Monday 1st February: COVID-19 'kickstarted' Tortoise's subscription business

February 01, 2021

Welcome to February. This Monday-morning Media Roundup has been brought to you by Peter.

Tortoise Media grew its paid membership by about 50% in 2020. According to editor-in-chief James Harding, “the better part of 60%” of the site's 80,000 registered users are paying. Press Gazette estimates annual subscription revenues for the slow-news startup in excess of £3 million.

Prior to the pandemic, Tortoise didn't make any of its content available for free, but has since launched a free daily email newsletter. COVID also killed its Thinkin live events revenue stream, forcing the adoption of virtual substitutes.

Harding said the switch to online events meant the brand gained a much wider reach. “We are able to do things that have frankly a better calibre and range of people, gaining more diversity of people joining – geographical as well as everything else. So actually we found that the year just took off.”

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is reporting that Facebook is still allowing users that spread misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines raise money on the platform. Its investigation found 430 pages, followed by 45 million people, profiting from virtual “shops” and fan subscriptions while spreading false information.

More than 40 Northern English news titles are coming together to support fundraising efforts to help children with home schooling during lockdown. Reach PLC, Newsquest and JPI Media have joined the Cash for Connectivity campaign to raise £1.2million to buy 100,000 internet-enabled dongles for families sharing just one mobile-phone hotspot for home schooling.

HuffPost UK has submitted a formal complaint to the Cabinet Office after minister Kemi Badenoch accused reporter Nadine White of trying to “sow distrust” and spread “disinformation”. The reporter's transgression appears to have been daring to ask why Badenoch had not appeared in a cross-party video encouraging black communities to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

This week's podcast:

This week Dr Samir Husni, founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media, tells us why magazines are the ultimate new media. He explains the wild ride that was magazine publishing in 2020, his print evangelism, the benefits that digital brings and his favourite magazine.

Over 100 podcasts made the shortlist for the second annual Publisher Podcast Awards, with some of the biggest names in global publishing represented. Check out the full line-up across 18 categories including Best Coronavirus Podcast, Best Launch and Best Commercial Strategy. We're so excited 🎉🥳🤩