How audience engagement can build community, deepen loyalty, and boost the bottom line

Transcript

1. How Audience Engagement
   Can Build Community,
   Deepen Loyalty,
   and Boost 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
   

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2. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   Professional journalism career
   Revenue 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
   

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3. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   Transition to academia
   Revenue 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)
   

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4. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
   • Experience launching site
   sparked intellectual interest in
   shifting business models
   

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5. Engagement, Loyalty and Revenue • @jbatsell • 6.11.14
   • Based 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)
   

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6. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   What is
   engaged journalism?
   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
   

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7. Texas Tribune / Knight
   Foundation Research Fellow
   Revenue Strategies Workshop • 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
   

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8. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   Why does audience engagement
   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
   

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9. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
   Fostering digital habits that 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.
   

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10. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Engagement is key to moving readers along the
    “subscription funnel” and path to conversion
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
    Poynter’s funnel
    breakdown:
    • Awareness
    • Engagement
    • Conversion
    • Retention
    

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11. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
    Promising trends linking engagement with revenue:
    1. Community
    experiences
    

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12. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
    Promising trends linking engagement with revenue:
    2. Membership programs (even
    by for-profit publications)
    

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13. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 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”
    

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14. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 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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15. JEM 499 • @jbatsell • 10.7.14
    Even more ideas:
    Here’s a free book!
    http://j.mp/mediainnov8
    Revenue Strategies Workshop • 6.21.19
    

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16. Thanks!
    More info:
    j.mp/engagedj
    

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