“Readers want to be contributing to something that is successful. So you have to be careful about crisis messaging, saying, ‘Oh gosh, we’re going to go under if we don’t get support.'”
It now makes more revenue from digital than from print and continues to add new subscribers at a record pace. But its brutal COVID-driven drop in advertising will be echoed all across the industry.
Former Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile hopes he’s found something at the intersection of ethical adblocking and news-flavored digital wellness. “It’s not just ‘Can you get rid of ads,’ but ‘What does a better internet look like?'”
“With the advertising people looking at the ad metrics, the subscription people looking at subscription metrics, and journalists looking at outdated metrics…nobody was looking at these metrics together to get a clear view of the business as a whole.”
We will all benefit if the Los Angeles Times becomes a West Coast counterweight to those dailies in New York and D.C. But it’ll take a bigger investment in reader retention to get there.
Benton, Joshua. "The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 31 Jul. 2019. Web. 23 Jul. 2024.
APA
Benton, J. (2019, Jul. 31). The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved July 23, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/
Chicago
Benton, Joshua. "The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified July 31, 2019. Accessed July 23, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/
| title = The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them
| last = Benton
| first = Joshua
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 31 July 2019
| accessdate = 23 July 2024
| ref = {{harvid|Benton|2019}}
}}
