#66 — Q&A with the VP of subscription growth at the NYT
Welcome back to your weekly update of the most important stories and news in publishing. This week we’ve got insights about the Facebook news tab, new services from Patreon and how The Telegraph are using Instagram and Snapchat to find new subscribers. Enjoy!
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💯 Top picks
Q&A with Vice President of subscription growth at The New York Times
David Gurian-Peck oversees subscription growth at the NYT, which is the most important area for growth. He discusses pricing, strategy and how to measure success in this Q&A interview with The Idea.
💸 Business models
The Atlantic (re)joins the metered paywall club, with digital subscriptions starting at $49.99/year
Figuring out a subscription strategy that works seems to be the ultimate goal for media organisations this year. The Atlantic are changing up their strategies again – now you’ll get 5 free stories per month and be forced to subscribe after that starting at $49.00 per year.
Patreon might start providing loans to creators
“Patreon is eyeing a range of new services to support creators – including potentially providing loans, CEO Jack Conte said.”
What we can learn from membership programs
Educate your readers, develop passion and form relationships. Here’s three top-level learnings from major membership-driven publishers that we can all learn from.
✍️ Modern journalism
Unprepared for unpublishing? Here’s how some newsrooms are rethinking what lasts forever
A study conducted this year suggested that 19 out of 21 news organisations aren’t taking any steps to archive their online content. In other words, when content is removed from a news organisations website, there’s often no clear processes for archiving and saving history.
Why habit formation is key for all news media
“In this new analysis, the number of days a subscriber reads in a month was found to relate to the percent cancelling their subscription…”
Meet people where they are at: What journalists can learn from community organisers
“If a journalist is only building relationships with powerful people, how will that change the type of information they gather?”
Lenfest Institute share the learnings from their Organizing for Neighborhood News project in Philadelphia which challenges the way local communities engage with the public in their journalistic process.
👩💻 Technology
What publishers think about the Facebook News tab
“The big picture: Facebook’s News Tab could be a sea change in the relationship between tech firms and the news media. It could also recast Facebook as a friend of the news industry while putting pressure on Apple and Google to put up funds as well.”
How BuzzFeed's tech team help the news team report about technology with authority
A great example of preventing teams within a media org working in silos from BuzzFeed, who give their tech and news teams a dedicated amount of time per week to collaborate and share skills and knowledge.
The Telegraph is using Snapchat and Instagram to find subscribers
The news outlet has begun monitoring user journeys on Instagram and Snapchat to find out what content drives readers to sign up or subscribe, using metrics like retention and dwell time.
Jason Fried calls Google’s search results a shakedown!
The founder of Basecamp shared a controversial tweet about how the company bids on branded terms. He says that due to Google’s algorithms, companies must pay up in advertising costs if you want to be found in the search engine for your own brand name
🤷 WTF?
Your interactive makes me sick
Why your coolest scrolly features can cause problems, and what to do about it!
