#65 — Members changed our lives for the better
Welcome to your weekly issue with all of the latest and greatest stories and ideas about digital publishing.
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💯 Top picks
“At 7,000 members our lives are already changed for the better”: How the Daily Maverick developed its membership program
Our weekly Insider meetings are attended by the editor-in-chief, CEO, membership manager, product manager, support manager, developer, marketing and design team, with occasional drop-ins from finance and events team reps. Of the 10 regular attendees, only three of those positions existed before the decision to move into membership.”
💸 Business models
Want to make your journalism more memberful? Find a range of proven practices, including revenue-generating routines
Membership Puzzle Project have been around the world speaking with publishers to identify “memberful routines” that help to incorporate community knowledge that provides value. In this article they share some learnings from 19 news sites.
The Athletic is experimenting with free content and advertising
It wants to give non-subscribers the ability to sample some of company’s content and plans to use advertising to get their content in front of more people. Kinda goes against the advice that was shared by the Membership Puzzle Project in last weeks issue about tightening up your paywall!
How publishers are cutting print days — and not losing (too many) subscribers
“The key is the consumer will let you know when they’re done with the print product. Don’t prematurely yank it from them.”
✍️ Modern journalism
How to keep your sanity as you dismantle the status quo in newsroom
Own your priorities, learn to say no and focus on the good stuff! Real life advice for people working in newsrooms from Becca Aaronson, director of product at Chalkbeat.
Improving the way readers evaluate issues with solutions journalism
The Center for Media Engagement set out to determine how “solutions journalism” can affect the way readers evaluate both the reporting and the issue in a study supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with contributions from The Impact Architects!
Common Sense Media Survey Monkey poll: teen media literacy
“Results from a new Common Sense Media|SurveyMonkey poll show that teens get their news more frequently from social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) or from YouTube.”
👩💻 Technology
Media's new revenue play: Sell software to other media companies
“Publishers are increasingly beginning to act more like digital product companies that sell services to clients rather than advertising to brands.”
Funders have given Facebook a deadline to share data with researchers!
BuzzFeed news reported that Facebook has until Sept. 30 to provide data it promised to academic researchers or a consortium of funders will cease to support the project. In other Facebook news this week, they’re also set to require buyers of political ads to provide more information about who paid for them.
“We realized Spotify for news was exactly the wrong thing to do.” Here’s what Kinzen is doing instead.
“News publishers should not be giving away their content to third-party platforms, or relying on social platforms. They should develop these personalised and curated experiences themselves.”
🤷 WTF?
The internet has made dupes—and cynics—of us all
“The typical response to the onslaught of falsehood is to say, lol, nothing matters. But when so many of us are reaching this point, it really does matter.”