Sponsorships can come in many ways, from events and coffee mugs to podcasts and custom content. With event registration revenue dropping so significantly this year, the importance of attaining sponsorships only amplifies—not just for events but for all those other areas as well.   Here are six successful examples of sponsorships in other areas of the publishing business.   The Skimm – in-content mentions. “Feeling stuck in a rut?” today’s Daily Skimm asks at the bottom. “Same. So we partnered with Mentos Pure Fresh Gum to bring you some ways to shake things up. Because Mentos is all about fresh ideas, fresh breath, and fresh perspectives. This week, we're talking about refreshing your WFH video calls.” They go on to list three bullets: Check your lighting; reserve your space; and take breaks. “Science says breaks improve productivity. So actively schedule time to refresh between video calls. Then make the ...

“The more interactivity you put into any of these [virtual events], the better and the more effective it’s going to be,” said Ben Hindman, CEO of events marketing platform Splash. The Atlantic Festival, their big event of the year, will try to accomplish this by including smaller breakout sessions and 20-person roundtables during the daytime portions of the festival to give attendees the chance to speak directly to the presenters and the editors, according to Digiday.   But that interactivity is crucial for exhibitors and vendors as well. A new report from Tradeshow Logic titled Redefining Value for Today’s Exhibitors & Sponsors (download free here) suggests that organizations need to help their exhibitors and vendors to succeed. “Even though virtual platforms are touted as ‘turnkey,’ they still require significant marketing and promotion investment from your exhibitors and sponsors [and you] in order to ...

Putting COVID-19 resource sections prominently on your site and in front of any paywall you might have seems to be a win-win-win proposition at this point. On Saturday Stephanie Williford, CEO of SIPA member EB Medicine, posted this on the Discussion Forum in response to an article about a subscription jump at Wired.   "We put our COVID content in front of the paywall on March 3rd and have seen an explosion in website traffic (153% increase) and a modest increase in subscriptions (9%) since the same time period last year," wrote Williford. "We're pretty happy with that all things considered—particularly since our customers (emergency physicians) are the ones on the frontlines managing this crisis. (They certainly have much bigger things to worry about right now than subscribing!) We also think the goodwill and brand awareness we're generating now will pay off in the long run. Plus, like the article below says, it was the right thing to do."   So ...

"I've been arguing for a long time that we will be saved as an institution by bearing down on quality, quality, quality. Just do the most deeply reported, beautifully written, carefully edited, fact-checked, copyedited, and beautifully designed stories — and the reader will come. They want to be supportive and they want access. And it turns out to be true. Thank God for it."   That comes from a NiemanLab story this week about The Atlantic adding 36,000 new subscribers in the last four weeks, according to a staff email from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. The surge happened, "even as we lifted paywall restrictions on our coronavirus coverage," Goldberg wrote. (There has been a separate discussion taking place whether publishers should be "noble" and lift any paywalls on their coronavirus reporting or treat it like any other special reporting they do and charge accordingly. Poynter has a column strongly promoting the latter here.)   I emailed&nbs ...