#60 — Partnership, membership, and social justice
Hello & welcome to all of our new subscribers 👋
This week’s roundup includes stories about innovation and retention in digital publishing, a new tool for keeping up with the latest trends, more evidence that the ad industry is still in decline and much more. Enjoy, and have a great week!
💯 Top picks
Partnership, membership, and social justice: How publishers in repressive news environments are innovating
“Digital publishers worldwide face a common set of challenges — monetizing digital while retaining print subscribers, deciding how much content to give to third-party platforms, and so on. But publishers in repressive media environments have additional barriers to overcome.”
💸 Business models
5 case studies to inspire your retention strategy
Twipe investigate why the majority of publishers spend more on acquisition than they do on engagement, and share five inspiring case studies of great retention strategies that go against the grain.
Five years after crowdfunding, here’s how Krautreporter is keeping its members engaged
There’s been a lot of news about De Correspondent in the past year, which crowdfunded $1.3 million in 2013 . Meanwhile in Germany, the lesser talked about Krautreporter was in the process of raising $1.38 in the same way. This piece explores how the publication is still keeping members happy, and building tools that you can use, too!
✍️ Modern journalism
Find out where your readers are with a this new tool
Analytics tool provider Parse.ly has launched a new product called “Currents Digests” that shows you overall traffic, referral and geo-location information for keyword topics you’re interested in following.
This freelance journalist was owed $5k from late-paying publications and held them all accountable
Wudan Yan shares a transparent account of what happens when publications fail to pay freelancers, resulting in late payment fees. An interesting read for journalists and freelancers in any industry!
'We're not resourced like a big tech company': The challenges of doing product at a publisher
“As publishers start balancing different kinds of content and revenue strategies, product leaders are becoming increasingly important.”
👩💻 Technology
Internet advertising is growing at slowest rate since the dotcom bubble burst
Advertising on the internet is forecast to grow by 10% next year, which is the lowest growth since 2001. According to media agency group Zenith, the shrinking growth means that cinema advertising will take the lead as the fastest-growing ad medium.
Google’s tool to tame election influence has flaws
Google built a searchable database of political ads following pressure for greater transparency - but campaigns that have been running in recent weeks have not been showing up in the database, sparking worries about the efficacy of the tool.
Should publishers retain their most loyal print readers?
“Flat is the new growth, many would say, when it comes to declining volume of daily newspaper print circulation, especially as success has been found in raising prices among the most loyal subscribers.So maybe it’s time for publishers to radically lean in to serving and retaining their most loyal print readers—the elderly.”
FTC imposes $5 Billion penalty and sweeping new privacy restrictions on Facebook
The largest penalty imposed on any company for violating privacy - Facebook are to pay the penalty and have also been forced to accept new rules that will hold the company accountable for the decisions it makes about user privacy in future!
5 times Spotify has U-turned its content strategy
From apps, to short-form content to censorship and beyond. Take a guided tour of Spotify’s content strategy over the years.
🤷 WTF?
Can’t read just one: Slate’s daily advice columns are strange, funny, deep, and increasingly a major traffic driver for the site
“We probably won’t do twincest again.”
Find out why Slate’s online advice column is so popular!
