Get the sales funnel right

One of the things you learn in direct sales is the notion of the sales funnel. In the business of journalism, the sales funnel helps publishers track how you make someone aware of your product and convert them into paying for one of your products. The four stages of the sales funnel are a potential […]

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What 35 hyperlocal news sites in Europe can teach us

We see lots of hand-wringing about the sorry state of local news organizations because of digital disruption of their financial models. I just happened on a 2016 study by Clare Cook, Kathryn Louise Geels, and Piet Bakker that finds reasons for optimism while realistically assessing the problem. Their study, Hyperlocal revenues in the UK and […]

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The lies that we journalists tell ourselves

And the reasons why those lies make us blind to the true opportunities we have. Lie No. 1. The news we produce is valuable. The Truth: Not really, at least in economic terms. Once we publish the news, everyone has access to it. For example, take the headline, “Michael Jackson is dead.” The first news […]

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Publishers rediscover the power of email newsletters

The new dynamics of the digital media business are driving publishers away from advertising-based business models and toward user payments. In that context, many of them are rediscovering that supposedly obsolete distribution channel, email. Email has the power to create an intimate relationship between a publication and its users. That relationship can translate into loyalty, […]

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The winning business strategy builds on relationships

This blog entry was written for IJNet.org, Tips for Journalists in 2020  from other Knight International Journalism fellows. The losing strategy that seeks mass audiences and mass advertising as measured by unique users and page views has led many media to chase clicks with ever-more sensationalistic content about celebrities, sports figures, imprudent politicians and sex […]

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Why most publisher paywalls are destined to fail

Picard: News organizations need to focus on creating value for users Now that Google, Facebook, and other tech platforms have taken away most of their ad revenue, news publishers are realizing they need to get revenues from users to stay afloat. Well, good luck with that. Most of the paywalls or freemium products they have […]

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My newsstand guy is quitting, victim of digital media

PAMPLONA, Spain — For the past five years I have been buying my newspapers on the weekend at a neighborhood newsstand. The owner and I, Jesus Erro, got to be casual friends, and we talked about the politics and culture of our respective countries. He is a big reader.     This weekend, I found […]

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