Not too long ago, the consensus was that a significant digital reader revenue strategy could only work at two or three outlier news organizations. The New York Times had the breadth and depth and quality of content for which the average person highly engaged with the news might pay. The Wall Street Journal had a large potential base of readers who needed its specialized content for their jobs and who had expense accounts that would cover it.
Beleaguered regional newspapers such as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Boston Globe eventually proved this wrong. Voice of San Diego and dozens of other local and national nonprofit newsrooms found they could have public radio-like success with small donations from readers who understood the altruistic mission of accountability journalism.
Beyond the business side
Local news organizations are right to pursue the formula. We’re past the debate over whether a significant number of readers will pay to support strong journalism. It’s been proven they will.
Industry leaders and journalism funders continue to put crucial focus on testing and improving revenue models. Many cohorts of local publishers have been trained in the business-side factors involved in a reader revenue strategy. Help on achieving the level of journalism that will capture an audience and move them to give or subscribe has been much harder to come by.
And that’s the elephant in the room: The media support system – the dot orgs, foundations and funding organizations – need to figure out how to help make the journalism at under-resourced newsrooms strong and impactful enough to generate the kind of support that will make them sustainable. (And ultimately lead to more such journalism.)
This isn’t a question of building a business model or fundraising. This is about staffing and data acumen and the knowledge and tools it takes to create powerful journalism and a user experience that audiences value and support.
As they long have, amazing training opportunities exist through organizations such as IRE, ONA, SPJ, the Ida B. Wells Society and more. But the barriers for small and under-resourced news organizations to actually take advantage and put that training to use are high.
Small is the new normal
Zooming out, we see a local journalism landscape dominated by hundreds of very small newsrooms: local independent online startups that are one- to three-person operations and legacy Black and brown news organizations. They have limited resources or are chain-owned daily newspapers whose staffs have been reduced to one or two reporters.
First and foremost, these newsrooms need more direct operational funding to employ more journalists. This is something that the massive Press Forward initiative created by a coalition of journalism-supporting foundations is seeking to address.
But the industry also needs to have teams equipped for the future. Newsrooms like these will benefit from a system of training, resources and mentorship to support “capital J” accountability journalism in news ecosystems that are now decentralized.
Readers are well-served and grateful for coverage of the day-to-day news of the community. However, every newsroom yearns for the space and resources to also do work that goes deeper, that holds the powerful accountable, that has impact and drives change. It’s the kind of work that elevates the stature of your brand, that exposes your organization to more people, that is the catalyst to subscribe or give for many.
We need great journalism
I’d argue that the same dynamic applies to advertising at many news organizations, even if they don’t realize it. They can’t compete with the price, reach and targeting of the digital ad tech that drives the biggest online platforms. But small newsrooms can make a hell of a case to local advertisers that they want to be adjacent to and associated with the kind of journalism that has the community appreciative and engaged.
This has happened in incredible (even Pulitzer Prize-winning) ways and it is exciting how quickly collaborative journalism has been embraced. But it’s never completely organic. This movement has happened in large part through the facilitation, research, training, convening and cheerleading of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Solutions Journalism Network has built training programs into its facilitation of regional and topical journalism collaboratives. And ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting/Reveal, ICIJ and my alma mater, the Center for Public Integrity, helped show a new generation of investigative and single topic-focused nonprofits how having collaboration in your DNA allows you to punch far above your weight.
Meanwhile, Report for America is building training, mentorship and additional editing support into its process, to make sure that its ambitious goal of putting hundreds of additional reporters in under-resourced local newsrooms across the country has the intended impact. And the Investigative Editing Corps is pairing small newsrooms with experienced editors to provide support for enterprise and investigative reporting that goes beyond their typical daily news coverage.
Emphasis on essentials
Technology is also playing a part in making more advanced reporting possible in smaller newsrooms, from data journalism resources such as The Accountability Project and Big Local News to the document and records-access tools of Muck Rock.
When the Center for Public Integrity focused its mission four years ago on investigative reporting that confronts inequality in the U.S., we thought about how to scale that work beyond what our 25-person newsroom could do. When we obtained secret White House documents showing the true extent of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. We shared them directly with journalists across the country, and it saved lives. After spending thousands of hours obtaining and cleaning more than a decade’s worth of data about polling place locations and closures, we made it available to power not just our own reporting, but others’ work ranging from small local news organizations to NPR, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
A lightbulb went off when we were publishing “Unhoused and Undercounted,” an investigation that proved public school districts across the country were failing to identify and serve homeless students as required by federal law. We realized that this story, using our data analysis, could be written in almost any local community in the country and have a high potential for very direct impact in helping kids.
We were offering the data and the formula of questions to ask. How could we get it — and similar investigations — into the hands of any/every willing local newsroom able to tackle it, in a way that allowed them to have impact with few resources but also an entry point to go far deeper into the topic in their community if they could?
Decentralized journalism calls for decentralized solutions for seeding and supporting the kind of work that will spark a virtuous cycle of revenue that rewards the most impactful journalism. Our media ecosystem is supported by a robust network of organizations that are focused on keeping newsrooms afloat. But like all things digital, even this support must continue to evolve. Revenue models are only as effective as audiences’ willingness to support journalism. It’s time to focus on empowering under-resourced newsrooms to deliver the highest caliber journalism, to support society – and to inspire audiences to support them.
About the author
Matt DeRienzo is a veteran newsroom leader whose work over the past four years as editor in chief of the Center for Public Integrity was recognized with a national Edward R. Murrow Award for general excellence. Previously, he served as vice president of news for Hearst’s Connecticut newspapers and as the first full-time executive director of LION, a national nonprofit supporting local independent online news organizations. He can be reached at mattderienzo@gmail.com.
These days, digital media companies are all trying to figure out how to best incorporate AI into their products, services and capabilities, via partnerships or by building their own. The goal is to gain a competitive edge as they tailor AI capabilities to their audiences, subscribers and clients’ specific needs.
By leveraging proprietary Large Language Models (LLMs) digital media companies have a new tool in their toolboxes. These offerings offer differentiation and added value, enhanced audience engagement and user experience. These proprietary LLMs also set them apart from companies that are opting for licensing partnerships with other LLMs, which offer more generalized knowledge bases and draw from a wide range of sources in terms of subject matter and quality.
A growing number of digital media companies are rolling out their own LLM-based generative AI features for search and data-based purposes to enhance user experience and create fine-tuned solutions. In addition to looking at several of the offerings media companies are bringing to market, we spoke to Dow Jones, Financial Times and Outside Inc. about the generative AI tools they’ve built and explore the strategies behind them.
Media companies fuel generative AI for better solutions
Digital media companies are harnessing the power of generative AI to unlock the full potential of their own – sometimes vast amounts – of proprietary information. These new products allow them to offer valuable, personalized, and accessible content to their audiences, subscribers, customers and clients.
Take for example, Bloomberg, which released a research paper in March detailing the development of its new large-scale generative AI model called BloombergGPT. The LLM was trained on a wide range of financial data to assist Bloomberg in improving existing financial natural language processing (NLP) tasks, such as sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, news classification, and question answering, among others. In addition, the tool will help Bloomberg customers organize the vast quantities of data available on the Bloomberg Terminal in ways that suit their specific needs.
Launched in beta June 4, Fortune partnered with Accenture to create a generative AI product called Fortune Analytics. The tool delivers ChatGPT-style responses based on 20 years of financial data from the Fortune 500 and Global 500 lists, as well as related articles, and helps customers build graphic visualizations.
Generative AI helps customers speed up processes
A deeper discussion of how digital media companies are using AI provides insights to help others understand the potential to leverage the technology for their own needs. Dow Jones, for example uses Generative AI for a platform that helps customers meet compliance requirements.
Dow Jones Risk Compliance is a global provider of risk and compliance solutions across banks and corporations which helps organizations perform checks on their counterparties. They do that from the perspective of complying with anti-money laundering regulation, anti-corruption regulation, looking to also mitigate supply chain risk and reputational issues. Dow Jones Risk Compliance provides tools that allow customers to search data sets and help manage regulatory and reputational risk.
In April, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance launched an AI-powered research platform for clients that enables organizations to build an investigative due diligence report covering multiple sources in as little as five minutes. Called Dow Jones Integrity Check, the research platform is a fully automated solution that goes beyond screening to identify risks and red flags from thousands of data sources.
The planning for Dow Jones Integrity Check goes back a few years, as the company sought to provide its customers with a quicker way to do due diligence on their counterparties, Joel Lange, executive Vice President and General Manager, Risk and Research at Dow Jones explained.
Lange said that Dow Jones effectively built a platform which automatically creates a report for customers on a person or company, using technology from AI firm Xapien. It brings together Dow Jones’ data that is plugged into other data sets, corporate registrar information, and wider web content. It then leverages the platform’s Generative AI capability to produce a piece of analysis or a report.
Dow Jones Risk & Compliance customers use their technology to make critical, often complex, business decisions. Often the data collection process can be incredibly time consuming, taking days if not weeks.
The new tool “provides investigations, teams, banks and corporations with initial due diligence. Essentially it’s a starting point for them to conduct their due diligence, effectively automating a lot of that data collection process,” according to Lange.
Lange points out that the compliance field is always in need of increased efficiency. However, it carries with it great risk to reputation. Dow Jones Integrity Check was designed to reshape compliance workflows, creating an additional layer of investigation that can be deployed at scale. “What we’re doing here is enabling them to more rapidly and efficiently aggregate, consolidate, and bring information to the fore, which they can then analyze and then take that investigation further to finalize an outcome,” Lange said.
Regardless of the quality of the generated results, most experts believe that it is important to have a human in the loop in order to maintain content accuracy, mitigate bias, and enhance the credibility of the content. Lange also said that it’s critical to have “that human in the loop to evaluate the information and then to make a decision in relation to the action that the customer wants to take.”
In recent months, digital media companies have been launching their own generative AI tools that allow users to ask questions in natural language and receive accurate and relevant results.
The Associated Press created Merlin, an AI-generated search tool that makes searching the AP archive more accurate. “Merlin pinpoints key moments in our videos to exact second and can be used for older archive material that lacks modern keywords or metadata,” explained AP Editor in Chief Julie Pace at The International Journalism Festival in Perugia in April.
Outside’s Scout: AI search with useful results
Chatbots have become a popular form of search. Originally pre-programmed and only able to answer select questions included in their programming, chatbots have evolved and increased engagement by providing a conversational interface. Used for everything from organizing schedules and news updates to customer service inquiries, Generative AI-based chatbots assist users in finding information more efficiently across a wide range of industries.
Much like The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other digital media organizations that blocked OpenAI from using their content to power artificial intelligence, Outside CEO Robin Thurston explained that Outside Inc. wasn’t going to let third parties scrape their platforms to train LLM models.
Instead, they looked at leveraging their own content and data. “We had a lot of proprietary content that we felt was not easily accessible. It’s almost what I’d call the front page problem, which is you put something on the front page and then it kind of disappears into the ether,” Thurston said.
“We asked ourselves: How do we create something leveraging all this proprietary data? How do we leverage that in a way that really brings value to our user?” Thurston said. The answer was Scout, Outside Inc.’s AI search assistant. Scout is a custom-developed chatbot.
The company could see that generative AI offered a way to make that content accessible and even more useful to its readers. Outside had a lot of evergreen content that wasn’t adding value once it left the front page. Their brands inspire and inform audiences about outdoor adventures, new destinations and gear – a lot of which is evergreen and proprietary content that still had value if it could easily be surfaced by its audience. The chat interface allows their content to continue to be accessible to readers after it is no longer front and center on the website.
Scout gives users a summary answer to their question, leveraging Outside Inc’s proprietary data, and surfaces articles that it references. “It’s just a much more advanced search mechanism than our old tool was. Not only does it summarize, but it then returns the things that are most relevant,” he explained.
Additionally, Outside Inc’s old search function worked by each individual brand. Scout searches across the 20+ properties owned by the parent company which include Backpacker, Climbing, SKI Magazine, and Yoga Journal, among others. Scout brings all of the results together, from the 20+ different Outside brands, from the best camping destinations, to the best trails, outdoor activities for the family, gear, equipment and food all in one result.
One aspect that sets Outside Inc.’s model apart is their customer base, which differs from general news media customers. Outside’s customers engage in a different type of interaction, not just a quick transactional skim of a news story. “We have a bit of a different relationship in that they’re not only getting inspiration from us, which trip should I take? What gear should I buy? But then because of our portfolio, they’re kind of looking at what’s next,” Thurston said.
It was important to Thurston to use the LLM in a number of different ways, so Outside Inc launched a local newsletter initiative with the help of AI. “On Monday mornings we do a local running, cycling and outdoor newsletter that goes to people that sign up for it, and it uses that same LLM to pick what types of routes and content for that local newsletter that we’re now delivering in 64,000 ZIP codes in the U.S.”
Thurston said they had a team working on Scout and it took about six months. “Luckily, we had already built a lot of infrastructure in preparation for this in terms of how we were going to leverage our data. Even for something like traditional search, we were building a backend so that we could do that across the board. But this is obviously a much more complicated model that allows us to do it in a completely new way,” he said.
Connecting AI search to a real subscriber need
In late March, The Financial Times released its first generative AI feature for subscribers called Ask FT. Like Scout, the chat-based search tool allows users to ask any question and receive a response using FT content published over the last two decades. The feature is currently available to approximately 500 FT Professional subscribers. It is powered by the FT’s own internal search capabilities, combined with a third-party LLM.
The tool is designed to help users understand complicated issues or topics, like Ireland’s offshore energy policy, rather than just searching for specific information. Ask FT searches through Financial Times (FT) content, generates a summary and cites the sources.
“It works particularly well for people who are trying to understand quite complex issues that might have been going on over time or have lots of different elements,” explained Lindsey Jayne, the chief product officer of the Financial Times.
Jayne explained that they spend a lot of time understanding why people choose the FT and how they use it. People read the FT to understand the world around them, to have a deep background knowledge of emerging events and affairs. “With any kind of technology, it’s always important to look at how technology is evolving to see what it can do. But I think it’s really important to connect that back to a real need that your customers have, something they’re trying to get done. Otherwise it’s just tech for the sake of tech and people might play with it, but not stick with it,” she said.
Trusted sources and GenAI attribution
Solutions like those from Dow Jones, FT and Outside Inc. highlight the power of a brand with a trusted audience relationship to create deep, authentic relationships built on reliability and credibility. Trusted media brands are considered authoritative because their content is based on credible sources and facts, which ensures accuracy.
Currently, generative AI has demonstrated low accuracy and poses challenges to sourcing and attribution. Attribution is a central feature for digital media companies who roll out their own generative AI solutions. For Dow Jones compliance customers, attribution is critical to customers, to know if they’re going to make a decision based on information that is available in the media, according to Lange.
“They need to have that attributed to within the solution so that if it’s flowing into their audit trails or they have to present that in a court of law, or if they would need to present it to our internal audit, the attribution is really key. (Attribution) is going to be critical for a lot of the solutions that will come to market,” he said. “The attribution has to be there in order to rely on it for a compliance use case or really any other use case. You really need to know where that fact or that piece of information or data actually came from and be able to source it back to the underlying article.”
The Financial Times’ generative AI tool also offers attribution to FT articles in all of its answers. Ask FT pulls together lots of different source material, generates an answer, and attributes it to various FT articles. “What we ask the large language model to do is to read those segments of the articles and to turn them into a summary that explains the things you need to know and then to also cite them so that you have the opportunity to check it,” Jayne said.
They also ask the FT model to infer from people’s questions when it should be searching from. “Maybe you’re really interested in what’s happened in the last year or so, and we also get the model to reread the answer, reread all of the segments and check that, as kind of a guard against hallucination. You can never get rid of hallucination totally, but you can do lots to mitigate it.”
The Financial Times is also asking for feedback from the subscribers using the tool. “We’re literally reading all of the feedback to help understand what kinds of questions work, where it falls down, where it doesn’t, and who’s using it, why and when.”
Leaning into media strengths and adding a superpower
Generative AI seems to have created unlimited opportunities and also considerable challenges, questions and concerns. However it is clear that an asset many media companies possess is a deep reservoir of quality content and it is good for business to extract the most value from the investment in its creation. Leveraging their own content to train and program generative AI tools that serve readers seems like a very promising application.
In fact, generative AI can give trustworthy sources a bit of a super power. Jayne from the FT offered the example of scientists using the technology to read through hundreds of thousands of research papers and find patterns in a process that would otherwise take years to read in an effort to make important connections.
While scraped-content LLMs pose risks to authenticity, accuracy and attribution, proprietary learning models offer a promising alternative.
As Jayne put it, “The media has “an opportunity to harness what AI could mean for the user experience, what it could mean for journalism, in a way that’s very thoughtful, very clear and in line with our values and principles.” At the same time, she cautions that we shouldn’t be “getting overly excited because it’s not the answer to everything – even though we can’t escape the buzz at the moment.”
We are seeing many efforts bump up against the limits of what generative AI is able to do right now. However, media companies can avoid some of generative AI’s current pitfalls by employing the technology’s powerful language prediction, data processing and summarization capabilities while leaning into their own strengths of authenticity and accuracy.
When aspiring journalists ask me whether the media is dead, I always say no.
I remind them that while the menu might change, the hunger for news and information never vanishes. To stick with the food analogy, news these days is like UberEats: far more options are available at your fingertips.
Here’s the thing: evolution in the media is constant and ongoing.
Historically, the delivery method has evolved in this industry, from horseback to telegraph and radio to television. Cable news, the internet and social media caused disruptive waves over time. These days, news is on a 24-hour cycle that is no longer limited to cable news. And, now, Artificial Intelligence has entered the chat. (And they are here whether we like it or not.)
Newsrooms ignore the emergence of AI at their peril, as history shows that transformative technologies don’t disappear simply because they’re ignored. Remember in 1995 when Newsweek predicted the Internet would fail? It was already decades into its inevitable march to dominate media consumption.
Technology usually gets better in time, and it has only improved in my 22 years in this industry. We have a greater reach than we could have imagined. I can instantly read what’s happening in any part of this country—or the world. All from a device that fits in my pocket.
Technology and journalism will always travel hand-in-hand. However right now, a lot about the relationship is toxic. It’s not serving us and we need to do some soul searching to fix what’s not working.
Change can be a painful experience
News and information is everywhere, and everyone can share their perception of news. It’s transforming in real time and the growing pains are unrelenting.
The year started with over 500 journalists losing their jobs, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. About 2,681 journalism jobs were eliminated in 2023 alone. That’s a 48% increase from 2022 and a staggering 77% increase from 2021.
Circulation, viewership and listeners have steadily declined for newspapers, broadcast TV news, and public radio. Major online news outlets are trying to stave off website traffic and engagement decreases. The shift to social media platforms for news consumption is particularly noticeable among younger generations. All this before we get to the fallout from tarnished community trust and news avoidance.
Everyone is looking for sustainability.
Same old traffic metrics
Meanwhile, social media referral traffic has plummeted globally over the past two years.
The big picture: News organizations invested heavily in social media for two decades, relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X, but the algorithms were not in our favor. They never loved us half as much as we loved them. We infiltrated these platforms, but social media prioritized advertising over truth and accountability.
Now, logic tells us that AI search could be a death knell for search traffic. Search has served as a major entry point for metrics that have helped newsrooms drive advertising revenue. Audiences have grown accustomed to using Google searches to find links to information. AI, however, can directly answer most questions, and it’s getting smarter by the hour.
The WSJ has reported that publishers might lose 20-40% of their website traffic when Google’s AI products are fully implemented. The loss of traffic from social media and search will likely have devastating effects on this industry.
Some local shops still rely on the same old metrics – the volume of web traffic and the value of a click or pageview – because that’s what we’ve always done. But given how much the landscape has changed, that well is drying up and we need to find a new source.
Rather than wait and see and react to the technological changes coming at us, the industry must redefine its relationship with technology and take some control. Some news organizations have come to terms with this, and others see the value in creating new revenue streams. Diversifying revenue sources is key.
But beyond that, the industry has to be more entrepreneurial and less traditional. Doubling down on the old models is simply not enough.
When we think about rebuilding the infrastructure for news, we should ask ourselves: Could we build our own pipeline to traffic? Is there a way we can empower audiences to share content by building a trusted social media platform for distribution? That’s the thing: We – the news and media industry – have to take responsibility and build the infrastructure we need to create new habits for readers.
Provide audiences with utility
The reality is that news organizations have done a decent job building brand presence across platforms, but there’s no measurement for the value of that. Unfortunately, our success is housed under decaying pillars of success. The entire model must be flipped on its ear. We must reimagine everything. That mindset is why some startups have done more than survive and become a new breed of media success story. There’s a there there.
We spend a lot of time curating audiences we already have and need to spend more of our days figuring out how to capture the ones we don’t. Live events, office hours and panel discussions center the news and make it accessible to more people. It’s a way to expand your brand in a three-dimensional way. Lean into your personalities and their subject matter expertise to establish a more potent value proposition. And recognize that not all change is bad. The trick is harnessing it in ways that attract and satisfy audiences.
We must pay closer attention to evolving media consumption habits. Some people do have shorter attention spans and want brevity. However, that’s not absolute; there’s room for it all.
We use our phones to do everything and email is a new form of currency. Delivering news to a consumer’s inbox via newsletters just makes sense. We have to develop content creation and delivery strategies that fit today’s lifestyles. And then be ready to do it again as things inevitably change.
Newspapers are going the way of the tablet—not the ones Apple makes, but the ones Moses carried when he descended from Mount Sinai. Hieroglyphics, papyrus and wood had a place in history, as did quill pens. We can appreciate Johannes Gutenberg’s contribution and still embrace all the waves of technology that followed.
Diverse perspectives
The pandemic showed us that people need the expertise journalists wield. However, at the same time we see that people increasingly value the perspectives of social media influencers over journalists. We may not like it, but this needs to teach us something. Rather than ask our journalists to be invisible or unobtrusive, perhaps we need to re-examine ways to humanize them for audiences.
The plethora of free options suggests that every media outlet needs to focus on offering more distinctive coverage. No, it shouldn’t be harmful or polarizing. But it has to be inclusive, reflecting more communities that demand to be heard. That’s why so many niche and local publishers have cropped up; to fill a void that was created by arrogance, neglect and an unwillingness to change – a poisonous recipe.
Media has to marry new technology, develop a trustworthy infrastructure for news distribution and create a steady diet of distinctive coverage mixed with utility and expertise and get back into communities.
The media landscape will look different by the end of this year (and the next, and the one after that), but you can’t point to a time in history when information didn’t matter. And you cannot point to a time in civilization when news – no matter its platform – didn’t make a difference.
If we haven’t learned anything else, history tells us we should pay attention.
In the age of artificial intelligence, it could be argued that the calculus of content is changing.
Since the advent of publishing metrics, the goal has always been more: more page views, clicks, keywords and SEO. And while AI can automate various aspects of content creation and production to save digital media companies time and resources, the convenience of the technology has also allowed for a firehose of low quality content to proliferate.
But, amid the sharp increase of these junk content farms, is there a new opportunity for quality journalism to quietly reclaim its place at the fore? It’s certainly on the minds of the leadership at The Atlantic.
In April, The Atlantic announced it had reached 1 million subscribers and become profitable, by investing in areas where the company had “fairly high confidence of good returns,” according to CEO Nicholas Thompson. The 167-year-old publication currently boasts financial stability and is well-positioned to think about where it is headed as it approaches its 200th birthday.
The Atlantic’s one-million milestone is just the foundation for further growth. In a recent memo to staff, Thompson and Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote:
“The key to continued success is to be constructively dissatisfied with the present, and so both of us believe very strongly that our 1 million subscriptions represent merely the foundation of future excellence and growth.”
Goldberg says that he would like The Atlantic to double, then quadruple its current size, saying the company needs to figure out how to reach larger audiences around the world. “I want to set a course as The Atlantic heads towards its bicentennial in 33 years. Now is the time for us to decide this is where we want The Atlantic to go and this is how we’re going to get there,” he said.
In terms of excellence, The Atlantic’s awards speak volumes to the quality of the journalism it produces. For the third year in a row, The Atlantic was awarded General Excellence for a News, Sports, and Entertainment publication at the 2024 National Magazine Awards. No one else has done that in this century, Goldberg remarks.
“So, we have the recognition of our industry that we’re doing something right, and I feel like this is the year when we need to really focus on: what are the next large steps we take?” Goldberg said. “Because we’re in a very good spot. But I don’t want to spend the next five years defending the hill that we’re on. I want to move to some other mountain entirely.”
And, that means not just defending their reputation for journalistic excellence, or growing iteratively. It means figuring out how to reach enormous audiences around the world – and getting a whole lot of them to subscribe.
Subscription strategy with an editorial focus
Prior to the pandemic, Atlantic Chair David Bradley and Laurene Powell Jobs decided they should move into the digital subscription space. They’d had a lot of success through scale – growing web traffic and advertising, Goldberg said. The company hired Alexandra Hardiman, (currently New York Times’ Chief Product Officer), as Chief Business & Product Officer in 2018-2019, to build The Atlantic’s digital subscription model.
“We launched basically six months before the pandemic started when advertising collapsed. And we did very well in those early months. There was a lot of demand,” Goldberg recalled.
The 2019 metered model offered three annual subscription plans for readers: digital, print and digital and a premium tier, which offered exclusive access to podcasts, product discounts and priority access to events among other perks. The Atlantic earned 300,000 new subscriptions in the 12 months that followed.
The following year, the pandemic impacted the publication’s in-person events and advertising, forcing layoffs of 17% of its staff, and losses in the millions.
Now, overall revenue is up more than 10% year over year. The company says advertising booked year-to-date is also up 33% year over year. And, subscriptions to The Atlantic have increased by double-digit percentages in each of the past four years. In fact, they’ve surged 14% in the past year alone.
By 2023, The Atlantic was back on the path to profitability. According to Axios, The Atlantic adjusted its paywall to be more flexible for subscribers and was working to add new revenue streams. Then, roughly 60% of its revenue came from subscriptions, which included print magazines and digital subscriptions through Apple News.
Flexible paywalls meet journalistic excellence
The strategy was to have the best, smartest, most dynamic, flexible subscription, acquisition and retention strategies, Goldberg said. “We’ve always believed that you can have the best systems in the world for acquiring people easily, but if you don’t have a quality product to sell them, they’re not going to come, they’re not going to stay.”
“We pivoted, I would say, to a total quality model on the web. We were doing good stuff on the web for years. We had a large team of young reporters doing news analysis and quick summaries and that sort of thing. But I’ve always believed that the aspect of The Atlantic that differentiated us from everyone else was a commitment to having the highest standards and producing the most complicated, interesting, aesthetically-pleasing, well-written journalism. I think that strategy has borne fruit,” Goldberg said.
The Atlantic focused on editorial excellence, publishing stories that exemplified depth and range and drove news cycles. It recruited high-profile writers including New York Times’ Jennifer Senior and Caitlin Dickerson, who won Pulitzers in 2022 for Feature Writing and Explanatory Journalism, respectively.
“My goal here is to build the greatest writers collective in the English language. We’re halfway there,” Goldberg said. “I don’t need the biggest one. I just need the best one. There are tremendous numbers of readers of English, who want access to our writers, and so as long as there’s an audience for quality journalism, quality non-fiction, we will be okay.”
Reaching new subscribers with newsletters
In addition to a flexible digital subscription strategy and editorial excellence, The Atlantic invested in new newsletters for subscribers in 2021, bringing nine newsletter writers into the fold. Newsletters help reach different audiences, build loyalty and repetition. And as Goldberg pointed out, The Atlantic is launching new ones all of the time. Thus far, the strategy appears to be a moderate success.
“One of the best things to happen out of that is we found more great staff writers, Yair Rosenberg, Xochitl Gonzalez and Charlie Warzel, just to name three and so, it ultimately brought their following,” Goldberg said. “They’re integrated into our writers collective in a way that’s great for our readers and great for our journalism.”
High-quality content reckons with AI
As digital media companies reckon with the changes artificial intelligence brings, deciding on how to adapt or adopt, it’s becoming clear that high-quality journalism retains immense value in the AI era. It offers authenticity, context, and deep analysis that AI-generated content lacks. It provides meaningful insights, informs people and counters misinformation.
Despite the one million subscriber milestone, Goldberg isn’t ready to relax. “It’s not like a breath out. We’re not breathing easy because you’ve got to run scared in this business,” he said. “But those three things, the subscription health, financial health, journalism health and recognition, give us a great place to have meetings where we can actually think through, alright, what are we going to do with The Atlantic on its approach to its 200th birthday.”
“Because it is a very unstable industry, obviously, and I worry about small mistakes or small missed opportunities snowballing over the years. I worry about missing the opportunity to do something newer and bigger.”
Few of The Atlantic’s contemporaries are left. As Goldberg points out, many venerable magazines that came after The Atlantic – like Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post – have disappeared.
“So it’s kind of a miracle that The Atlantic has made it through the beginning of the internet age successfully. It survived the Great Depression and the Civil War and World War II. And, so we really have to focus on what is it that made it survive? And what do we do to increase its chances of surviving and flourishing into the next phase?”
Something is shifting with Gen Z. Data from Gallup shows that in the US, women aged 18 to 30 are now thirty percentage points more liberal than men. That gap opened after decades of a roughly equal spread of worldviews. As media organizations seek to attract, engage and retain younger audiences, understanding what drives them and accurately representing them will be essential. However, as the news media struggles with increased polarization on many fronts, it appears that gender equity is rising on the list of contentious topics.
This divide is a result, and signal of, something more than young women simply becoming increasingly liberal. Research from King’s College London in February showed that, specifically when it comes to attitudes to masculinity and women’s equality, there is a growing division. In some cases, young men today are no more supportive of action on gender equality than older men, despite generally being more socially liberal.
A growing number of people – one in three in the UK– think that gender equality has been “solved.” Yet when it comes to the news, women’s perspectives remain “firmly niche,” according to The Missing Perspectives of Women in News report. “The proportion of people who believe that feminism has gone too far, that equality has been achieved, that’s growing across all groups,” the report’s author and researcher, Luba Kassova told us. “Gen Z young men are leading though: A higher proportion of them seem to think that.”
Women’s expert voices remain significantly muted in high-profile news genres such as politics, where men’s share of voice is up to seven times higher, and the economy, where men’s share of voices is up to 31 times higher. It’s not just female expertise that’s lacking: In 2019, the coverage of gender equality issues constituted less than half a percent of all news coverage in the U.S.
But do news organizations have a role to play in building understanding around gender issues, and closing the gap in attitudes between young men and women? And if so, where do they start? Kassova shared some context around these issues and steps newsrooms can take.
Including missing perspectives
Kassova’s first piece of advice is that newsrooms need to build on the work many already have underway to make sure that those perspectives which are not usually heard, including young women, are part of their coverage. “The more male-dominated the coverage is, the more it becomes a fertile ground for the view that everything is fine, because the news agenda doesn’t reflect the perspectives of women, who tend to be marginalized,” she explained. She notes that her research has shown for every female voice, there are three male voices in online coverage.
There have been concerted efforts among many organizations to improve diversity across the board, with Kassova’s research showing that a third of women hold top-level leadership positions in newsrooms. However, this hasn’t provided the critical mass previously thought necessary to improve women’s visibility in the news. “The relationship between the number of women in organizational resources, in newsgathering and in news outputs is not linear,” despite previous hypotheses, her report states.
The biggest issue, which particularly impacts younger people, is the culture in newsrooms and news leadership. It continues to be dominated by men who are older, white, educated and richer (MOWERs). “A more homogenous group of people who set the tone, set the culture, set the rules of what constitutes a story, which stories should be prioritized,” said Kassova.
She says that this really inhibits progress when it comes to serving young people. “All these biases lead to substantive organizational challenges, including the under-representation of young editors and reporters, the intersectional invisibility of young female employees, and content of reduced relevance to young audiences,” she recently wrote in Press Gazette.
One starting point when it comes to what to cover is addressing the very strong misunderstanding among people of all ages about what feminism and gender equality is. “There’s a mis-perception that it’s a zero-sum game, where women are elevated at the expense of men,” Kassova pointed out. “There are plenty of publications fuelling that narrative by using condescending terms when they cover either young people, or young men,or men in general. And that doesn’t help.”
“What’s really important is for journalists to educate society as to what it actually means; that it’s not a zero-sum game. There’s so much research that has been done to show that where there is a higher level of gender equality, everyone – including men – tend to be happier, more prosperous, safer… So it’s really important for journalists to act as a conduit for truth and to raise awareness of what feminism means, and what equality means.”
Countering the damaging zero-sum perception involves talking to both feminists and anti-feminists. Kassova explained that journalists covering gender are much less likely to engage with the male perspective of what men find to be troublesome in the narrative around gender. But digging into that can actually unearth some different perspectives and build bridges with reluctant audiences.
“Young people live in different worlds because the social media that we construct for ourselves presents different worlds,” she said. “The only way to bridge that is to reflect people’s different perspectives. And there isn’t enough of that happening. The ideology that we carry too often dictates the sources that we speak to. I think we need to be very mindful to counteract them, to present different perspectives so that everyone feels heard.”
As a practical example, this can be exploring how the millennia-old patriarchy has impacted both men and women. Although women are by far the biggest victims of the system, men suffer from it too. By not engaging with that, we end up with a situation where social issues like the #MeToo movement are presented as a men vs. women conflict.
“We have to stop that,” Kassova highlighted. “You can only achieve gender equality if dominant genders and all genders surrounding work and move in the same direction. What’s happened until now in many feminist narratives is men and women are pitted against each other, very often seeing men purely as perpetrators, and women as victims. And there isn’t a more sophisticated narrative.”
“The way to deal with it is really to be equitable, and to cover issues with compassion rather than judgment. There is not enough solution-based journalism and there is not enough understanding.”
Involve younger audiences in news coverage
With some parts of the news industry contracting significantly, age is something that news leaders have prioritized. But although there is an acute understanding that change needs to happen, this hasn’t always been approached tactically.
“One of the perennial questions strategically is how do we bring younger audiences in?” said Kassova. “But there the conversation tends to be around, how do we make the output that we’ve already thought about, the stories that we’ve already crafted, more attractive to audiences? There isn’t enough self-reflection to look at, what are the organizational barriers that lead us to produce content that is disengaging?”
This links back to the MOWER leadership issue highlighted earlier. The average age of a journalist is 47 in the US, and 43 in the UK, so there is already a generational mismatch between those who produce the news, and those who they want to consume it. But the answer is not necessarily to flock to TikTok.
“What’s really important is for news organizations not to think just about what platforms they go to, but what are the perspectives that haven’t been heard?” explained Kassova. If the structural and cultural issues within newsrooms are addressed, and marginalized perspectives prioritized, the rest will fall into place.
For those who aren’t persuaded by the need to cover underserved audiences, there’s a strong economic incentive too. “Covering more diverse perspectives, and having more equitable coverage leads to increased revenue, because it brings in new audiences,” Kassova pointed out. “There is about $11 billion waiting to be won by the news industry given the consumption gap that exists at the moment: around 11 to 12 percent. If the industry closes this gap by one percentage point a year, then in the next five years, there’s an additional $11 billion to be made.”
We need news coverage that is compassionate and equitable
Polarization in society can be driven by and inflamed by the media. Newsrooms have an important role to play in highlighting women’s perspectives and stories, as well as counteracting some of the misunderstandings and zero-sum arguments around feminism. If these voices aren’t heard, divisions in society, and among younger people, are only going to grow.
“I am a big proponent of equitable coverage and compassionate coverage,” Kassova concluded. “It’s really important because that’s the only way we can actually break the polarization that happens on so many levels; intergenerational, intragenerational societal polarization, global polarization. I think compassion is the glue that will bring us back together.”
One point Kassova was firm on is that more research needs to be done around Gen Z and their attitudes. There may well be growing diverging views within the genders as well, and as an industry, we need to work to understand the drivers of these changes, particularly as we work to build our audiences – and news leaders – of the future.
I recently found myself reflecting on a transformative time in my life. Spurred by an intense desire to remodel my grandmother’s basement, I worked through a difficult period in my youth. But though I was helped by taking action, not to mention my grandmother’s wisdom, I now see how (and why) the superficial changes I made to her home were not enough to keep it upright. It needed the kind of comprehensive overhaul that required expertise I did not then possess.
The experience also helped me understand how important it is to break the cycle of complacency that stands in the way of radical transformation. This mindset – and need for change – applies to the media industry too.
As I recently wrote, I believe that restoring our confidence, our faith in the power and promise of the media industry is the first step towards transformation. Confidence in the news media industry means embracing change, listening to our audience, and delivering information that serves the greater good. It’s a challenge, but one we must confront to remain a relevant and trusted sources of information.
To rebuild trust, we must immerse ourselves in understanding our audience’s needs and concerns. But, while surveys and feedback loops offer insights, they’re only effective if we act upon them. We can’t rely on old slogans or assume we know what’s best for our audience. Instead, for true transformation, the media industry must evolve, adapt, and truly engage with those we serve.
Thinking through the challenges we face in rebuilding confidence as the news media – and trust in the news media – it’s clear that aligning traditional journalistic values with evolving consumer expectations is no easy task. Nowadays, people are inundated with information from various sources, making them more discerning (or even polarized) about what they believe. They’re not just looking for facts; they want information that validates their worldview. This presents a daunting hurdle for journalists. However, it’s crucial that we remain steadfast in our commitment to truth and integrity. While we must evolve to meet the needs of our audience, we must also stay true to our core principles.
Action is essential for media transformation
A crucial step in rebuilding trust and confidence in news media involves identifying community issues and presenting potential solutions. While journalism informs us about various issues, there’s an opportunity to go beyond sensationalism and focus on actionable steps towards resolution. This approach not only empowers our audience, but also fosters advocacy and drives real change within society.
Throughout history, news media has played a pivotal role in catalyzing social change. For example, the Montgomery Advertiser, a local Alabama paper that documented and supported the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Their coverage empowered the Black community, brought national attention to the issue of segregation, and ultimately played a part in desegregating public buses. This is the legacy we must strive to uphold.
It’s essential to recognize this power we hold as media and leverage our platform to continue advocating for truth and altruism. By rebranding ourselves as agents of positive change, dedicated to objective reporting and proactive problem-solving, we reaffirm our commitment to serving the public good and recapture our confidence. However, to achieve this vision, we must embrace a dual mindset. We need to evaluate our existing practices critically while fostering a culture of innovation and adaptation.
As someone who values the importance of taking risks, I believe that stepping out of our comfort zones and embracing innovation is essential. By doing so, we can develop products and processes that resonate with today’s audiences, delivering value in impactful ways. It’s time to redefine our approach, embrace change, and chart a course towards a vibrant and sustainable future for news media. Though the challenges may be significant, the potential rewards of a thriving, trusted news industry are immeasurable.
Trust and transformation
Just as a willingness to tackle a basement project unlocked surprising potential, fostering a culture of innovation within news organizations will help us find the way forward. Media transformation starts with leadership—creating an environment where fresh ideas can flourish, not wither under the weight of tradition. This culture of innovation isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential for our long-term sustainability and profitability.
I’ve witnessed firsthand how a lack of openness to new ideas stifles growth and innovation within organizations. Despite overflowing with potential revenue streams, some organizations remain stagnant due to a resistance to change. However, by creating committees dedicated to exploring new possibilities, encouraging brainstorming sessions that welcome even the most “out-there” ideas, and fostering an atmosphere of trust and respect, organizations can unlock their full potential.
Without this culture of innovation, organizations risk stagnation and irrelevance. They risk losing valuable assets—both in terms of talent and revenue opportunities—to competitors who embrace bold strategies and innovative thinking.
Explore new frontiers
Here’s where innovation gets exciting. Imagine news content that isn’t just informative but truly engaging because it leverages new storytelling techniques. Consider multimedia formats such as data visuals, video, podcasts, and other interactive audience components. These approaches don’t just make for an engaging experience; they can make complex issues accessible to a wider audience.
Furthermore, fostering a culture of innovation allows us to humanize the journalists behind the stories. By featuring stories or even more personal or longer bios about the dedication and passion of those who strive to deliver accurate information, we can rebuild trust and connect with our audience on a deeper level. People want to know the faces and stories behind the news. Showcasing the human element of journalism can go a long way in fostering trust.
We must also find ways to showcase the true impact of journalism. By highlighting investigative reports that led to positive change, we can demonstrate the power of journalism to make a difference in society. When audiences see real-world examples of how journalism has improved lives or held powerful institutions accountable, it strengthens their understanding of the vital role the news media plays in a healthy democracy.
Proactively communicate media transformation
To thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of news media, we must flood the market with our message. Message saturation will define our success in the coming decades. If we don’t take ownership of our narrative, others will shape it for us, potentially in ways that don’t reflect our values or contributions.
It’s crucial to convey that news media is not the enemy; we play a vital role in society’s development, understanding, information and speaking truth to power. By articulating our role, we position ourselves for growth and progress on our terms. This foundation is essential for restoring confidence, as it shapes public perception of who we are and what we stand for. While we may already know our identity and purpose, the sheer volume of information available today requires us to actively engage with our audience. We must strike a balance between confidence and visibility to maintain our relevance and influence in the marketplace. Otherwise, we risk being overshadowed by the constant influx of information.
Navigating the complexities of rebuilding trust and relevance in the news media industry, one thing remains clear: confidence is key. It’s not just about embracing change or asserting our importance; it’s about believing in our ability to make a difference.
By fostering a culture of innovation, embracing new storytelling techniques, and actively engaging with our audience, we can reaffirm our commitment to truth, integrity, and the greater good of democracy. With confidence as our cornerstone, we can chart a bold course toward a vibrant and sustainable future for news media. Though the challenges may be daunting, our belief in the power of journalism to inform, inspire, and empower will propel us forward.
Young streamers are more likely to gravitate to user-generated platforms like TikTok and YouTube for their entertainment needs over subscription-based products like Netflix and Max. Streaming services need to update their user experiences, particularly around findability and discoverability, to offer more-personalized content recommendations over generalized suggestions, according to the findings of a new report.
Deloitte’s “2024 Digital Media Trends” study found that 60% of Generation Z video consumers are more likely to watch user-generated content because they “don’t have time to spend searching for what they want to watch.” Half of all respondents say they “abandon an entertainment experience because they can’t find what they’re looking for.”
The findings are problematic for entertainment giants, which are committing large budgets toward the production of original content that aren’t attracting significant audiences. Deloitte says the top six subscription streaming platforms are likely to spend $100 billion on original content production and marketing in 2024 alone. Jeff Loucks, the Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Technology, Media, and Telecommunications who co-authored the Digital Media Trends report, said that investment is likely to be wasted effort if streamers can’t easily connect to those shows and movies.
The discoverability dilemma
According to Loucks, one big reason why shows and movies aren’t being watched is because streaming platforms make it difficult for that content to be readily discovered, likening the experience of sifting through shows and movies on a streaming service to “the old days of Blockbuster.”
“You’re searching through a bunch of titles, and you can’t agree on what to watch. It’s going to take an hour and a half of your time,” Loucks said. “The content discovery has got to get better.”
Industry experts who spoke with Digital Content Next said they were largely unsurprised by Deloitte’s findings that streamers — particularly younger audiences — were increasingly turning to user-generated content platforms like TikTok and YouTube for their entertainment needs. One often overlooked reason is that platforms like YouTube and TikTok have made heavy investments in their search and discovery algorithms that identify what a person is watching on the regular, and then serve up more content that caters to their interests.
“YouTube and TikTok are scarily accurate and predictive and elemental, whether the content is large-scale or bite-sized,” said Tim Hanlon, the founder and CEO of the media consultancy firm Vertere Group. “Those are all independently describable and ascribable elements, data-rich elements that can be mixed and matched together.”
Loucks agrees that younger viewers are increasingly attracted to short-form content, which can be easily skipped for something new if it isn’t appealing. “Sometimes, people are telling us that they’ve got a lower attention span, and smaller, snackable content is something they’re willing to watch — it’s easier to consume,” Loucks said.
Addressing fragmentation
Embracing short form and the push-based UI of user-generated content platforms won’t serve as a silver bullet that will solve the complex challenges of streaming search and discoverability, however. There are still plenty of consumers who prefer to be entertained by watching feature-length films and episodic TV series — and they’re having the same challenges finding interesting things to watch across apps and platforms, too.
According to a report from Accenture, about 36% of people say they’re exhausted from having to constantly look across platforms and services to find something they want to watch. And 60% of consumers say they’ve churned out of a service because a movie or TV series was dropped, or they thought they’d watched everything there was to watch.
Fragmentation is accelerating these trends, because content that is relatable to a person is spread across different services. “The net impact of fragmentation is the fact that consumers can’t simply find content in consistent places where they want to spend their time,” pointed out Dallas Lawrence, a former communications executive for Roku’s platform.
Lawrence spent a lot of time thinking about this problem at Roku. He noticed that companies spend a lot of time and marketing money drawing customers into their streaming services only to “fail at the five-yard line.”
“They’ve failed to actually consumers with a piece of content they want to watch, and that’s probably one of the biggest challenges today, both from a streamer perspective — to keep people from cycling out — but also from a consumer perspective.”
Lawrence is now the chief strategy and communications officer for Telly, a startup that grabbed headlines last year after promising to offer a free, dual-screen smart TV. Telly packs a lot of features that are meant to entice consumer interest — from a premium screen to an integrated high-fidelity sound bar. They also promise to play nice with any streaming platform that a customer wants to use.
Telly is rooted in the idea that the TV will pay for itself over time through advertisements shown on a secondary screen that sits beneath the main display. Lawrence said Telly is uniquely positioned to help ease the challenges of streaming discovery for consumers and services alike because the device is able to evaluate what someone is watching across any service.
“If I’m watching Bridgerton on the top screen of my Telly, the device is recognizing that, and we’re going to say, hey, maybe you’d like to watch Gilded Age on Max as well,” Lawrence said. “We can throw that ad on the second screen, and when you’re done watching Bridgerton, you just pick up your remote and click into Gilded Age. The ability for us to recognize what someone is watching now, and then pull them into new content with a single click before they’ve turned off the TV or cycled out, that will have huge benefits.”
Streaming discoverability beyond the EPG
For now, Telly is the only dual-screen device on the market that can seamlessly pull off this experience. However, the idea of using viewing habits to deliver personalized results and improve streaming discoverability is not unique and can be franchised by other services.
Instead, streaming services seem to be defaulting to antiquated ways of browsing across content, complains former CBS executive Adam Wiener, who now operates his own media consulting firm Continuous Media.
Wiener says that subscription-based platforms have adopted the “endless scroll,” which allows consumers to quickly flip through movies and TV shows. Often, however, this approach fails offer personalized content recommendations the way user-generated platforms like TikTok and YouTube do. Free, ad-supported platforms and some premium pay TV services that deliver linear content are even worse, Wiener notes. That’s because they’ve embraced the grid-style electronic program guide (EPG) that was used by cable and satellite platforms for decades, but hasn’t kept up with the times.
“The problem with the EPG is that it’s the clunky thing of yesteryear, and it also doesn’t include all the things that you may be interested in,” Wiener opined. “An EPG should know that I never, ever watch reality shows, and it should never show those things to me.”
Endless scrolling and EPGs also reveal another problem: There is a lot of stuff to watch. According to Nielsen’s State of Play report, there are now more than 2.7 million unique titles across hundreds of streaming services, and the sheer volume of content libraries can leave consumers feeling extremely overwhelmed and make finding something to watch seem impossible.
“It’s the paradox of choice,” Wiener says. “The age-old discussion that it becomes tiring to scroll through a screen, the thought that maybe if I continue scrolling right, I might find something more interesting…and then it feels like you can’t choose, like you have to settle for something, and you just hope that it’s good.”
Hanlon agrees: “When everything is a choice, there’s a paralysis that occurs when you either revert to something you know from the past, or you’re looking for signals to grasp,” Hanlon said. “What services wind up having to do is dumb things down and simplify it to the point where it becomes pages and pages of tiles or, worse, a search box.”
AI leads the way for streaming discoverability
Wiener and Hanlon both point to generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution that can help ease a lot of the pain points associated with streaming search and discovery. At least one company is already embracing the idea: Earlier this month, Cineverse said it was working on a new AI-powered content recommendation engine called cineSearch.
Using metadata provided by Nielsen’s Gracenote and an AI platform powered by Google’s Gemini language model, cineSearch will power a forthcoming consumer chatbot called Ava that aims to offer personalized TV shows and movies across apps and services — even if the content isn’t offered by Cineverse itself.
“Our partnership with Gracenote increases the number of films and TV shows that are discoverable by users and allows us to offer cineSearch users the highest-quality title information with intensity rankings – when paired with a user’s viewing history, streaming service filters and content preferences – will help solve a major consumer issue and the leading cause of viewer frustration,” Tony Huidor, the Chief Technical Officer at Cineverse, said in a statement.
Deloitte’s Media Trends report suggests companies like Cineverse are on the right track. According to the report “streaming services should look to the engagement models of social media services to improve their own content delivery strategies, making a more concerted effort to leverage user data and AI technologies to target content toward individual viewers.” Loucks affirms that video platforms should want to embrace generative AI solutions to improve their content recommendation engines.
“Each service is going to have to work on having a user interface that is good and that works better, and I think generative AI is going to be a big part of that,” Loucks said.
Discoverability delivers streaming audiences
Audiences expect personalized experiences. According to a November 2023 report by Google Cloud, 81% of streaming video viewers “expect streaming services to provide highly personalized experiences,” and 31% will switch out of a service if they can’t find something they want to watch. Worse, nearly half of respondents say they’ve canceled a service in the past “if they couldn’t find something to watch,” Google Cloud revealed. Clearly improving streaming content discoverability is critical for success.
The experts and the data reveal common themes: Streamers don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to find something to watch. And if a video platform makes an investment in personalized search and discovery, that is where audiences — especially younger viewers — will spend their time.
If you were fortunate enough to have a grandmother like mine, who served as both a protector and a source of wisdom, count yourself among the blessed. Recently, I’ve found myself reminiscing about her, particularly thinking about a bittersweet memory from my teenage years. I spent a few weeks at her Missouri home when I was about 16, seeking a haven from life’s tumult. During the visit, I became fixated on revitalizing her dilapidated basement.
My grandmother’s home was built in the early 1900s and it bore the marks of time, including structural issues and flooding. Amidst the turmoil and events following my parents’ divorce, I yearned for a project to occupy my mind and hands. Armed with carpet, paint, screws, and lumber, I set to work, determined to transform the basement into a sanctuary of sorts. My goal was simple: to bring a smile to my grandmother’s face.
In retrospect, that time holds a mix of emotions. While the project provided a temporary escape and a sense of purpose, I now recognize its limitations. Despite my efforts, the temporary facelift I offered couldn’t mend the home’s deeper issues. Over the following 25 years, the house fell into disrepair, succumbing to floods and neglect after my grandmother’s passing.
Reflecting on this experience, I can’t help but draw parallels to the state of the news media industry. We, too, seem focused on mourning a historic structure that is no longer sound. While it is better to take some action than none, we can’t restore news media revenue through superficial updates. It’s high time we find the confidence to undertake a radical remodel.
The news media’s confidence gap
Despite producing valuable content and abiding by high journalistic standards, trust in the news media has eroded in the face of rampant misinformation. In the wake of this decline, consumer engagement plummets, subscriptions struggle, and advertising revenue dries up. This is underpinned by a stinging irony. We possess the potential to be bastions of truth, yet our message lacks resonance with both subscribers and advertisers because of a fundamental question: Do we truly believe in our own value?
A recent study by the Pew Research Center paints a concerning picture. Public trust in news media is declining, mirroring a broader trend of declining trust in institutions. Several factors contribute to this erosion, including the rise of misinformation online and a shift in news consumption habits. Consumers are bombarded with information from various sources, making it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
However, the study also offers a glimmer of hope. People are more likely to trust news outlets they feel a personal connection with. This highlights a crucial strategy for the news media to rebuild trust: fostering a sense of community and focusing on local stories that resonate with readers.
Here’s the crux of the matter as we seek to rebuild news media trust and revenue: confidence is the missing piece. We can’t project strength externally if we doubt it internally. We resemble a once-grand home, its foundation weakened, its purpose in some ways forgotten. It’s time to rediscover our core values and embark on a comprehensive renovation, one built on a foundation of unwavering confidence.
It is time for the news media to take action
Throughout my tenure in the industry, I’ve noticed a pervasive tendency to operate solely on the defensive. However, a recent insight from an editorial leader resonated deeply with me: it’s time to stop playing defense and start playing offense.
This call to action struck a chord because it underscores our urgent need to break free from conventional approaches. Too often, we find ourselves caught in the whirlwind of day-to-day operations, constantly putting out fires and mitigating losses. This reactive mindset inevitably leads to painful layoffs and compromises the quality of our journalism.
My grandmother’s basement would have fallen into dilapidation even faster if I hadn’t taken action. And it helped me regain some of my personal confidence at a challenging time because action breeds confidence. As an industry, going on the offense will help us seize control of our destiny.
This proactive approach requires us to move beyond simply reacting to challenges. It demands we undertake a strategic shift that empowers us to stop only playing defense and start playing offense. We must confront issues head-on and unlock the full potential of revenue strategies that lie dormant within our news media organizations.
Revenue experimentation and diversification
One strategy that has captured my attention in rebuilding revenues is sponsored content. When executed effectively, sponsored content can be a powerful tool that serves audiences and the bottom line. For example, partnering with local businesses to sponsor informative content about financial literacy or health generates revenue and provides valuable, niche content to our audience. That in turn builds trust and strengthens our community focus. Sponsored content should be clearly labeled and adhere to strict editorial guidelines to differentiate it from traditional reporting. This transparency illustrates our commitment to ethical journalism and further builds trust with audiences.
Going on offense also means consistently communicating the narrative of what we represent to our core audiences, to our communities, and to democracy itself. We are the watchdogs, the truth-tellers, the vital link that empowers citizens with the information they need to participate. This is a story we need to tell consistently and with unwavering conviction.
The same proactive approach applies to our role as advertising partners. Sponsors aren’t just a revenue stream – they’re potential partners in progress. By demonstrating the engaged demographics we reach and the lasting impact advertising can have within our platforms, we become trusted allies in achieving their marketing goals. This shift in perspective – from passive recipient to active collaborator – is key to forging mutually beneficial relationships.
This type of strategy should also lead to increased audience engagement, positive feedback on content, and a rise in subscriptions or memberships – all indicators that we’re moving in the right direction to improve news media trust and revenue. Ultimately, we can measure success through our ability to regain public trust, elevate our journalistic standards, and secure a sustainable future for our organization.
Reflecting on my grandmother’s home, I can’t help but feel a sense of regret for what could have been. Yet, I’m reminded that in our industry, we have the chance to make a real impact, to enact change, and to revitalize our role in American society.
The environment for collecting and using data on the web has often been compared to the wild west – a place with no rules and where only the strong (and often morally-questionable) survive. Unfortunately, generative AI technology is developing in a similar vacuum of governance and ethical leadership.
Since the early days of the Internet, there were hundreds if not thousands of venture-backed companies competing to scoop up as much data as possible about consumers. They would then try to spin those datasets into a compelling product or service usually involving a model that included data-driven advertising. Nowadays, Meta and Google are the most often cited aggressive data collectors. Though arguably that’s because they killed off the competition and strong-armed their way into a dominant market position.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet collects massive amounts of data from Android devices, Google services, and its apps (Search, Maps, Gmail, etc.) and Chrome. It has even delayed killing off third party cookies in Chrome (the last major browser to do so) because it hasn’t developed a good way to maintain its dominant position as collector of consumer data.
Data vacuum meets governance vacuum
Meta set about to hoover up so much consumer data directly or indirectly that it failed to have controls in place around who could collect it or the purposes for which it could be used (see Cambridge Analytica). Another cringey example recently came to light when court documents were unsealed. Lest we think this behavior a thing of the past, Meta was reportedly using Onavo (a VPN it purchased in 2013) as a trojan horse to gather valuable analytics data on Snapchat, Amazon and YouTube. Meta is now being sued for violating wiretapping laws.
While regulators and legislative bodies are working to clean up the debris left in the aftermath of the wild west data industry, the race to compete in the Generative AI market might take data collection to a whole new level, likely with unforeseen and potentially catastrophic results.
Large Language Models (LLMs) need data to get better – lots of it. The hockey stick progress we’ve seen in the last 18 months among generative AI systems is almost completely attributable to the massive increase in datasets upon which the LLMs are trained. The New York Times recently reported on the red hot competition among AI companies to find new data for training with companies scraping any and all content they can get their hands on. And this is taking place with no regard for copyright law, terms of use or consumer privacy laws (and without any respect for consumers’ reasonable expectations of privacy).
That said, as The New York Times’ article also notes, AI systems may exhaust all available data for training by 2026. In the absence of high-quality original data, they might even turn to synthetic data – data that was created by AI systems – for training. Who knows what kind of consequences that could render?
Legal safeguards needed for generative AI
Sure, there are some existing safeguards that could be helpful in setting a more responsible course forward. AI companies have been confronted with numerous legal challenges to their unfettered data collection. These companies face a number of lawsuits around copyright infringement as well. However, these suits could take years to fully play out given the AI companies are well-funded and would likely appeal any setbacks in court.
There are privacy laws on the books that likely impact data collection by AI companies. But those laws exist only in a handful of states and it’s not clear exactly how the law applies since AI companies won’t disclose what and whose data they use for training.
Against this bleak backdrop, there have been some promising recent developments around generative AI governance in Congress. This week, a new bipartisan consumer privacy bill was unveiled. While there are some serious concerns and questions to address in that bill, at least the issue is front and center. At the same time, Members of Congress from both parties appear to be actively and constructively wrestling with how best to regulate the emerging AI industry. In fact, nearly every AI bill that has been introduced is bipartisan in nature.
As the wild west of data collection gets even wilder, it’s clear we need basic rules for AI systems and stronger protections for consumers. Without this, we are likely doomed to repeat the mistakes of the previous data collection bonanza – possibly with far more severe consequences.
A few years ago, social media platforms were seen as the “digital town square,” where people could come together in communities around shared interests and passions. But as the platforms have turned towards feeds full of algorithmically-generated recommendations – and further away from professional news – few publishers are confident in building communities on platforms they aren’t sure will continue to support them.
This is something that the team at Filipino online news website Rappler have been thinking about for some time. Rappler co-founder and CEO Maria Ressa (winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize) was among those in the news business noticing a decline in social media traffic. She also saw how the algorithms were creating deep silos of information for individuals, creating an “information dystopia.” Rather than continue to reinforce the role of platforms in building information communities, Ressa and the Rappler team felt there was a better way.
“The insidious manipulation of Big Tech – inciting fear, anger and hate for profit – has destroyed the public sphere and the crucial discussions needed for democracy,” she wrote in a launch post for Rappler Communities. “It’s time to build our shared reality and redefine civic engagement, to restore trust.”
This community platform is a true digital town square
Rappler launched its own community platform as an iOS, Android and web app in late December 2023. The approach is intended to create a true digital town square, moderated by Rappler’s own journalists, which connects people with their interests and passions. From local politics to tech, food and climate change, there are chat groups (called channels) to cater to a wide range of audience interests.
These channels are organized according to the beats Rappler covers. It offers a way to introduce audiences to the journalists, and cultivate a more direct relationship, which humanizes reporters.
Community Lead Pia Ranada thinks that Rappler’s professional journalists are well-suited to cultivate their community. “Journalists have always traditionally been the gatekeepers of information,” she explained. “We believe we write what people need to know, and what the public interest is. And we have the interests of the public at heart because we want to keep them informed. We want to give them facts and not propaganda. We want to give them information that is timely, is verified, and is comprehensive.
“As people who deal with information dissemination and journalism and fact checking on a daily basis, we think that we would have this role. So, a platform that combines our journalism, coupled with engagement with our audiences is something we’re uniquely positioned to provide.”
There is a particularly acute need for community-building that incorporates the media in the Philippines, given that journalists are regularly vilified. “When you go into chat rooms and you see Maria or another Rappler reporter asking you what you think, there’s something there that builds trust,” said Ranada . “We care enough that we want to bring you into our app and our chat rooms. We care enough that we will tag you and let you know that we have a question that we’re crowdsourcing, and that your questions matter. These little things speak volumes about how a newsroom treats its audience, its community.”
This principle carries through into the name “Rappler Communities.” The approach is not just a one-way relationship news. Rather, Rappler’s team wants to harness the community for their journalism. “Crowdsourcing things, getting civil society to talk about their issues and amplify their concerns. I think those build action, and I think those build community,” Ranada said, giving examples of action. “In the end, the whole point is to build trust, which benefits not just journalists, but society.”
The Rappler Communities app’s decentralized approach
Rappler has built its community app on Matrix; an open protocol which allows secure, decentralized communications. It is similar to Slack in the way channels are accessed. However, Rappler felt that it was very important that the publisher owned the app rather than cultivating a community on a third-party platform.
“Having an app is a tighter communication and distribution effort. [Our audience is] in a piece of tech we made for them,” Ranada explained. “It’s a way to ensure that if something bad happens with the other Big Tech platforms, we always have our backyard that we can depend on. It’s under our control. And that’s an assurance to our community.”
AI has also been built into the app from the start. AI moderators work alongside the journalists to keep conversation civil, although members can always appeal to a human if they think the AI has incorrectly blocked something. The app uses bots to post relevant stories to relevant chat rooms, and for fun, has a games bot which sends questions and quizzes to some of the channels.
Although Rappler has a membership program, Rappler+, the community is free to anyone as long as they register with an email address. However, the Rappler Community does have a private group in the app just for Rappler+ members where they get updates about upcoming stories, events and briefings.
Nurturing the Rappler news-based community platform
As any publisher who has attempted to start a community knows, keeping it going after initial launch is no easy task. Ranada said that she is beginning by tapping into the loyal base of Rappler readers rather than attracting people who aren’t yet familiar with the brand. “Our target is to involve people who are our fans, our loyal base,” she outlined. “This is a gift to them that we’re trying to lean into this loyal base even more and introduce them to our journalists.”
From there, they plan to grow and expand to other communities, groups and audiences from an existing position of strength.
Since launching in December, the channels have been useful for crowdsourcing. For example, a new policy was recently announced in Manila about a ban on e-bikes on major roads. After the news broke, the team went on the chatroom and asked the community what they thought.
“It was really helpful to our journalists to see that, oh, this is what they think, and we got to directly quote from them,” explained Ranada. “We created instant quote cards based on the quotes people sent in, then we amplified them on all of our social media accounts. So that way, people who are chatting on our app also feel that their voices are amplified.”
That’s not to say it’s all smooth sailing. Ranada acknowledged that not all reporters are community builders: “We’re used to chasing stories but not really tending to a community. But we think this is something that we’re training into all of our reporters, every staff member.”
Part of her role as Community Lead involves highlighting best practices, and bringing experienced moderators together to share handbooks and guidelines on how to moderate or start chats in the communities. “We have our own coordination channel where we help each other,” Ranada said, explaining that best practice is communicated to different units. “What do I do when no one’s answering my call-out? What’s the best way to ensure this community chat is well-attended? Or how do I convince this particular person to join?”
One early learning Ranada was keen to share was that they were initially unsure which channels to create. “At first, we thought that the hard topics like justice and human rights would carry the day because our audience is naturally drawn to that kind of content,” she explained. “But actually we’ve found that leaning into the softer sections has been rewarding. We even have a chat room where our sales team gives away discount coupons from our brand partners.”
The next step is to look at potential monetization options. But because the Rappler Community is still in a very experimental phase, this is something Ranada is approaching very cautiously.
Communities as the future of news
Underpinning all of this is Rappler’s belief that journalism and community cannot exist without each other. On the launch page, for Rappler Communities they stated: “Trustworthy information and news cannot survive in the toxic environment of today’s social media platforms. And a positive, empathic community is not possible where malicious, manipulative content is allowed to thrive.”
It’s also a way to futureproof the publisher against the threats of generative AI and its impact on SEO. Ranada expressed a fear that LLMs (Large Language Models) are at risk of crippling sites like Rappler if snippets of their content are displayed without encouraging clicks back to the website. But an app – especially one that builds habit and alerts to breaking news events – potentially makes it even easier for users to stay up-to-date.
“If people are used to, ‘Oh, I’m going to get notified anyway by Rappler the moment something big breaks, I click the notification, I end up on the page, I won’t have to search it on Google,’ those things help newsrooms survive and stay relevant and stay embedded in people’s habits,” she speculated.
For Ranada and the Rappler team, staying relevant to their readers is the best way to navigate the quickly-changing landscape. “The more news products we create that are really attuned to our audiences, the more [publishers] will survive and thrive in this environment,” she encouraged.
Advertising and subscriptions are popular podcasting revenue streams. As with all things digital media, revenue diversification is the name of the game. So, it is interesting to see media companies exploring alternative and creative revenue streams for podcasting.
Deloitte predicts that a growing number of consumers worldwide will engage with audio entertainment overall in 2024—bringing the number of monthly average podcast listeners to more than 1.7 billion. Fueled by this demand, podcast advertising is also on the rise. In fact, it outpaces growth trends for the internet ad market, according to IAB’s U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study 2023. Podcast advertising revenues have grown over 115% from 2020 to 2022. And ad revenues grew 26% year-over-year to $1.8 billion.
So, it’s no surprise that for many publishers, networks and individual creators, advertising is still the primary revenue driver. Jenna Weiss-Berman is EVP, Head of Podcasts at Audacy, Inc. and Co-Founder, Pineapple Street Media (an Audacy Company). She believes that, while it is important to explore new revenue opportunities, advertising is too important to neglect.
“We all want to look into alternative models,” Weiss-Berman said. “But I think we are also very focused on the one that we know is working and how do we make that one work better? I think because we are seeing a lot of annual and quarterly growth, we want to make sure that that’s really the priority – focusing on the thing that we know works best.”
Ray Chao, SVP and general manager of audio and digital video at Vox Media, also believes that advertising is still a strong revenue model for podcasts. He points to a combination of new advertisers entering the podcast space as well as existing advertisers allocating increasing budgets to podcasting. “I think what that reflects is a real understanding of the fact that podcasts are one of the most engaging media channels,” he said.
Streaming ad innovations for podcasters
And, the research certainly backs up the level of engagement. Podcast listeners in the U.S. are expected to spend an average of 54 minutes per day tuned into programming in 2024, according to EMarketer’s February 2024 forecast. According to eMarketer, in 2024 digital audio will make up a fifth of all time spent with digital media in the U.S. and in 2023, almost 75% of U.S. internet users listened to digital audio.
“This growth comes as no surprise to us,” said Emma Vaughn, global head of advertising business development and partnerships at Spotify. Spotify’s advertising revenue climbed 12% to €501 million last year—an all-time high, thanks to double-digit growth across both music and podcasts. With this kind of revenue opportunity on the table, Spotify is focused on evolving the advertising technology for podcasting.
“We’re continuously advancing the ad products we offer,” Vaughn said. The company just launched a music agency called AUX in February. “We’ll use our expertise to counsel brands about how best to use music to enrich their campaigns and leverage our relationships with emerging artists to help them reach new audiences.”
The company has also been “been modernizing podcast ads in format and in experience through CTA Cards, an interactive, multi-way experience that transformed podcast ads from something that could only be heard, into an experience that you can also see — and, most importantly, click,” she said.
Vaughn also emphasized the need for measurement to mature in the podcast business, citing the global shift in consumption from downloads to streaming which has opened the door for advances in more data-driven podcast advertising measurement. “When we launched Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI), we introduced impression-level insight to podcast advertising for the very first time,” she explained. “Rather than relying on download data, advertisers now had access to standard digital reporting like impressions, unique reach, and frequency, along with unique audience insights and creative performance metrics powered by Spotify’s first-party data.”
SAI is a podcast ad technology available on Spotify that incorporates digital planning, reporting, and measurement for podcast advertisers – based on confirmed ad impressions. It was designed to “deliver the intimacy and quality of traditional podcast ads with the precision and transparency expected of digital marketing” according to Vaughn.
Paid podcast subscriptions
However, Vaughn points out that at Spotify, subscriptions are a critical piece of their business. “In our last earnings, subscription revenue increased 17% to €3.17 billion.”
And, while most podcasts are ad-supported and free to listeners, some publishers are now offering exclusive podcast content only paid subscribers can access. For example, late last year The Economist launched an audio subscription ($4.90 US per month) that put the majority of its shows behind a paywall. The Economist’s entire collection of podcasts is exclusively available to Economist Podcasts+ subscribers.
At Fox News Audio, the breadth of podcast content across the Fox Audio Network allows the company to attract a broader audience with diverse interests, explained William Sanchez, executive director of digital & business development at Fox News Audio and Fox Audio Network. Fox News is not new to podcasting or subscriptions.
The company has been in the business for 10 years, and Sanchez says that “when we started our first venture into podcasts with our talk radio shows as premium podcasts. So they’ve always been a part of our strategy as far as subscription goes, and now is inclusive of Apple podcast subscriptions and ad-free listening on Amazon Prime for Prime members. Subscription continues to be, it was always a part of our plan or strategy, and it used to be a part of our roadmap.”
At Vox Media, while the company’s business model is primarily advertising-driven and their main focus is continuing to grow advertising. However, it’s also a priority to continue to diversify their revenue model, explained Chao. “We’ve done that through subscriptions and consumer revenue,” Chao said. “We’ve been operating Cafe Insider, which is a subscription business for several of our shows, including Stay Tuned with Preet. And, we recently launched Criminal+, which is a subscription product for Criminal. We’re excited about consumer revenue as a space to continue to grow and diversify our revenue model.”
Their strategy starts by looking at the show and thinking about its host, its team, the audience, and figuring out if there is an opportunity for a paid consumer product that allows fans of the show to engage more deeply with the content, Chao said. “So, for fans of Preet Bharara who are listening to Stay Tuned with Preet, they are excited about more content in the intersection of policy, law and politics. And, we deliver that each week through Cafe Insider.”
Video audiences expand podcast audience and revenue
While podcasts used to be the medium of choice for multi-taskers, publishers are now filming their podcasts and distributing them on visual platforms with big built-in audiences like YouTube and TikTok. In case media companies worry that offering full length content might cannibalize an audio audience, there’s certainly a wealth of highlights to be clipped for social and promotional purposes, and a clear opportunity to expand podcast monetization.
The fact is that people actually enjoy watching video podcasts almost as much as listening to them. A February YouGov poll suggested 33% of respondents favored listening to audio podcasts, while 25% preferred watching video podcasts. The visual appeal of video podcasts was one of the main reasons for 51% of respondents, while 29% preferred the variety of content and ability to share on social platforms.
And, as users increasingly consume podcasts in both audio and video formats, leveraging YouTube for consumption, digital media companies are slowly expanding upon existing ad models to make video part of their go-to-market plans. Video-enabled podcasts represented just under 10% of revenues in 2023, according to IAB’s most recent U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study. Which makes it a prime opportunity for advertisers to engage in cross-channel buys.
Last year, Slate announced a partnership with YouTube to bring Slate’s network of podcasts, including favorites like Slow Burn, Political Gabfest, What Next and Amicus, to the platform.
“We see this as a real opportunity to build scale and reach a new, untapped audience on YouTube, which has become the world’s most-used podcast platform,” wrote Charlie Kammerer, Slate’s president and CRO, in a release.
After introducing video podcasts in 2020, Spotify announced in June last year that they had more than 100,000 video podcasts on their platform, adding that the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, the U.K., and Germany published the most video podcasts.
Fox News Audio has success with video and its podcasts, according to Sanchez. “Our audio division lives among a video first world, so we get to tap into a lot of the resources and the expertise from the video side of the business that allows us to bring the audio-first business into the video world as well and capitalize our platforms like YouTube.”
So, while Fox News Audio has shows that come from the video side, they’re findinging that they have a much larger catalog that is audio-based. “We’re starting to move forward with bringing those to our YouTube channel. So, that’s another revenue stream opportunity for us as we all try to figure out what video role plays in podcasting.”
As Chao sees it, a podcast is just a direct to consumer (D2C) show that has been delivered through RSS onto platforms like Apple and Spotify. However, the ecosystem for podcasting continues to expand into new content categories, new creators and talent, and as consumer behavior continues to evolve and there are flourishing video platforms like YouTube and TikTok out there.
“We’ve seen a lot of success with these direct to consumer shows, building an audience and a business on platforms outside of just traditional RSS feed podcast listening platforms,” said Chao. “So, if you think about podcasts more broadly than just an audio show, it’s actually a direct to consumer show that can be audio, can be video. That is really where we see continued expansion in the podcast industry for both audiences and advertisers.”
Podcast merchandise revenue: swag, gifts and more
Podcast networks and digital publishers are now hawking merchandise – from clothing lines to bags, water bottles and more. Fans, eager to show their allegiance to their favorite podcasts through t-shirts, mugs, or hoodies, discuss which podcasts have the best merchandise.
Fox News Audio offers some podcast-related merchandise as well. While it’s not a large part of their business, there is representation in the Fox shop, Sanchez said.
American podcast network Wondery, home to podcasts Morbid, Smartless, Redhanded, MrBallenand other popular shows, has a merchandise shop that offers apparel, accessories, drinkware and home and office.
Podcast revenue forecast
“The era of podcasting that we’re moving into now is that we need it to be a sustainable business and not just something that people are trying to get rich quick off of,” according to Weiss-Berman. “I think that it’s fun figuring out how a thing can be sustainable and a good long-term business. There’s a lot of opportunity for growth that we’re seeing and it’s actually not very complicated to make it a profitable business when that’s the focus.”
While 2023 was a challenging year for podcasters, with layoffs at NPR, Spotify, Stitcher and Amazon Music and lucrative deals with celebrities falling apart, the industry also saw growth in listeners and ad revenue. While it is heartening to see stalwart revenue models–advertising and subscription supported–holding strong for podcasting, diversification builds strong media businesses. Publisher investment in new revenue streams like video and merchandise comes from a desire to drive expansion, growth and sustainability.
As Vox’s Chao put it: “As we think about continuing to grow this business and to continue to help it flourish, these additional revenue streams or diversifying our revenue model through expansion into subscriptions and consumer revenue and other types of revenue streams is a core component of how we’re going to continue to grow this business going forward.”
n the rapidly evolving digital landscape, content producers constantly seek new ways to engage with audiences and promote their brands. That’s especially important right now as traffic continues to fall from sites such as Facebook and Twitter/X.
One weapon in their arsenal with some powerful potential is LinkedIn, a site that may offer a higher likelihood of referrals and engagement than some publishers have historically considered.
2. LinkedIn users tend to be millennials and professionals
LinkedIn is typically described as a social network for business professionals. As a result, it doesn’t yet attract much of Gen Z, but it is a site they transition to as they enter the workforce. Worldwide, 60% of users are in the advertiser-friendly 25-34 age bracket.
In the USA, a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 40% of 30-49-year-olds had used the site. That’s on a par with Pinterest (40%), TikTok (39%) and WhatsApp (38%) and some way ahead of Twitter/X (27%) and Snapchat (30%), platforms many publishers continue to invest considerable energies in.
3. Around 1 in 5 American users harness LinkedIn for news
Further data from Pew finds that 17% of U.S. adults using LinkedIn regularly get their news on the platform. Interestingly, in contrast to other social networks, LinkedIn has the greatest gender parity among news consumers.
Its news audience is not huge, c.5% of U.S. adults. However, this is on par with Snapchat (4% of the total adult population) and WhatsApp (3%).
The site also offers a more educated demographic, 60% of regular news consumers on LinkedIn have a college degree, and just over half (53%) of their users enjoy a household income over $100k per annum. For many media companies, these are appealing demographics.
Many media companies will already be using some of the most obvious functions on LinkedIn. This includes posting job ads, sharing company news and creating business landing pages.
Those functions will continue to be useful. However, they only scratch the surface of some of the wider potential the site potentially affords publishers and creators.
Tactics for publishers to try on LinkedIn:
1. Publish newsletters
Image via The Economist on LinkedIn. Screenshot 3/18/24.
“In the past year, LinkedIn has seen a 150% increase in the number of newsletters being published by publishers and journalists on the platform,” Axios reports.
These newsletters might be native to LinkedIn, offer a remix of content produced elsewhere, or simply be republished on the platform. Audiences can read them on the site, or have them emailed to them. Either way, they can potentially reach large, professional, audiences. Users have more than 450 million newsletter subscriptions on the platform. That’s up 3x year-on-year.
The Wall Street Journal’s Careers & Leadership newsletter, for example, has nearly 3 million subscribers and over 100 editions on LinkedIn. With the WSJ’s company page enjoying 9.7 million followers, that’s a high percentage of users who are digging deeper.
Another LinkedIn behemoth, The Economist, reaches over 3.1 million weekly subscribers with its “week ahead” newsletter, while Harvard Business Review’s Management Tip of the Week reaches over 5 million subscribers with a short article that takes just 1-2 minutes to read.
The pandemic demonstrated the potential for publishers to livestream events. Although we have seen a renewed interest in the ability of in-person events (particularly to diversify revenues), many media companies have retained an online component. Some media providers, like Harvard Business Review, continue to run live events that remain 100% virtual.
The Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit & sponsor list, via Forbes
Online-only, or hybrid events, are more inclusive, helping to overcome geographic boundaries. But they also present additional income streams.
Forbes, for example, attracted several blue-chip sponsors for their Sustainability Leaders Summit last Fall. If you were unable to attend in person, you could view a live stream on various platforms, including LinkedIn, sponsored by Toyota.
Events, newsletters and posts by a company – or its staff – offer multiple means to engage with users on LinkedIn. Aside from blasting them with news and information, they’re also a space to dig beyond the analytics to garner insights from your audience.
As Meredith Turits, the former editor of BBC Worklife – a vertical that includes the Worklife 101 newsletter – explained to Nieman Lab last year “content that does well is, of course, shared and clicked on, but some of our most important insights come from the comments on the newsletter,” she said. “We’re always looking at conversation in the comments or shares.”
These audience insights can shape future editorial efforts. Moreover, by sharing content that stimulates discussion and offers insights from LinkedIn members, publishers can act as a convener for conversation. That’s an approach in line with the goal of many publishers to move beyond scale by developing direct relationships with audiences.
“Don’t treat it as a traffic play, full stop,” Turtis advises. “One of the things that’s most unique about LinkedIn is that people want to talk, and will talk — it’s UX makes that easy and encourages it.”
4. Drive referrals, subscribers and registrations
Posts on company pages, the feeds of the people who work at them, as well as newsletters published on LinkedIn, can all play a role in encouraging audiences to dig deeper.
USA Today’s weekly consumer news newsletter, The Money, breaks down stories from the past week, and includes links to other USA Today stories. It also highlights that you can sign up for a daily newsletter offering more of the same, more often.
Other outlets, like CNN’s PM Plug In, lean into when audiences might be using LinkedIn. In this instance, providing “a weekday newsletter to catch you up on important news you may have missed during your busy day.”
Meanwhile, Business Insider uses the platform to offer a “shorter version of our flagship newsletter,” which they then encourage readers to sign up for.
The Economist ends their newsletter with a registration link offering three free articles a month, as well as linking to their main subscription page.
Collectively, these approaches demonstrate some of the different ways that publishers are using LinkedIn to support their wider engagement and revenue strategies.
5. Humanize your brand and staff
In some instances, LinkedIn may be your first engagement with a company. A good initial impression can matter, therefore, in terms of attracting potential consumers, subscribers and prospective employees.
Because of this, some media companies are making their LinkedIn presence more personal and approachable.
The Editor’s Digest, a newsletter from the Financial Times, sees an editor pick their top stories from the FT that week. Each hyperlinked newsletter is simply signed off by the author using their first name (e.g. Patrick, or Roula). It offers a casualness one might not expect from such an august brand, even if I personally would love to know their surname and job title!
Elsewhere, Nicholas Thompson the CEO of The Atlantic publishes a monthly newsletter that highlights his picks of The Best Things To Read. Most of this content is from places outside of The Atlantic, increasing its usefulness and making it feel much less like a PR exercise. Thompson also posts casual hot-take videos on different topics, which also makes him – and by osmosis his publication – more accessible and relatable.
Moving forward
According to Daniel Roth, LinkedIn’s Editor in Chief, the platform works with 400 preferred news partners to help maximize their work on the site. These efforts, as Axios reports, include sharing trending topics with partners so that they can tap current audience interests, as well as featuring content on LinkedIn News.
However, for content creators not in this club, there are still multiple things you can do to leverage LinkedIn more effectively. Journalists can get free training on how to use the platform, as well as a free premium membership. They can also use the platform to promote their work, and the work of others, as well as engage directly with audiences.
Your digital and social teams can – and should – do that too. Newsletters, events and posts can create high-quality, relevant content that resonates with LinkedIn’s professional user base. In doing this, outlets may reach new audiences as well as serve existing ones. That can drive traffic and engagement, increase subscriptions and take-up of other products.
Image via Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
As a result, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, more media companies are investing in LinkedIn. A survey of 314 media leaders in 56 countries, revealed that four in ten (41%) of executives said they would be putting more effort into the platform in 2024. This is only just behind the proposed prioritization in YouTube and Google Search.
As Sara Fischer the senior media reporter at Axios recently put it, “LinkedIn alone won’t be able to make up for the dramatic reduction in traffic referrals from social media sites to news publishers, but it does offer outlets and journalists a platform to meaningfully grow their audiences amid a broader tech crackdown on news content.”
Put another way, as the tech journalist Ryan Broderickoutlined earlier this week, “the traffic firehose days of the 2010s aren’t coming back. And LinkedIn is not the secret to infinite pageviews.” But, he adds, “finding a home for news publishers in 2024 isn’t about finding a perfect fit, but rather finding one that’s close enough.”
For some content creators and media companies, that might just mean leaning more into LinkedIn in the year ahead.
