the writing: which reader, which task, which moment. That sentence then serves as the review criterion; a text that does not serve that intention is corrected, or not published.
To connect your output to identified intentions, contact us.