I don’t need to tell anyone about the steady decline of journalism’s business model. News outlets have been on the skids for a decade. Each quarter sees the closing of local, regional, and even previously successful national digital outlets.
Advertising and subscriptions aren’t bringing in anywhere near the revenue they once did, but still it’s hard to let go of the idea that news organizations have to sell their audiences something. The scramble to reinvent the business model with metered paywalls, programmatic ad servers, and sponsored content is focused on squeezing every possible drop of profit from consumers while cheapening the value of our relationship with them.
What if in 2018, instead of trying to sell our audiences something they may not want, or threatening to shut off access to news they actually need, we simply admit we need their trust, understanding, and investment to provide great journalism? What if instead of being obsessed with transactions, we focus on relationship building? What if we peel back the layers of our hardened journalists’ shells and reveal a little vulnerability? Because journalism is incredibly vulnerable right now, and there’s no shame in that.
Dozens of news organizations, most of them nonprofit, already are taking this tack successfully. Honolulu Civil Beat is a case in point. The Pierre Omidyar-founded regional news organization started as a for-profit shop with a metered paywall. After six years of steadily reducing the price and mediocre growth, they decided to drop the paywall and build a broader community of engaged readers. They became a nonprofit in June 2016 and rolled out a grassroots membership program. Instead of asking readers to pay a set subscription fee, Civil Beat’s editors, reporters and development team introduced themselves in a series of emails and asked their audience to contribute what they thought the content was worth. A year later, revenue from individuals had increased by 78 percent, with the average “transaction” increasing from $60 to $140.
By closing the paywall and being transparent about their revenue needs — even with a billionaire benefactor — Civil Beat convinced readers to help the news outlet diversify its funding and strengthen its ability to provide strong, independent reporting.
This isn’t limited to nonprofit news organizations that can offer a tax deduction in exchange for a donation (which data shows isn’t why most people support a cause). PolitiFact, the popular fact-checking arm of the for-profit Tampa Bay Times launched a membership program a year ago and saw a similar response from their audience. Instead of shying away from being part of a major for-profit metropolitan newspaper, they used that as the point of their plea, asking their passionate audience to help them cover their own costs and remain financially independent. In the past year, they’ve recruited 1,560 members and secured $190,000 in contributions with another $104,000 scheduled to come in over the next year.
At the News Revenue Hub, we’re fortunate to work with 16 brave news organizations who are pulling back the veil on their business operations and letting readers know that their support is critical if they want newsrooms to survive and thrive. Based on the initial audience data we collect with each new client, most news consumers don’t fully understand how news operations are funded. It’s our duty to explain the changing business model to our audiences so they can understand what role they must play in sustaining quality journalism.
With understanding comes trust, and from trust comes a much more valuable bond than any paywall or display ad can generate. That’s my hope for 2018.
Mary Walter-Brown is founder and CEO of the News Revenue Hub.
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Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
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Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile