The future of online news is shrouded in clouds.
As a seasoned PR professional, I depend on keeping up with the news. I would pay for access to a news site… if the news site could give me what I want.
This article will demonstrate just how much a news publisher has to offer — without resorting to hiding news stories behind paywalls.
Let’s get into it:
Journalists Need Smarter Paywalls
In my digital-first universe, such as it is, a premium business model for journalism doesn’t include paywalled news.
Instead, we should entice news lovers with a fuller experience of what drew them. For a news publisher, the news is the equivalent of content marketing for a regular business. It’s not something you ask users to pay for; it makes users favour you with their attention.
However, as a news junkie, I’d love to pay for premium access!
But news publishers must rethink how they convert news junkies into premium subscribers.
Read also: Dear Journalist,
Examples of Premium-Only Features
A premium community for news lovers. The future of online news must attract “news junkies” (news consumers who crave a deep and total news experience. The value proposition should include some of the following features for premium-only users:
Please note that none of the above add-ons includes hiding news stories behind paywalls.
A premium community for business accounts. Many brands love news. The value of a brand premium subscription could be substantial. Here are a few examples of a better news experience for business accounts:
Please note that none of the above add-ons includes hiding news stories behind paywalls.
Prerequisites for the Premium Model
News must be freemium. All editorial content (i.e. the news) must be free and not paywalled. The premium offering is focused on features extending and deepening the news experience.
Old ad models must be replaced. The primary purpose of ads is to drive freemium users to premium conversion, and the secondary goal is to allow premium business accounts to place programmatic ads.
News publishers must learn online conversion. The future of online news must know to convert freemium users (news readers) to premium users (feature users) at a competitive level which means converting 1% of all unique visitors at a minimum. This is a far cry from what the industry is capable of today. 1This also becomes a challenge to keeping premium users on a monthly subscription model (churn).
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The Engagement Pyramid
The 1% rule of online engagement was mainly an urban legend on the internet. However, a peer-reviewed paper from 2014 confirmed the 1% rule of thumb. 2Trevor van Mierlo. (2014). The 1% Rule in Four Digital Health Social Networks: An Observational Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(2), e33 – e33. … Continue reading
Active publics distribute themselves in a way proven scientifically by sociologists — long before the internet and social media emerged.
The Engagement Pyramid divides publics into three distinct groups:
When studying internet forums specifically, it’s not uncommon to find that 90% of users have never posted (lurkers), 9% are adding only to existing topics and threads (contributors), and 1% are actively starting new subjects and threads (creators).
The Engagement Pyramid is sometimes called the 1% rule or the 90−9−1 principle.
“The 90−9−1 principle and Zipf’s Law both effectively classify members in online support groups, with the Zipf distribution accounting for 98.6% of the variance.”
Source: Internet Interventions 3Carron-Arthur, B., Cunningham, J., & Griffiths, K. (2014). Describing the distribution of engagement in an Internet support group by post frequency: A comparison of the 90−9−1 Principle and … Continue reading
Learn more: The Engagement Pyramid (The 90−9−1 Principle)
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Change: The Future of Online News
Why are journalists so slow to adapt?
Most news publishers are homeschooled in traditional publishing. They haven’t been exposed to high-level online business models in highly competitive areas like e‑commerce, fashion, or enterprise software.
Online business models seem provocative for most traditional news corporations. They’ve been enjoying the traditional role of having passive news consumers.
News corporations are not accustomed to giving their readers any influence over their news experience, nor are they willing to grant super-users (“news junkies”) any extra favours. This has got to change.
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PR Resource: Journalism vs Public Relations
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Public Relations vs Journalism
PR professionals and journalists share many practical skill sets. Still, public relations and journalism are fundamentally different:
Public Relations is the effort to subjectively advocate agendas on special interests’ behalf.
A fundamental critique against public relations is that advocacy is an affluent privilege that manipulates the truth.
Journalism is the effort to objectively report the news on the public interest’s behalf.
A fundamental critique against journalism is that objectivity is unrealistic and the public interest heterogeneous.
But even if both public relations and journalism fail to live up to their ideal states at all times, both practices play vital roles in upholding a balanced and stable democracy.
Learn more: Public Relations vs Journalism
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ANNOTATIONS
1 | This also becomes a challenge to keeping premium users on a monthly subscription model (churn). |
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2 | Trevor van Mierlo. (2014). The 1% Rule in Four Digital Health Social Networks: An Observational Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(2), e33 – e33. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2966 |
3 | Carron-Arthur, B., Cunningham, J., & Griffiths, K. (2014). Describing the distribution of engagement in an Internet support group by post frequency: A comparison of the 90−9−1 Principle and Zipf’s Law. Internet Interventions, 1, 165 – 168. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.INVENT.2014.09.003 |