Monday 8th November: Could free content be more lucrative?

November 08, 2021

Good morning. Today's newsletter is brought to you by Peter.

Jacob Donnelly has been writing on his A Media Operator newsletter about free content. He notes a shift among the subscriberatti; for the first time in a long time, he's hearing the 'ads are bad' crowd talking openly about doing advertising deals.

He then applauds an operator who is building audience with free content and using that attention to sell subscriptions to the community that is building around it. Instead of monetising stories, he is monetising the community.

Using examples like Politico and The Hustle Jacob points out that it's possible to generate reader revenue without closing off 'top of funnel opportunities'. Basically, having your advertising and reader revenue cake and eating them both.

Did you know the metaverse has existed since 1992? That's when science fiction author Neal Stephenson invented it in his novel “Snow Crash”. Digiday has been asking the writer what he thinks of Facebook, sorry, Meta's metaverse push and what that might mean for the virtual world's we end up with.

A new report found that 48% of publishers worry that cookie deprecation could lead to layoffs. The analysis suggests the biggest impacts for publishers would be: a significant loss of programmatic revenue; reduced workforces due to revenue loss; and heightened competition to prove their value compared with other publishers. YAY!!!

There's some scepticism surrounding solutions journalism, an approach that focuses on solutions over problems. But a group of New York students have surprised their professor by embracing evidence-based reporting on responses to social problems and creating Solutions NYC looking at how communities have faced up to New York's COVID crisis.

This week's podcast:

This week’s interview is with James Fahn, Global Director of Internews’ Environmental Programs and its Earth Journalism Network. James spoke with us as he sets out with a group of journalists from the global south to cover COP26 from their own perspectives.

Join Media Voices, What’s New in Publishing and Sovrn in a virtual event to launch this year’s Media Moments report, followed by a panel of publishing experts discussing how they will be navigating challenges and opportunities in 2022 and beyond.