NewsCred’s roundup of the content marketing, technology, and business stories that caught our attention. We believe that the more sound business strategy for The Times is to provide journalism so strong that several million people around the world are willing to pay for it. To repeat, The Times is a subscription-first business; it is not trying to maximize pageviews. To attract and retain subscribers, the Times knows it has to offer journalism “worth paying for.” This is the standard to which they’re holding all their content: The Times publishes about 200 pieces of journalism every day. We content marketers also need to set a mission and standard for our work. The Times knows that an 800-word article isn’t always the best way to tell a story. In a letter introducing the report, Dean Baquet, Executive Editor, and Joe Kahn, Executive Editor of the New York Times, state that Times journalists will have to make all those changes amid budget cuts. However, they’re setting themselves up for success in the long-run – something we content marketers are also striving to do. They’re tasked with measuring success through misguided KPIs like pageviews, which drives them to produce clickbait. Content marketers can break the clickbait cycle and set themselves up for long-term success by creating a “customer map,” says Nelson, and outlines the steps for doing so.
NewsCred’s roundup of the content marketing, technology, and business stories that caught our attention. This week, we’re focusing on two articles that should be on every content marketer’s must-read list:
The New York Times has just released “Journalism That Stands Apart: The Report of the 2020 Group.” It’s a follow-up to the company’s leaked 2014 “Innovation” report that detailed how the Times urgently needed to overhaul its newsroom operations in order to remain relevant and solvent in the changing digital space.
“Journalism That Stands Apart” acknowledges the great strides the Times made in the past few years: In 2016, the Times brought in nearly $500 million in digital revenue, which is “far more than the digital revenues reported by many other leading publications (including BuzzFeed, The Guardian and The Washington Post) – combined.”
The Times is also the most cited news source by other media organizations, and it employs the largest number of journalists who code.
However, the Times admits that there’s still work to be done. The report states that the company has not yet built a strong enough digital business to support its ambitions.
It outlines a plan for getting there – and in doing so, presents important takeaways that every content marketer should keep in mind:
The Times measures success through subscribers and revenue, not pageviews – and is looking to get everyone in the company onboard with those metrics.
The report states:
We are, in the simplest terms, a subscription-first business. Our focus on subscribers sets us apart in crucial ways from many other media organizations. We are not trying to maximize clicks and sell low-margin advertising against them. We are not trying to win a pageviews arms race. We believe that the more sound business strategy for The Times is to provide journalism so strong that several million people around the world are willing to pay for it.
Later on, it says:
The newsroom needs a clearer understanding that pageviews, while a meaningful yardstick, do not equal success. To repeat, The Times is a subscription-first business; it is not trying to maximize pageviews. The most successful and valuable stories are often not those that receive the largest number of pageviews, despite widespread newsroom assumptions. A story that receives 100,000 or 200,000 pageviews and makes readers feel as if they’re getting reporting and insight that they can’t find anywhere else is more valuable to The Times than a fun piece that goes viral and yet woos few if any new subscribers.
As content marketers, we also need to turn our attention away from pageviews, uniques, and other surface metrics. Like the Times, our jobs are to drive revenue; all of our content must work towards that goal.
We need to measure our success through conversions, pipeline generation, and revenue. We, too, need to communicate to our executives and colleagues what these metrics are, and how our work contributes to them.
In order to drive subscribers and revenue, the Times has established an editorial mission and seeks for all content to align with it.
The “2020” report is named after the Times’ goal of growing digital revenue to $800 million by the year 2020. Most of that revenue will come from increasing digital subscriptions.
To attract and retain subscribers, the Times knows it has to offer journalism “worth paying for.” This is the standard to which they’re holding all their content:
The Times publishes about 200 pieces of journalism every day. This number typically includes some of the best work published anywhere. It also includes too many stories that lack significant…
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