#35 — The internet is killing (internet) journalism
This weeks issue of the latest news in publishing brings you stories about an upcoming magazine subscription service from Apple, a historical take on why there have been so many layoffs in digital media and an insight into the biggest complaint from subscribers: when a news site won’t keep them logged in!
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💯 Top picks
Why leading publishers invest more in engagement than in acquisition
“Gone are the days of simply tracking the number of pageviews, today publishers need to track the actual engagement of their readers. Even tracking the number of subscribers can lead publishers astray if not linked to retention and lifetime value”
💸 Business models
Digital-born news outlets emphasise quality journalism over ‘clickbait’ to build paying audiences
A Reuters Institute study on digital media outlets shares a lot of important learnings for the year ahead. This page has a great short summary if you don’t want to read the whole thing, but in case you missed the full report last month, we highly recommend giving it some reading time!
Guardian editor: Paywall 'not really a conversation' anymore as donations model gives advantage of scale
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief at the Guardian says she wouldn’t rule anything out, but for now readers are choosing to pay for “serious reporting” with a donations model that provides more opportunity for growth and lives up to their values.
Apple preparing News app in iOS 12.2 for new magazine subscription service
The rumours about an Apple news subscription service have escalated after the first beta release of the latest iOS for developers includes features related to the new service, which is set to allow customers to subscribe to an all-in-one package for magazines, tv and music.
✍️ Modern journalism
BBC & The New York Times — where research meets the news
Global Editors Network take a look into what happens at the Research & Development teams of large news outlets to find out what direction they see news and technology heading next.
We now go live to BuzzFeed's 'Ask Jonah Anything' Slack channel
After an extremely painful week with imminent large scale layoffs, Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed, opened up an AMA style Slack channel and some of the conversations were leaked and shared here!
The crisis facing American journalism did not start with the internet!
Newspaper conglomerates “failing to adapt” has culminated in the current climate in the news & media - and it’s been on the cards for decades.
2009: The internet is killing (print) journalism. 2019: The internet is killing (internet) journalism
Are there any sustainable and scalable models for digital news? Former Time magazine foreign correspondent Jeff Israely explores this and why we can’t blame it all on the duopoly.
Newspapers cost more than twice as much today as they did a decade ago!
After the collapse of print advertising, newspapers were forced to increase prices to keep things going and keep journalists in employment. Take a dive into the strategic moves being played in the printed news today in this well-researched piece.
👩💻 Technology
Inside.com hit 750K subscribers and launch brand new newsletters on Product Hunt
Inside.com turned to Product Hunt to announce $2.6M in new funding and the addition of 20 new email newsletters. This takes them to a grand total of 50 curated newsletters covering cities, industries and companies!
The New Yorker is having trouble keeping paying subscribers logged in
With about two-thirds of its revenue coming from subscribers, The New Yorker is focussed on growing digital subscriptions. But they have just one little technical issue: they can’t figure out the bug that’s causing people to get logged out continuously.
🤷 WTF?
BuzzFeed laid off its Director of Quizzes because lots of people are willing to make quizzes for free
BuzzFeed quizzes have been popular for some time and generating revenue for the outlet, but what we didn’t perhaps consider until the recent layoffs is that the majority of them are created by unpaid community members.
