Quick Hits
Here is a lot of informative news from around the world of local journalism. Enjoy!
Learn:
"Newsletters are, by far, the highest converting channel. 'We actually just recently got a little more sophisticated with our ability to track where our conversions are coming from. For a while, we were just sort of spray-and-pray, hoping that our strategy was leading to conversions. But now we can really see exactly where everybody's coming from, and when we looked at that data for the first time, we were stunned to see that 60% of our conversions come from our newsletters. That was a much higher number than we ever could have imagined.' ”
"A successful newsletter business will often convert 5 to 10 percent of its free newsletter readers into paying members or subscribers, according to benchmarks shared by Mailchimp and Substack.
RANGE’s conversion rate of 9 percent is right in line with those numbers — but its strategy for getting there is somewhat unconventional."
"Since 2016, (The Mendocino Voice) has been growing as a fully digital, for-profit news organization. Now, it’s also moving toward becoming a co-op in which community members and staff can hold a stake. The transition to this democratic model is a direct reaction to the region’s current journalism landscape, which is largely overseen by Alden Global Capital."
“If we can do in other cities what he did in Charlotte, we will grow a huge, profitable division and help revitalize local coverage,” VandeHei said.
"One national newsbrand, which Press Gazette has been asked not to name, had its entire website cloned and hosted at a web address that was just one letter different from the original website. The fake site, which Press Gazette has seen in an image, could easily have been mistaken for the real thing."
"But as civic engagement declined, and as a response to the media's most dominant business models, the newspaper departed from its natural focus and pushed towards scale. It had to compete with television. More scale meant a broader focus on the content itself (outside of the community) and a larger opportunity to monetize through advertising or subscriptions. But it backfired. Why? Because scale is the antonym of local. It’s the opposite. A scaled approach means removing community needs and participation from the forefront of value, which means an emphasis of reporting on communities versus reporting of those communities."
“Diversifying revenues is the best way to be sustainable,” said Mark Glaser, founder of MediaShift; innovation consultant at the New Mexico Local News Fund; and associate at Dot Connector Studio, a media strategy and production firm. Gwen Vargo, director of reader revenue at the American Press Institute, added, “Ultimately, I think we’re going to see more hybrid models. There are going to be opportunities for publications of all sizes and shapes to get money directly from their readers, sponsorships and advertising, events, and from foundations that have an interest in media or their communities. We should never rely on just one stream of revenue.”
"As the pandemic has forced many publishers to change the way they engage with readers, one addition to the audience wheelhouse has been the use of audio-based social media platforms. While audio in news media is nothing new, the addition of audio apps and new features has pushed audio beyond public radio and podcasting."
"At least two major bills to help journalism have been reintroduced, and more are on the way. The three pieces of legislation that have gotten the most publicity — the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act and the Future of Local News Act — are not new. But advocates say they are increasingly confident that the bills will gain traction this legislative session as members of Congress realize the dire circumstances newsrooms face."
"In our research, we compared the patterns of readers who had viewed solutions journalism with those who had not. Our findings suggest that solutions journalism appeals to highly engaged readers who are more likely to provide financial support to newsrooms."
"Seven years ago, when I initially launched the paid Daily Update, there weren’t really any tools designed for independent subscription businesses; my solution has incorporated a number of disparate services tied together, and while new companies have been formed around both paid newsletters and paid podcasts, no one has created a service for a site like Stratechery. So I decided to build it. It’s called Passport."
This An' 'At:
"Ultimately, the stakes for local journalism are high. If the current bipartisan efforts to assist local news become defined along party lines and fail, future generations may not be able to depend on local news as we know it, and if our research is any indication, America’s political divides will continue to deepen as a result."
"The decision comes a little more than a year after the paper was purchased by MediaNews Group, a publishing company whose majority owner is Manhattan-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital. MNG also owns the St. Paul Pioneer Press."
A message from the future from Chris Horne: "Of course, like sponsored content and jeggings, legacy local news is still with us. However, what first seemed like the imminent death of local news was really legacy local achieving its Super Saiyan form, accelerated by hedge fund ownership and the rage they monetize with ads. These once proud mastheads are now just husks masking a skeleton crew who localize and listify wire stories from sister publications and 'news' items formed by AI journobots that cobble together bits of pseudo-public conversations so they can feed it back to us for easy clicks. If these bullshirt artists were all we had, America would be royally forked."
I just thought this was cool. I could spend a few hours looking at this thing. So you should, too.
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That's all for this week.
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Jim.
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My goal is for the program to provide the opportunity, time and place to be thoughtful while working with a diverse and smart group of folks developing a better way to do journalism and media. I am not under the allusion that a one-size-fits-all proposition will work. I relish the chance to wrangle the many and varied ideas I’ve been chasing and learn from and alongside others as we work toward something better.
