#67 — User revenue is now a growth engine
Happy Sunday & welcome back to your subscription of the most important stories in digital publishing. It’s been such a busy news week that we had a hard time picking out the best reads 🙃
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💯 Top picks
User revenue is now a growth engine — but here's 3 challenges [Video]
Kjersti Thorneus from Schibsted shares some insights from their digital subscriptions business which is anticipated to bring in NOK$1 billion in 2020. The article shares the top 3 challenges the publisher faces, but we’d highly recommend giving the embedded YouTube video from Newscamp 2019 a listen (47 mins).
💸 Business models
There’s a reader revenue revolution happening. Will legacy news miss it — again?
“When it comes to legacy news media and any new digital innovation, you can usually count on two things: The innovation will begin too late, and even when it does, it’s often a half-measure that doesn’t make up lost time.”
A personalised, flexible paywall model is best for your audience
INMA report that strict paywalls don’t allow for the nuances required to suit a diverse audience and make advertising less effective.
Subscriptions provide a high quality alternative to social media and advertising!
Business Insider explore how memberships and subscriptions can make the internet a better place and replace problematic advertising models.
“It’s a healthy, sustainable option for creators and users.”
The NYT is the latest publisher to put up a registration wall
A registration wall is when visitors are asked to create a free account to keep reading unmetered articles. The New York Times has recently put up a hard registration wall following some testing they ran last month. Getting all readers to subscribe is a smart tactic that is also being used by the Boston Globe – providing the publishers with more ways to get to know their audience (and more ways to convert them to subscribers later on).
‘Journalism Thinking’ doesn’t need a business model. It needs a call to arms
The question then isn’t “what is the business model for local journalism” but rather “how do we expand and defend journalism thinking?”
Christopher Wink shares a different perspective on subscriptions for local journalism. He argues that rather than finding a new business model, local publishers should join forces to form a paradigm shift and rethink journalism.
✍️ Modern journalism
Public service media struggle to reach younger & less educated audiences
Reuters Institute have published a new report about public service news – heres’s the TL;DR on Twitter, or you can read the full report.
Google wants to prioritise original reporting
“The company has changed its global search algorithm to "highlight articles that we identify as significant original reporting,” and to keep such articles in top positions for longer.“
Accounting and budgeting tips for journalism entrepreneurs
Here’s some free advice for journalism startups about financial management of news organisations! It’s part of a funded toolkit of resources which you can access here.
Introducing the impact editor: A new role critical for the journalism industry
A new role titled “Impact Editor” at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is a new strategy for ensuring investigative work is having an impact.
👩💻 Technology
Here’s what we know so far about the upcoming Facebook News tab
Publishing news has been going crazy about the new Facebook News tab that is set to pay some publishers (lots of $) to syndicate their content. Here’s everything you need to know from NiemanLab.
Can AI help ‘preserve quality of the Internet’?
“The number of fact-checking initiatives have mushroomed in recent years and yet many argue they are a losing battle against widespread disinformation. GEN spoke with Dhruv Ghulati, co-founder and CEO of Factmata, to understand what makes this rising AI startup unique and how it uses quality metrics to offer a kind of ‘nutritional label for anything you read online’.”
Twitter launches new playbook to help you understand how to get the most out of their platform
We’re always dubious when a platform releases a guide for brands who use their tools. According to this article, the new Twitter playbook is one you should approach with caution, but it does include some insightful information as well. You’ve been warned! Here’s the full download.
🤷 WTF?
YouTube creators are turning the site into a podcast network
Many of the most successful YouTube creators have a podcast these days, including David Dobrik and Marques Brownlee. They’re utilising the platform they already know so well to host their podcast – which is a pretty smart strategy considering some of the most popular podcasts have dedicated audiences who choose YouTube over Apple and Spotify for their podcast experience.
