“Value” may be the watchword for journalism in 2018.
Readers are being overwhelmed by a blizzard of news from more outlets than ever before. At the same time, more news organizations, desperate for survival as ad revenue shrivels, are shedding their timidity and charging for content.
How do publications dare demand that readers pay up, when readers have a dizzying array of options? The answer, of course: value.
Watch for intensified pitches stressing the value proposition: Exclusive “news that you can only get here.” Trustworthy journalists. Reporters who have deep sourcing and deep knowledge of a crucial beat.
This solicitation I got this week from The Economist is typical: “What if it were possible to cut to the chase and rely on one publication for insights, analysis and an assessment of what really matters? That possibility is a reality.” Their humble suggestion: Surprise, surprise, The Economist.
At STAT, we launched a premium subscription service (STAT Plus) a year ago as a pilot project for focused coverage of the biotech and pharma industries. We’ve been pleased with the results; it’s grown rapidly and steadily, and we’re selling more group subscriptions to institutions while continuing to draw in individual subscribers from a wide array of backgrounds. With that “value” notion in mind, we supplement our print and multimedia coverage with exclusive events, webinars, and live online chats with our reporters — which have proved a popular subscriber benefit.
Our metrics show that the readers most willing to pay for our journalism are clamoring for these three types of stories:
1. Analysis, analysis, analysis. They want reporters’ unique insights to help them prepare for upcoming events (a crucial clinical trial readout, a major medical conference) or to help them understand news that’s just happened. They’re eager, too, for analysis that helps them look forward and understand what’s next in drug development.
2. Scoops. Goes without saying that these are always popular!
3. “Hey Joe” stories. That’s what we have dubbed a category of more lighthearted — dare we say fun — pieces that present intriguing information a reader might want to mention to a colleague over lunch. These always do well with our subscribers; they’re a nice break from the endless flood of urgent news.
As much as it can be intoxicating to see a story picked up on Reddit or Drudge, those fleeting measures have been replaced by deeper questions about our readers: How long were they engaged? How many stories did they read? Did they come back to the site days, weeks, months later? Did they sign up for a free newsletter? And, most important these days, did they type in their credit card number and signal they’re willing to pay for quality journalism?
Journalism still revolves around those basic questions: who, what, why, when, where, and how. But in our newsroom, we’re increasingly focused on these questions: How can we help our reporters deliver first-rate journalism that’s worth paying to read? And how do we reinforce that value to readers, day after day and story after story?
Rick Berke is executive editor of STAT.
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Mariano Blejman News games rule
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse