Wednesday 14th July: Choppy waters for The Atlantic as the subscription boom wanes

July 14, 2021

Happy Wednesday! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Chris.

The Atlantic casts an oversized shadow on media discussions. It does so many things right - from its smart paywall flexibility to its willingness to experiment - but it's overexposed to some of the challenges that other huge brands aren't. It has limited recognition in key territories outside of the US, for example, and its billionaire owner isn't funding it solely for philanthropic reasons.

Now its latest results demonstrate that it was, perhaps, over-reliant on fly-by-night subscriptions during the panicky Trump years. In fact, this year it has roughly one quarter as many sign-ups as it did in 2020. “We did four years of business last year,” Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, said in an interview. “One of the core challenges is, how do we keep all those new subscribers?”

Despite that, NBC News' Dylan Byers reports that Goldberg is optimistic about The Atlantic's ability to generate $50 million in annual subscription revenue - breakeven - in the near future. Given that the magazine has lost more than $20 million so far this year per the report, it's tough to envisage exactly how it will do that.

That's 500 million euros down the pan. Google has been ordered to pay a significant amount in punitive damages in France "after the search giant failed to follow an order to thrash out a fair deal with publishers to use their news content on its platform." The war rumbles on...

A totally engrossing look at newspaper strategy outside countries where paywalls are widely accepted. Reuters' Hungarian Journalist Fellow Peter Erdelyi writes: "Most outlets worry about limiting the impact of their journalism: this is why they are reluctant to charge for exclusive content."

We've always said that representing the entire population is the fulfilment of journalism's mission - but it's also a sound commercial strategy. This is a very candid look at why many newsrooms still cater for white audiences only, and what impact that has in the mid- to long-term.

This week's episode:

This week we hear from Marcela Kunova, Editor at Journalism.co.uk. We talked about what she’s hoping to achieve with her new newsroom innovation mentorship programme, how she translated Newsrewired to a virtual event, and why it’s so important for the site to support freelancers.

Are you a fan of the 'gram? We're looking to do a bit more from our account @mediavoices, so follow us for interview quotes, guest sneak peeks and occasional puppy/baby pictures.