2017 will be the year that reader loyalty is tested.
Faced with a new political reality that many didn’t expect, readers are looking to deepen their relationships with publications that can help them make sense of the world. In recent weeks, nonprofit newsrooms have seen a “flood” of donations, and the New York Times has gained hundreds of thousands of new subscribers.
It’s tempting for publishers to coast on readers’ renewed passion for journalism. But they shouldn’t get complacent. There’s a clear opportunity for publishers to channel this post-election energy into something more reliable. Those that develop strategies now to double-down on long-term loyalty will succeed in 2017.
They’ll do this in a few ways:
In 2017, the publishers that optimize for quality of content over quantity of clicks will earn the loyalty — and the business — of readers. Their audiences may be smaller, but they’ll be more valuable.
Keren Goldshlager works on Medium’s publisher development team.
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Robert Hernandez History will exclude you, again
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Peter Sterne A dangerous anti-press mix
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Andrea Silenzi Podcasts dive into breaking news analysis
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
Dannagal G. Young The return of the gatekeepers
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
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David Weigel A test for online speech
An Xiao Mina 2017 is for the attention innovators
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Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
Dan Colarusso Let’s make live video we can love
Mandy Velez The audience is the source and the story
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Andy Rossback The year of the user
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Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
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Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Lam Thuy Vo The primary source in the age of mechanical multiplication
Burt Herman Local news gets interesting
Tracie Powell Building reader relationships
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
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Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
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Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
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Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
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Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
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Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
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Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
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Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
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Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
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Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Adam Thomas The coming collaboration across Europe
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Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
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Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
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