If the past few months have shown anything, it’s that relying on advertising as a primary business model is, at best, risky, and, at worst, suicidal. The scraps left over after Facebook and Google have consumed almost all U.S. ad revenue are not meaty enough to nourish the thousands of hungry media sites aggressively circling them.
To counter that, more and more companies are moving toward a rebalancing of revenue between advertisers and readers. Whether it’s via membership models, hard paywalls, metered paywalls, ticket sales, or some other method, it’s clear that the revenue burden is shifting toward consumers.
But changing where we’re getting money from can’t happen in a vacuum. We also need to rethink the relationship we have with paying readers. It’s not enough for us to say, “What we do is important, and you to help fund it.” We need to listen to and engage with those who we’re asking to support us. Put another way: We can’t just be of the people; we need to be with them.
Spirited Media is launching a membership program in February, and we’re spending a lot of time making sure the benefits that come with membership assure that we’ll be intensely connected to those who sign up. Because, to me, the success of any media membership program won’t be measured by how many people sign up, but by what percentage we retain over time. And my main concern is that many news organizations will launch paywalls or membership programs, but won’t also take the time to rethink the relationship with those they’re asking to pay. One of the arguments I’ve gotten in response is: “Hey, we’ve always gotten money from readers via subscriptions, so what’s the difference?”
But let’s be honest: For almost all newspapers, subscriptions were a tiny revenue stream, and the attention given to readers was commensurate. Or, put another way, there’s a reason you could put a few quarters in honor boxes and take all the newspapers in them. Go to most local news websites and you’ll be assaulted by disruptive ads, auto-play video, slideshows, and pagination. Who do you think those sites have been designed for — advertisers or readers?
This is why I’m worried that media organizations will only get part of the reader puzzle right. I worry that many organizations will take readers’ money and just say, “Trust us.” That may be enough for The New York Times or The Washington Post, but it’s not going to be enough for the vast majority of media organizations. And local is where this will likely be the biggest challenge because, in my view, the monopoly years of local newspapers reduced the frequency and quality of the contact between news organizations and their consumers. When new sections were launched, it was usually because there were huge ad dollars attached. Direct interaction with the average reader was limited to the occasional phone call, email, or social media response. As a result, consumers — while surely being informed by local news organizations — no longer felt like they “knew” them. That has to change.
In the new world, consumers who pay will expect their voice to be heard. And, those of us in media sure as hell better listen. And, no, this doesn’t mean taking reporting assignments from readers, though we should surely listen to them for good story ideas. And, no, it doesn’t mean changing anything we cover because it may upset paying customers. But it does mean that inviting readers in to provide feedback, to share ideas and to meet journalists can’t just be an occasional PR stunt. It has to be a central tenet of how we operate. And it means sending our journalists into rooms full of readers at events, and making sure they engage when presented with respectful feedback on their work.
At Spirited Media’s sites, we’ve built intensely loyal audiences through an events-focused model and a responsive social media voice, but we know we need to take that game up a level if we expect our consumers to take on more of our financial burden. That means higher-impact events where we can connect our members to newsmakers they may not normally interact with or get them into cool places they can’t normally get into. It means talking directly to readers even more than we do now, which may come in the form of a members-only Slack channel where we post stories first, talk about what we’re covering, or answer questions from readers.
It’s not a new thought that we need to turn journalism into more of a conversation. But I’d argue we’ve talked a better game than we’ve played. And now that we’re moving toward a world where readers are going to pay more and more of the bills, we better deliver on the promise, and now.
Jim Brady is CEO of Spirited Media and public editor of ESPN.
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor