Monday 12th April: The point behind impact points

April 12, 2021

Good morning, welcome to your week. Today's Phil-free Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

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Which is more valuable to you: 10,000 retweets from readers, or one share from Bernie Sanders? Well, it depends on what your goal is.

From The Telegraph's plans to reward journalists for converting subscribers to last week's leaked email from Insider about how they define 'impact points', article performance is in the hot seat once again.

In this piece, Mark Stenberg draws on his experience of being inside Insider to shed some light on the thinking behind impact points. "People make decisions based on the decisions that people they admire make," he argues.

Although there is nothing to suggest Insider has reduced its analytics to these impact points, they can play a part in the bigger puzzle of attempting to assess the value and...well...impact of a piece of work.

After being chucked by Dollar Shave Club at the end of March, Mel magazine has already had 40 investment inquiries and Editor-in-Chief Josh Schollmeyer is setting out his vision for what he wants the publication's second act to look like. “I’d rather leave at the top of our game than die by a thousand paper cuts,” he insists.

After the many (justified) accusations of racism and bigotry in the British press, it's nice to be able to bring a story that shows the papers can do something right. Science and health journalists have been heavily featured throughout the vaccine rollout, and all the publishers have been praised for encouraging vaccine take-up in a responsible manner.

Andrew Rosenthal, the former editorial page editor of The New York Times, is taking the reins of Bulletin, a news operation that’s already churned through staff and stoked controversy. “I kind of believe that journalistic principles are applicable in any democracy,” he says, “and it’s time to find out.”

Today's throwback:

We're extending our Easter break while we put the finishing touches to the Awards, so no new episode this week.

Josh Schollmeyer spoke to Peter last year about his editorial vision for Mel, and why men's magazines so desperately needed a change. We hope they manage to find an owner who can preserve that mission.

Talking of the Awards, the big day is approaching! It's free to register for a ticket, so why not sign up and have a peek? Wednesday April 21st, 4.30pm BST. See you there...