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Block Club Chicago’s coronavirus hotline connects readers with questions to reporters with answers — www.americanpressinstitute.org

People have questions. Journalists have answers. So how can the two be connected up? The information might be available on local news websites, but people often don't go digging around for it.

Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news site, have been experimenting with ways to connect readers with the information they need, when they need it. They launched a free, bilingual coronavirus hotline where readers could call, email or text to have their questions answered by a core team of staffers, who would coordinate with reporters to get the right information.

When it comes to any kind of open communication with readers, resourcing can be a massive issue. But Block Club Chicago's approach to helping local people find vital information is worth the effort (and the overwhelm), and there are some interesting lessons to learn about accessibility and relationship-building.

Best of all, these free services have led to a paid subscriber boost. "If you show up for your readers, your readers will show up to support you," they conclude.

“How much does it pay?” Writers of Color polite-shames publications to get to the point — www.niemanlab.org

Writers of Colour is tackling pay disparity in the media by "polite-shaming" publications that don't disclose pay rates. Young journalists of color are particularly susceptible to unfair pay practices, and pay transparency is one way to improve this by holding publications accountable, both by outside parties and internally.

How many readers actually scroll once they load an article? — whatsnewinpublishing.com

“We live in the age of skimming.” A key indicator of engagement and loyalty is whether a reader scrolled at all during the visit, or bounced after viewing only the first window of a page. Some interesting research here on how scrolling behaviours have changed over the last few years (👋 to readers that have scrolled this far).

Bloomberg Media tops 325,000 paid subscribers — www.axios.com

Subscriptions to Bloomberg Media grew by 34% in the first half of the year, reaching more than 325,000. The most interesting point of this for me was that the company's pivot from live to virtual and hybrid events has led to a whopping 500% revenue increase year-over-year.

Podcast throwback:

Black Ballad Co-Founder and CEO Tobi Oredein on growing a membership-driven media business — voices.media

The Writers of Color story above reminded me of something Black Ballad founder Tobi Oredein said to me last September. "I couldn’t get a permanent job. I’d apply for loads of jobs and I wasn’t getting any," she said, explaining her journey to founding the publication. "Every person that got the job was a white woman who’s extremely skinny, early 20s, and looked very similar."

Event shoutout - Magazine publishing: embracing change in the world of journalism — www.eventbrite.co.uk

Our friends at the International Magazine Centre have joined forces with We Are Black Journos for an evening of IN PERSON networking and discussion about embracing change in the world of journalism. If you're in Manchester on Sept 1st, we can highly recommend this. There are pay-it-forward tickets available too, so don't let cost be a barrier.