the Bottom Line Research fellow (2013-14) Jake Batsell @jbatsell Associate professor Revenue Strategies Workshop Texas Center for Community Journalism Fredericksburg, Texas June 21, 2019
Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19 • Metro, business, and politics reporter for The Seattle Times and The Dallas Morning News • Later became DMN Metro Desk’s “hybrid” print/video reporter
Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19 • Left DMN in 2008 to teach digital journalism and launch student newsroom at SMU • Effective Aug. 1, 2019, will be William O’Neil Chair of Business Journalism (interim)
on visits to more than 25 news organizations in U.S./U.K. • 100+ interviews • Aimed at journalists, academics, students and anyone else interested in the future of news • Part of CJR Books series • More details: j.mp/engagedj ENGAGED JOURNALISM (Columbia University Press, Feb. ‘15)
The degree to which a media organization actively considers and interacts with its audience in furtherance of its journalistic and financial mission. Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19 Face-to-Face Engagement • News as Conversation • Mining Niche Communities • Search, Explore, Play • Measuring and Monetizing the Audience Relationship
• 6.21.19 Is the model replicable? Yes and no. YES • Revenue diversity • Entrepreneurial creativity • Tireless champion • Shared sense of business/editorial mission NO • Concentrated corporate wealth in TX • Unique combination of founders
matter to the bottom line? The ongoing crossover from ads to reader revenue. • New York Times: 2012 • Dallas Morning News: 2018 • Your publication: ?? Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
grow and keep subscribers is a matter of survival. Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19 “What you’re talking about here in this research is really a paradigm shift. … ‘My customer is the consumer, and that’s where I get my revenue,’ as opposed to ‘my customer is the advertiser and I’m leveraging my readers to these advertisers.’ It’s a big shift, a huge kind of shift in mission.” — Tom Rosenstiel Executive Director, American Press Institute • Study of 13 terabytes of anonymous subscriber data from Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star and San Francisco Chronicle found that frequency of site visits is the single biggest predictor of retaining subscribers — more than stories read or time spent.
6.21.19 Promising trends linking engagement with revenue: 3. Email newsletters & subscriptions for niche audiences Email newsletters are a daily habit. And Google data shows that email newsletters are “the single most effective way to get people to decide to subscribe,” Rosenstiel told Medill. But an engaging tone is key: “You don’t just throw a bunch of links in some automated, set-it-and-forget-it thing. Then it’s a machine talking to people and not a newsletter”
6.21.19 Promising trends linking engagement with revenue: 4. More newsroom staffers are actively making the case to the public that good journalism costs money and is worth supporting.
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