Hello, and welcome to a new edition of The Fix’s monthly special newsletter series where we’re curating new and archival coverage on one important topic.
Today let’s look at a few mistakes news organisations often make – and how to think about avoiding them.
The most profound mistake, no doubt, is failing to come up with a working business model that aligns with your editorial mission. This year we’ve heard a lot about the end of the social traffic era, exemplified by the shutdown of BuzzFeed News and many other digital news organisations struggling to make ends meet. Yet, as David Tvrdon wrote for The Fix last year, running to copy a winning formula created by The New York Times would be a mistake.
“There is not a universal formula for building a sustainable business model for news”, David writes, but running a diversified business model with several revenue streams helps. A more important point, though, is to be flexible enough so you can adapt to changing conditions, whether it’s a slate of new platform pivots or the rise of AI.
A good business model isn’t possible without people (assuming your model isn’t to flood the zone with AI-generated content – and I hope it isn’t). Media organisations are often bad at retaining talent. People get tired or burnt out and leave in pursuit of better-paid opportunities. Last year David also explored some important retention strategies newsroom leaders should think about, such as investing in leadership development and getting explicit about career paths.
One useful approach in talent management might be harnessing relationships with journalist-influencers. “If treated right and given enough freedom and ownership stake, these high-profile journalists can fuel growth of the news brand”, David writes in another piece exploring this topic.
Finally, one operational mistake publishers often make is producing too much content and not using archival stories to their benefits. There are many approaches to recycling evergreen content you can start with, from investing more resources in explanatory journalism to using newsletters – which is, indeed, what I’m doing right now.
