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- Tuesday 30th May: The FT’s Sarah Ebner on using newsletters to build communities
Tuesday 30th May: The FT’s Sarah Ebner on using newsletters to build communities
Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Peter.
Ready to chat mobile? Come and chat with Jonny and Dom at the FIPP World Media Congress in Lisbon next week.
The Financial Times is a key email newsletter innovator, publishing over 36 newsletters. Sarah Ebner, Head of Newsletters at the FT, and previously of the Daily Telegraph, has been speaking to FIPP Congress organisers Di5rupt about how they can be used to build and maintain communities.
Sarah says newsletters are key to any subscription or membership business. “We know they are hugely valuable to the business and drive reader engagement, but they are also vital when it comes to retention, loyalty and slowing churn, as well as promoting our brilliant writers. Plus, they turn readers into what we call ‘super fans’”.
She focuses on the direct relationship readers build with newsletters delivering exclusive, relevant content written by world-leading experts. Two key examples are Inside Politics written by Stephen Bush and Fashion Matters from fashion journalist of the year in Lauren Indvik. “I really love how they showcase the depth and breadth of the FT, as well as our finest journalists,” she told Di5rupt.
Good friend of the podcast Cecilia Campbell has written an excellent roundup of the recent Nordic AI in Media Summit in Copenhagen for Press Gazette. Cecilia is one of the few AI pros that isn’t prone to the massive hype that surrounds the tech and this is a super sensible rundown of some of the highlights from the event. There are lots of practical takeaways for using AI, but her lead point - we are at peak hype curve - should inform everything else you read about the AI opportunity.
The Guardian is reporting the likelihood of empty seats in the press section of the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester this autumn as media organisations across the political spectrum refuse to pay a £137 registration fee. No other British political party charges for press accreditation, but last year a fee was introduced by the Conservative party. To be fair the Tories are probably delighted: the less their shambolic efforts at government are held to account the better they like it.
This story is a hoot. The News Corp CEO has accused an ‘agency flunkey’ of boycotting the New York Post because of their political views… or maybe it’s because the ‘newspaper’ has been criticized since the beginning of Murdoch's ownership for what Wikipedia calls ‘sensationalism, blatant advocacy, and conservative bias’. Of course media buyers shouldn’t censor their buys to suit their own politics, but at least have the self awareness to understand that your paper is a rag.
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