Why You Should Publish “Useful Knowledge”
Truth is people are sick of the news unless it also provides a solution (oh, and the problem, implementation, results, and insights) .
Faisal Kalim breaks down why we must produce useful knowledge if we want engagement and ultimately paid subscriptions.
Does your newsletter deliver “useful knowledge”?
Discovered via American Press Institute
Related: Zombies belong in the theater, not your subscriber list. If your readers visit infrequently and never engage, check out how media outlets can avoid ‘zombie’ readers. Discovered via Editor and Publisher
Online Journalism Awards To Be Announced Starting June 22
The Online Journalism Awards will be held (online!) June 22-25.
There are two categories for Excellence in Journalism:
Single Newsletter: This award honors a single newsletter published under the same brand. Entrants may include up to five URLs linking to examples or archives of your single newsletter.
Portfolio: This award honors a set of different newsletters published under the same brand. Entrants may include up to five URLs linking to examples or archives of the portfolio of newsletters.
Check out the other categories here.
Is Media’s Future ONLY Newsletters And Podcasts?
There’s an unintentional Axios subplot in this issue.
The Fix author David Tvrod breaks down how Axios is leaning into newsletters and podcasts and why.
“The main point, though, is this: Axios treats email as the primary product. Both Morning Brew and Axios understand it and that’s why they were able to create a lot of value and scale up quickly. Also, that’s a reason why independent journalists are increasingly opting for this model.”
What do you think?
Will all media follow this line of thinking soon?
Publishers walking the tightrope of how to digitally deliver value to your audience might enjoy Eric Barne’s Newsletter Fest discussion of How the Daily Memphian Used Email to Break Through 15,500 Paid Subscribers.
The Winners And Losers Of Pandemic Publishing
This Media Voices podcast episode reflects on how publishers responded to and performed during the pandemic.
As you might expect, strong pivots often made the difference between winning and losing.
The Winners
The Losers
- Buzzfeed
- Travel mags that didn’t pivot fast enough
- Events companies
Set aside some time to listen if you want to hear exactly why these selections were made.
Not Really News: People Don’t Trust Media These Days
Speaking of meta, here’s a round up of stories from fairly trustworthy news sources about how untrustworthy people think the industry has become:
Gallup reports that the “percentage with no trust at all is a record high, up five points since 2019.”
What’s New in Publishing unpacks a recent Reuters Institute report “based on open-ended conversations with cross-sections of people in Brazil, India, UK, and the US.”
NiemanLab encourages adding overlays to images that convey misinformation to point out their inaccuracies instead of amplifying their messages.
Leaving The Wall Street Journal
Daniel Levitt’s May 21 issue of Inside the Newsroom shares his story—yes, in newsletter form—of leaving The Wall Street Journal. The tell-all positions the decision as a result of a non-responsive standards team that was unpleased with his personal newsletter.
“I told Standards I’d done what they’d asked of me, but I never heard back. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. After all, they were slammed with election coverage. But they did find time to email me every 4-6 weeks to tell me I had to shut the newsletter down.”
The whole thing is super meta, right?
Forecast: Newspaper Subscriptions to Exceed Print By 2027
The digital vs. print battle continues.
Rob Williams reports that by 2027 newspaper subscriptions will exceed print (mostly because digital costs less than print).
Related: Check out this survey that reveals local newspapers are preferred over Google in Australia.
Post Covid-19 Retention Solutions For Publishers
Covid-19 happened, and everyone and their dog subscribed to the news. But, now what?
In this article, William Turvill gives readers a look at the subscriber boom, the problem of “sleepers” and early cancellations, and provides solutions (read: persuade people to keep paying for news).
One of many strong ideas suggested:
“One [solution] is to encourage readers to pay for an annual subscription rather than a month-by-month deal.”
Daily Newsletters Were the Answer For This Print Magazine
In this piece, Simon Owens captures the story of how, when Covid-19 hit, a Hell’s Kitchen print magazine suspended printing and started sending a daily newsletter.
A year later, that newsletter has 4,000 subscribers and a 35% open rate.
Founder Phil O’Brien said this,
“Newsletters are really interesting, because the inbox is so intimate. When you see the open rates, you think, ‘wow, someone’s giving me their time.’”
Full story here.
Related: Check out how this newspaper transformed into a customer-centric subscription model.
How The Wall Street Journal’s Live Event Strategy Evolved With The Pandemic
This Media Voices podcast interview (and summation article) features a discussion with Kim Last, The Wall Street Journal’s Editor of Live Journalism and Special Content.
She addresses how the legendary newsroom is embracing live events with a start up mentality. The pandemic influenced a boom in digital events and has inspired some creative pivots. Kim goes on to explain what hybrid plans they have in place for the return of in-person events.
“The audience growth has just been too good to let it go away,” she surmised. “It is a privilege, at the end of the day, to be able to expense a ticket, to travel, to spend on the hotel. [Hybrid events] allow us to be way more inclusive in a way that we weren’t before, because it just wasn’t the norm.”
It’s worth a read and/or a listen, especially if you run events or think you might want to one day.
