Newspaper company CEOs will be the first to tell you a new round of consolidation won’t solve their problems. But it might give them another year or two of breathing room.
“I would love to be in 25 cities and I wish we could’ve lived up to that. The financial reality and the operational reality of it was not quite ready for that.”
“You’re going to have micro-community sites with 72 lost-dog stories a day and [you’ll have] investigative reporting — but most of the things between those are going to struggle if we can’t figure out the model.”
“It’s not rocket science to put a CMS together. It is a bit of rocket science to figure out how to make the most effective use of it and create a sustainable business model.”
6AM runs six sites in four states across the Southeast, in areas “where they are not big enough to have multiple daily papers, yet they are big enough to have a huge life force and a huge heart.”
The three sites together are “just south of 1,500 paying customers,” 60 percent of whom are signed up as recurring contributors (of these, the average annual contribution is around $115 or $120). Denverite, which launched its program first, has around 900 members.
Bilton, Ricardo. "Post-layoffs, Spirited Media is exploring memberships and consulting (and killing off its direct-sold display ads)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 13 Nov. 2017. Web. 18 Apr. 2024.
APA
Bilton, R. (2017, Nov. 13). Post-layoffs, Spirited Media is exploring memberships and consulting (and killing off its direct-sold display ads). Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved April 18, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/11/post-layoffs-spirited-media-is-exploring-memberships-and-consulting-and-killing-off-its-direct-sold-display-ads/
Chicago
Bilton, Ricardo. "Post-layoffs, Spirited Media is exploring memberships and consulting (and killing off its direct-sold display ads)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified November 13, 2017. Accessed April 18, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/11/post-layoffs-spirited-media-is-exploring-memberships-and-consulting-and-killing-off-its-direct-sold-display-ads/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/11/post-layoffs-spirited-media-is-exploring-memberships-and-consulting-and-killing-off-its-direct-sold-display-ads/
| title = Post-layoffs, Spirited Media is exploring memberships and consulting (and killing off its direct-sold display ads)
| last = Bilton
| first = Ricardo
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 13 November 2017
| accessdate = 18 April 2024
| ref = {{harvid|Bilton|2017}}
}}
