"Be thoughtful about what you're giving away for free and why. Freemium and free trials are all the rage, and virtually every digital news organization has some content that's not behind the paywall. Great. But make sure you understand the return on this investment. A free trial is a taste of something to prove it's as good as you said and to help someone new to understand what it 'tastes like.' But once they've tasted, they don't need to taste it again. Too many readers game the system, clearing cookies and rotating through devices and news sources each month to avoid paying." That quote comes from best-selling author and speaker Robbie Kellman Baxter—she even keynoted a past SIPA Conference—in an article she wrote for the site What's New in Publishing titled What Publishers Can Learn From Other Sectors.

"We talk constantly about pageviews and engagement rates, circulation stats and Nielsen ratings, subscriptions and donation rates, but all that happens when we successfully offer something to human beings that is of value to them," said Tamar Charney, managing editor of NPR One, in NiemanLab's Predictions for Journalism 2019..

A site called Disqus polled readers and commenters last year about whether or not they pay for online news and why. "By examining the current sentiment around paying for news, we hope to provide publishers with insights that will help them build successful businesses supported by loyal, engaged readers."

"I looked at the company and realized that strategy at the end of the day is simply resource allocation. That's my job. So I need to resource the appropriate level towards technology differently than we have been."  —Thomas president and CEO Tony Uphoff   Another successful Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) concluded yesterday with an incredible keynote from Uphoff—Thomas has completely transitioned from being a legacy print/directory company to a data platform company—and more insightful and solution-oriented sessions.   I'll be writing about more BIMS sessions in the coming weeks but meanwhile here are some highlights from the conference to give you a taste.   Make your content valuable and affordable. "If [one of your customers] doesn't want to buy your content because he says it's too expensive for him, then maybe you need to do some soul searching in your content," Grey Montgomery, preside ...