“You want to move your business and your model to the place on the media chessboard where the dollars are going to be going” — the TV money that will follow audiences to streaming.
By gutting local advertising overnight, COVID-19 has accelerated strategies — like cutting print days, corporate consolidation, or even closing down offices — that publishers had hoped could wait a while longer.
The coronavirus pandemic is proving the value of local news to millions of readers, driving up subscriptions. But the advertising collapse is knee-buckling. “If it’s a couple of months, we’ll make it through. If it’s six months, all bets are off.”
It’s generated controversy over its fundraising, its paywall, and its staffing. But it’s also about as close as a major American city has gotten to a digital news site that can go toe-to-toe with the local daily newspaper.
The “failing” New York Times’ news operation now employs more than 1,700 journalists, up nearly 50 percent from a decade ago. It has nearly 5 million subscribers, triple its print-era peak. Now it’s preparing to up the price.
With Lookout Local, our longtime news industry columnist Ken Doctor is going to apply what he’s learned to try to fill the growing void in local reporting.
The number of employees soon to be cut at the No. 1 U.S. newspaper chain is about the same number as the No. 2 chain has in total. But newsrooms should mostly be spared — for now.
“With the advertising people looking at the ad metrics, the subscription people looking at subscription metrics, and journalists looking at outdated metrics…nobody was looking at these metrics together to get a clear view of the business as a whole.”
Skibinski, Matt. "One subscriber or 48,000 pageviews: Why every journalist should know the “unit economics” of their content." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 7 Oct. 2019. Web. 24 Apr. 2024.
APA
Skibinski, M. (2019, Oct. 7). One subscriber or 48,000 pageviews: Why every journalist should know the “unit economics” of their content. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/10/one-subscriber-or-48000-pageviews-why-every-journalist-should-know-the-unit-economics-of-their-content/
Chicago
Skibinski, Matt. "One subscriber or 48,000 pageviews: Why every journalist should know the “unit economics” of their content." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified October 7, 2019. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/10/one-subscriber-or-48000-pageviews-why-every-journalist-should-know-the-unit-economics-of-their-content/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/10/one-subscriber-or-48000-pageviews-why-every-journalist-should-know-the-unit-economics-of-their-content/
| title = One subscriber or 48,000 pageviews: Why every journalist should know the “unit economics” of their content
| last = Skibinski
| first = Matt
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 7 October 2019
| accessdate = 24 April 2024
| ref = {{harvid|Skibinski|2019}}
}}
