How The Wall Street Journal Hopes To Reach Young News Consumers On Tiktok
With its recently introduced TikTok channel, The Wall Street Journal has joined a number of other legacy publishers working to reach Gen Z and young millennial audiences on the platform, where many of these consumers are getting their news.
The Wall Street Journal launched its TikTok channel on Oct. 3, and since then the channel has grown to over 37,000 followers and 600,000 likes. It’s focused on three core content pillars: careers, personal finance and tech. Some videos also cover trending news stories, like the recent changes at Twitter and Taylor Swift’s concert ticket sales.
In a survey published last week, the Reuters Institute and University of Oxford revealed that 25% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 are using TikTok for news. About half of the world’s top newsrooms are now regularly posting on TikTok, according to the report. The Washington Post’s popular TikTok channel has 1.5 million followers. Vox, Vice, BuzzFeed, The Los Angeles Times and Condé Nast have all recently expanded their efforts on the platform, as well.
At The Wall Street Journal, the TikTok channel is managed by the publisher’s visual storytelling team, which falls under its broader social team. The team collaborates regularly with different departments across the newsroom, such as the video and live journalism teams. The New Ventures team, which was created in the spring of 2021 to expand audio and video initiatives across Dow Jones, is also working with the Journal’s TikTok team. “We need to introduce The Wall Street Journal brand to audiences that might not otherwise engage with it,” said Ann McGowan, svp of New Ventures. “If we’re only reporting in text, we miss that opportunity.
American Press Institute’s Beyond Print Program Awards $60,000 In Grants To Four News Organizations To Test Digital Revenue Strategies
The American Press Institute awarded grants to four news organizations participating in the Beyond Print program, a cohort designed to guide publishers away from print-centric revenue models toward a sustainable digital future. The challenge fund granted $15,000 to each participating organization to help them test new ideas to create and expand their digital models.
Since May, the cohort has learned from experts at organizations that have reduced their print frequency about best practices for internal and external communication around changes, including boosting customer service; logistical considerations for moving from carrier delivery to mail delivery; and increasing digital offerings. Cohort members have focused on attracting audiences with new digital products and sustaining current reader revenue streams to allow them more time to increase their digital subscriber base and diversify revenue. These efforts have included moving subsets of 7-day-a-week print subscribers to digital-only, offering digital-plus Sunday print edition packages and more.
Each organization received funding to support the following work:
• La Voz at The Arizona Republic will launch and promote a texting service to provide housing news to Latine audiences in the Phoenix area to help grow its overall digital audience.
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will run paid social media campaigns to grow the newsletter audience for Access Atlanta, an entertainment site aimed at attracting audiences who don’t already engage with the AJC brand.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer introduced a six-day-a-week mail delivery service to select ZIP codes. They are now launching a campaign to win back former subscribers in those ZIP codes with this more reliable delivery option.
• The Seattle Times has created The Seattle Times Weekend edition, a hybrid of the Saturday and Sunday newspapers, delivered to print subscribers who have moved to 6-day-a-week mail delivery.
“The work of these organizations will help inform best practices for other newspapers looking to make the urgent and crucial shift to reduce their reliance on print revenues. We look forward to sharing the lessons from these initiatives widely across the industry,” said Emily Ristow, API’s director of local news transformation
Florida Press Association Receives A $30,750 Grant From The SNPA Foundation To Promote Newspaper Sales Careers
The SNPA Foundation has announced a $30,700 grant to fund a Florida Press Association project to inform sales students across America about the evolving and growing career opportunities at newspapers. There are over 200 Universities with sales majors. Newspapers are not on their radar.
The Florida Press Association began this unique project with a small pilot with an “Elevate Your Pitch” sales competition for university students with sales majors. The association’s next steps are to make that presentation to a larger group of students across America, to recruit newspaper executives to speak at the schools, and to create a jobs board to let students know about the many sales opportunities in newspapers.
“We could not have begun this exciting journey without the crucial funding from the SNPA Foundation,” says Jim Fogler, president and CEO of the Florida Press Foundation. “Newspapers have a great story to tell, and we believe if we can get newspapers in front of the sales students at these 200 universities, we have a chance to capture some of the best and brightest young minds to be part of our industry.”
SNPA Foundation Board Chair, PJ Browning said, “This is the kind of innovative work, that can scale nationally and help all newspapers, that the SNPA Foundation wants to fund. We commend Jim Fogler and his team for pushing an excellent project forward to the next level.”
The SNPA Foundation considers funding requests for programs and initiatives that support educational opportunities for the advancement of newspaper industry leaders, the creation of sustainable business models, and the technology that supports the advancement of the news eco-system.
The SNPA Foundation is especially interested in seeding projects that may start “locally,” but include the possibility of scaling to a national level; that have a broad impact on the public; or that enrich the racial diversity of professional ranks by drawing more talent into the newspaper industry
Alliance For Audited Media, BPA Worldwide Agree To Merge
Pending Member Vote, Industry Auditing Organizations Join Forces to Increase Assurance Across Media Channels
The boards of directors of the Alliance for Audited Media and BPA Worldwide have unanimously approved a plan for the two companies to merge. The two not-for-profit media auditing organizations are joining forces to increase trust and assurance across media channels through innovative service development.
The combined not-for-profit company plans to leverage its complementary expertise to provide a comprehensive suite of services to increase transparency and accountability in media, differentiate high-quality media outlets and service providers, and allow buyers to choose quality and maximize return on media investments.
“Demand for increased digital advertising assurance is a driving force in bringing AAM and BPA together,” explained Chris Black, SVP, global lead for Zenith and AAM chairman. “Combining our expertise will be a catalyst for more transparency, better services and increased confidence across the industry.”
“BPA and AAM share a common vision to help buyers buy better and quality sellers sell more,” added David Adelman, founder and CEO of OCD Media and BPA chairman. “Together, we will do this across channels — websites, newsletters, events, print, out-of-home, podcasts and ad tech — and across compliance areas such as advertising, editorial, privacy and sustainability.”
AAM and BPA members will vote on the merger in January 2023. Pending member and regulatory approval, the merger is expected to be completed in spring 2023. AAM’s CEO and managing director, Tom Drouillard, will be CEO. BPA’s CEO, Rich Murphy, will be president. More information is available in the AAM/BPA Merger Resource Hub.
About the Alliance for Audited Media The Alliance for Audited Media powers transparency and collaboration between North America’s leading media professionals. With more than 100 years of experience in print and digital media audits, AAM is an industry recognized leader in cross-media verification with unparalleled expertise across channels including web, mobile, email and print. Today AAM offers an avenue for media buyers and sellers to connect, forge relationships and transact with trust by delivering authentic, credible data. To learn how AAM brings trust and transparency to today’s media industry, visit auditedmedia.com.
About BPA Worldwide BPA Worldwide is in the business of providing assurance. For 80+ years as a not-for-profit assurance service provider, BPA was originally created by advertisers, advertising agencies and the media industry to audit audience claims used in the buying and selling of advertising. Performing nearly 1,000 annual audits of media channels in more than 15 countries, BPA is a trusted resource for compliance and assurance services.
