Do you really want your audiences to submit to you?

That and other questions came up during this year’s WordPress Camp for Publishers, running Wednesday through Friday in Chicago. Brian Boyer of Spirited Media “forever ruined” Submit boxes for some attendees, but Austin Smith (CEO of Alley and the Lenfest Institute‘s recent entrepreneur-in-residence) also presented his report on the narrow path for local news. (Link to come once it’s published!) Here’s more of the conversation, and or check out videos of the talks here:

While sharing UX changes @spiritedmediaco made to launch membership, @brianboyer said something we all feel about newsletter subscription boxes:

"'Submit' is my least favorite user experience word of all time. That's a lot to be asking of people."#wcpub pic.twitter.com/ipGM6bXPpF

— Sarah Schmalbach Beck (@schmalie) August 9, 2018

“Seek ways to become less special” – @netaustin focusing on not inventing new wheels for everyone and instead taking advantage of economies of scale as a way to help local news prosper #WCpub pic.twitter.com/KhzkILfu2X

— Aaron Jorbin (@aaronjorbin) August 9, 2018

Key challenge of modern journalism: “There aren’t enough good ways for online readers to compensate publications in ways proportionate to the value they receive.” –@eulken on paywalls #wcpub

— Chris Hardie (@ChrisHardie) August 8, 2018

At Guardian Innovation, they coded each action as positive (seek more info) or negative (turn off notifs). At the end of each experiment, the overall audience interaction score can be a positive or negative. #wcpub

— Steph Yiu (@crushgear) August 8, 2018

Hi! Find the slides (with resources) to my #WCpub talk with @ryankienstra about @WordPress + @AMPhtml from this morning here:https://t.co/HHRu7K7GbV

— Leo Postovoit @ #wcpub (@postphotos) August 9, 2018

If someone comes from your newsletter, don’t waste pixels on showing a promo for your newsletter, invite them to be a member. If they’re a member, invite them to an event. ⁦@brianboyer⁩ #wcpub pic.twitter.com/uE0hZtcSat

— ian kennedy (@iankennedy) August 9, 2018

Yay! Newsletters finally getting mentioned. "Newsletters are like inviting newsrooms into the living room of your email inbox." As a publisher, what kind of guest do you want to be? — @carolineporter #wcpub

— Andy McIlwain (@andymci) August 8, 2018

“Seek ways to become less special” – @netaustin focusing on not inventing new wheels for everyone and instead taking advantage of economies of scale as a way to help local news prosper #WCpub pic.twitter.com/KhzkILfu2X

— Aaron Jorbin (@aaronjorbin) August 9, 2018

A worthwhile exercise for any publisher, suggested in @netaustin's #wcpub talk on "The Narrow Path for Local News".

Block off your site as marketing, recirculation, editorial, advertising, etc.

It could provide clarity on the alignment between your strategy and your design. pic.twitter.com/6nyfoQq1Ev

— Sarah Schmalbach Beck (@schmalie) August 9, 2018