Posts Under: The Washington Post

Build Trust and Show the Breadth of What You Do to Keep Readership Bump

Not that they ever went out of style, but newsletters and subscriptions seem to be peaking again. Bloomberg Media’s Justin Smith has talked about their stickiness and comfort at a time like this. Industry Dive is up to about 22 different newsletters now in 19 industries. And Digiday ran an article last week titled How Substack Has Spawned a New Class of Newsletter Entrepreneurs.   “We’re coming in with an opportunity-focused mindset,’ said Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie [whom I interviewed three years ago], fresh off raising $15.3 million last summer. “‘During the first 20-30 years of the internet, in terms of information distribution and media, the innovation has mostly come around an ad-supported model. There’s a whole 20-30 years of innovation to come that more fully innovates around a subscription model.’”   Here are some ideas on keeping the new readership—newsletters ...

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Is Your Audience 'Aware of the Breadth' of Your Coverage? Engagement Lessons From The Washington Post.

There will be other coverage that people will need. "So what we're trying to do [is show that] our arts writers and critics, our sports writers and critics, our food writers and critics can feel relevant now but also signal to our audience that after the COVID crisis, we'll have different kinds of coverage that they will still need," Gilbert said. "So that's really what we're trying to do to combat that challenge. But I absolutely feel that imperative every bit as much as your members do, and we're thinking very deeply about what are the things, the products, the tools that we can offer our audience and how can we bridge [new subscribers] from caring about the news in the time of the virus to caring about the news when things are going better."

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