Archives: Industry News

Four Subscription Themes Are Top Of Mind For Publishers In Q4

Many publishers are now more dedicated to their subscription and membership businesses than ever, as their desire for direct consumer revenue grows in an ever-uncertain digital media landscape.

We expect publishers to think about audience monetization more holistically in 2024, and to take more sophisticated and nuanced approaches to optimizing their subscription businesses alongside other revenue streams such as advertising, commerce, licensing and events.

But as 2023 draws to a close, a handful of key subscription themes are top of publishers’ minds as they look to maximize revenue for the year and chart paths for the year ahead:

• Emphas

• is is shifting to ARPU growth as publishers attempt to extract more revenue from existing subscribers.

• Value perception is more important than ever as publishers raise prices and attempt to build long-term subscriber loyalty.

• Regulatory pressure on cancelation practices continues to mount and will result in more control being placed in the hands of consumers.

• AI platforms increasingly threaten to disrupt the viability of publishers’ subscription products – and their business models more broadly.

‘Robotic’ Reviews Raise Concerns About AI-Generated Journalism At Gannett

The content included reviews of scuba masks that were near identical to reviews of drinking tumblers

Newspaper publishing titan Gannett has denied that reviews of consumer goods posted on Reviewed, part of USA Today, are AI-generated after journalism union the NewsGuild of New York called out the publisher on X for the posts.

In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, the NewsGuild of New York said the posts sounded “robotic,” and were “shoddy AI consumer reviews.” As an example, the union posted nearly identical reviews for a scuba mask and a drink tumbler. Gannett appeared to remove the content before putting it back up.

A spokesperson for Reviewed denied that the articles were AI generated. In a statement sent to The Messenger, they said the content was “created by third-party freelancers hired by a marketing agency partner, not AI.” (The Messenger is trying to contact the marketing agency for comment.)

However, the spokesperson also added that they did not “meet our editorial standards.” “The pages were deployed without the accurate affiliate disclaimers and did not meet our editorial standards. We anticipate the updates will be published later today.”

One of the broken standards appears to be Reviewed’s commitment not to review products like dietary supplements, which the NewsGuild found on the site. NewsGuild also called out that several post authors appear to have any connection to Gannett after a search on LinkedIn and Google, and the union questioned if they are real people. The Messenger was able to find other articles by one author published on another, non-Gannett-owned newspaper, however.

The Reviewed Union, a subchapter of the NewsGuild, as well as the NewsGuild of New York and the union’s national office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

This is not the first time AI has caused a stir at Gannett: In August, the publisher said it would pause a program whereby AI wrote sports reports for local newspapers after an AI-written article in the Columbus Dispatch went viral because it contained no information about the game or the players, confoundingly referred to the match as a “close encounter of the athletic kind.”

Physical Newspapers Are Better Than Digital Media

With an overwhelming amount of news consumption happening online, it’s important to note how systems inherent to online outlets affect the headlines people see. After evaluating the influence of media algorithms on digital news sources, physical newspapers offer themselves as a more encompassing alternative.

More often than not, people are getting their news online. Understandably so, as the convenience and accessibility of online news is difficult to compete with.

Physical newspapers are typically large, need to be folded and aren’t always free, making them an overall hassle. With virtual media outlets being available to nearly everybody at the click of a button, it comes to no surprise that it’s grown to be the dominant form of news consumption.

Regardless of convenience or accessibility, it’s important for readers to consider exactly what they’re consuming when getting their news through an app versus a paper, namely the influence of an algorithm.

According to Medium, a search algorithm is essentially a set of rules made to put forward content the reader is more likely to engage with and filter out what they will ignore. Based on one’s viewing history, an app or service determines what kind of content the user enjoys, then recommends similar content from that point onwards.

Algorithms are not inherently harmful though. By design, they serve the customer to their fullest potential, and they do it effectively. Without them, it could be difficult for readers to easily find the news they care about. Algorithms give the viewer what they want, that’s undeniable, but it’s also the problem.

Research ranging from a decade ago up until just last year still finds that practically every online media app uses algorithms to limit viewers’ content, opting to incessantly promote the same style of news.

Digital media experts warn readers to be cautious of how an algorithm processes content. These experts specifically cite echo chambers, online spaces that continuously reinforce the same belief, as cause for worry.

These systems are designed to show a reader more of what they want, but in the process, they block out any pieces that aren’t in sync with their observed beliefs for the sake of customer service. The end result is a person who is always given the same type of content, rarely venturing outside of their own viewpoints.

There is, fortunately, a way for readers to still get their news without risking the entrapment of an algorithm: classic print newspapers.

Physical newspapers are not hindered by the same technological disadvantages, as there is no ruleset constantly tailoring the words offered to the reader. News in print needs to satisfy every type of reader with only one copy, allowing it to offer a wide scope of topics.

Printed news isn’t designed to trap its reader with a relentless reel of headlines, which offers its viewership more freedom over what they choose to read. While an algorithm purposely chooses and narrows potential news, a physical paper’s diversity grants its news a more exploratory nature.

Taking the time to engage with every part of a physical paper puts a variety of subjects, views and information on display for readers. Ultimately, the viewer can trust certain news isn’t being filtered out.

It’d be naive to believe print newspapers are completely free from bias or a certain degree of filtering. Still, a physical newspaper will almost never be as narrow in scope as the suggestions of a digital media outlet will be.

According to research from The United Kingdom Literary Association and the Educational Research Review, readers absorb information better with printed media compared to digital alternatives, especially when it came to expository writing, such as news articles.

Print is made to inform and entertain; digital is made to keep eyes on the screen.

Algorithms can be quite useful in certain cases but, unfortunately, have been employed in a manner that doesn’t always have its user’s best interests in mind.

Print isn’t flawless, but it’s genuine. So, get your hands on a physical newspaper and flip through the pages. You may find something you’ve never seen before.

The American Press Institute Board Of Trustees Adds Five Media Leaders, Appoints Barbara Wall Of Gannett As New Chair

Barbara Wall, a board member of Gannett Co. and The Freedom Forum, will serve as the next Chair of the American Press Institute’s Board of Trustees. Wall retired from Gannett in 2020, where she worked for 30 years in positions across the company. She brings extensive First Amendment and legal expertise to the position, in addition to deep knowledge and love of local journalism.

In addition to Wall, who also serves on the board of the News/Media Alliance, the board welcomed four new members, including Steve Grove, CEO and publisher of Star Tribune; S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media and cofounder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC; Geraldine Moriba, senior vice president and chief content officer of TheGrio; and Ross McDuffie, chief portfolio officer at the National Trust for Local News. Wall succeeds longtime chair Kevin Mowbray, President and Chief Executive Officer at Lee Enterprises.

“We are deeply grateful for Kevin’s years of service,” Wall said. “He has helped position API to deepen its impact serving media leaders and journalism organizations. Going forward, the Board of Trustees and I are thrilled to support the extremely talented team at API and their outstanding work helping build a resilient future for our industry.”

API’s Board of Trustees consists of business and journalism leaders from across the U.S. media landscape. The five members joining the board will expand API’s board experience in leading community and local news organizations and emerging forms of media. Their range of experience reflects API’s mission to help develop, support and sustain healthy local news organizations with a focus on civic discourse and democracy; culture and inclusion; community engagement and trust; and revenue and resilience.

“Our Board of Trustees helps set the strategic direction for our work,” said Michael Bolden, API’s executive director and CEO. “We depend on their counsel, and with this group of advisers, I am confident we can better guide the many journalism organizations and media leaders who depend on API’s products, projects and research to help them better serve their communities and navigate our changing industry. ”

Examining AI’s Impact On Journalism

During a panel with news agency CEOs, Veerasingham outlined the opportunities and risks of generative AI and how news agencies must work to keep pace with the fast-moving technology.

“We must invest most of our resources in tackling the threat AI poses to the entire industry,” Veerasingham said. “You’ve got three main areas: transparency, the need to protect our intellectual property and traffic.”

In a separate session, Pace outlined AP’s standards for using generative AI, as well as the news agency’s culture of experimentation when it comes to exploring potential use cases.

“We believe AP needs to be an active participant in the generative AI conversation, and AP’s high standards need to be at the center of the discussion,” Pace stressed. She added that, in the past decade or so, AP has used automation and AI to streamline workflows and free up journalists to do more meaningful work.

Separately, Kaiser outlined the risks to the news industry if generative AI is not developed responsibly or with a proper legal framework.

Kaiser identified three key issues generative AI brings forward: copyright infringement, the increased spread of misinformation, and data privacy issues.

“If appropriate legal frameworks aren’t established, particularly around the protection of intellectual property rights, it could lead to the disruption of our industry and the entire news ecosystem,” Kaiser stressed.

Kaiser argued that the news industry must work together to ensure the new technologies are harnessed for good, ethically, and most importantly, “in ways that preserve the legal frameworks that function as the backbone of protecting the core of what we do.

Why The New York Times Is Looking To Shorten Stories

Not long into his tenure as executive editor of the New York Times, Max Frankel took note of how much reading the paper was assigning its subscribers. “Yes, we need and want enterprise stories,” wrote Frankel in a two-page internal memo in July 1987. “But egads, we are drowning the reader in ink.”

In the judgment of current executive editor Joseph Kahn, the inundation continues. Along with other masthead editors, Kahn has launched a fresh initiative to discipline runaway word counts in routine Times coverage. In his discussions of the imperative, Kahn has acknowledged that others before him have attempted to run the news report through the shrink-a-lator. “I intend to succeed,” he has said.“We’re not looking to just do less,” says a Times spokesperson. “We’re looking to provide a diverse report to meet our readers where they are, and best reflect our reporters’ expertise in multiple ways.”

Like Frankel, Kahn and his top editors are making clear that they’re not bailing on the long-form stories and investigations that often break news and win prizes for the Times. A spokesperson pointed to the paper’s “Great Read” initiative, a showcase for journalistic storytelling featuring stories that average more than 2,000 words. A December 2022 Times investigation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine tallied more than 13,000 words.

If there’s any content category that should hire a lobbyist, it’s those long swaths of context and history that occupy precious real estate in news stories. Sometimes they get served on top of news updates tracking incremental developments on long-running stories. According to Times sources, Kahn & Co. have cited internal analytics showing that readers check out of pieces overloaded with context. The data also show that readers are more likely to click on another Times story if they have finished the first one.

Adam Nagourney, author of the recently published book “The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism,” notes that the difference between Kahn’s initiative and similar efforts in the past is metrics. Former New York Times executive editors like Frankel and Bill Keller, Nagourney writes via email, were proceeding on the basis of a “gut call, reflecting their own sensibility and taste.” Frankel tried to implement a three-tier hierarchy under which a 1,500-word piece “ought to be exceptional.” (Nagourney provided the Erik Wemple Blog with the archival memos.) By that standard, there’s plenty of exceptional work these days in the Times. The five stories on the front page of Monday’s Times, for instance, averaged about 1,700 words.

To get the word out, top Times editors have issued shout-outs to reporters who have taken it easy on their keyboards and attracted strong readership at the same time. Several weeks ago, for instance, a top editor credited this piece on Eminem vs. Vivek Ramaswamy (367 words), a guide to charging electric vehicles (881 words) and a dispatch on the London Zoo’s animal weigh-in (365 words), among others.

The backdrop for this Times effort is a discussion in media circles about the role of context and the work-saving value of linking in modern journalism — a discussion that we won’t abridge here, the better to nail a sub-550 word count.

 

America’s New Print-Only Newspaper Reinvents The Art Of Reading Slowly

The retro-look County Highway costs $8.50, is published six times a year – and will never be available online

In a digital age of 24-hour rolling news, newspapers worldwide are investing resources in their online editions. But a US publisher has gone back in time by launching a print-only broadsheet in the style of a 19th-century newspaper.

Called County Highway, it is responding to a demand from readers for in-depth stories and writing that needs time to savour. It will not have an internet edition.

Focusing primarily on the US and publishing every two months, it has a format partly inspired by Charles Dickens and other 19th-century authors whose stories were serialised in journals. It will include serialised books from its own new publishing house – an independent company that is taking on the conglomerates that dominate the industry.

“People read differently on the printed page than they do on a screen,” said the newspaper’s editor, David Samuels. “The printed page is an immersive experience without constant distractions or the spectre of other people’s responses on social media. It’s a much more enriching and human experience.”

An editor’s note co-written with Walter Kirn, the newspaper’s editor-at-large, observes: “Some of our articles are funny, and others are written by people who are seriously pissed off or who believe that the world is coming to an end.”

It adds: “We hope to advance the same relationship to America that Bob Dylan had when he wrote his versions of folk songs … We have the same relationship to our subjects that Mark Twain and William Faulkner and Ralph Ellison and Tom Wolfe had when they wrote about America and Americans.

Major News Publishers Block The Bots As ChatGPT Starts Taking Live News

ChatGPT’s threat to news publishers looms larger than ever as it prepares to start reading up-to-date new stories- instead of relying on a database that has not been updated in two years.

The UK’s Independent Publishers Alliance is urging its members to block crawling access for OpenAI and Google as soon as possible while an AI strategist told Press Gazette it is a “tricky time” for publishers – especially if they are expected to opt out of each generative AI company separately. Until now OpenAI’s ChatGPT was only able to use information up to September 2021, the cut-off date for its training database.

But paying ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users can now get “current and authoritative information” in answers from the chatbot and this will be expanded to all users “soon”. OpenAI also promised to provide “direct links to sources”.

The change will mean users can ask ChatGPT questions relating to current affairs, with answers likely trained on content from news publishers across the world who will lose out on traffic if people find out what they want to know without ever having to go to the original source. It could prove an extension of the rise in “zero click searches” in which search engine results pages give users the answers they want directly without them needing to click through to articles that may have originated the information.

The move comes as publishers continue to grapple with whether to block ChatGPT’s bot, and equivalent crawlers from the likes of Google and Bing, from using their content to train datasets.

OpenAI first told publishers how to opt out of scraping in August while in the past few weeks both Google and Bing have explained to publishers how to similarly opt out of trawling – but, crucially, not get blocked from their search results.

The Remaking Of The Wall Street Journal

Tucker, who took over as top editor in February, was addressing a group that had been, to a large degree, tentatively optimistic about their energetic new boss. But many were also unnerved by the speed of the changes she had already made to traditions some viewed as core to the character and success of The Journal, one of the world’s premier business publications.

At least 15 veteran editors and writers have left the paper in recent months. Long-held stylistic practices, such as the use of courtesy titles in articles, were disposed of overnight. The Journal’s chief enterprise editor, who had veto power over which big investigative pieces were published and which were discarded, was pushed out.

In the meeting with the newsroom on Sept. 21, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times, Ms. Tucker signaled that more changes were ahead as she oriented the outlet to better serve a digital audience and tried to shake off what she viewed as unnecessary stuffiness.

The goal, she told them, is to add many new online subscribers by delivering readers expertise and “distinctive” journalism. The organization faces ever-declining print circulation, lower social media traffic and strong competitors, she said, but its current mostly male and older subscriber base means there is a “robust” market of possible new readers.“We need to make our journalism more accessible without in any way diluting the standards or integrity of the reporting,” Ms. Tucker said in an interview a day after she addressed the newsroom. “And I think it’s possible to do both.”

A Local News Funder Talks Candidly About National And Local Funding

A few weeks ago, right after the Press Forward initiative was announced, I asked for reader reactions. My friend (and onetime client) Molly de Aguiar, president of the Independence Public Media Foundation, sent an email on the relationship between national and local funders.

I thought a conversation about her viewpoint might make an interesting column of its own. Here’s that conversation, edited for length and clarity. It’s also a bit of an experiment with what might be an occasional new format for Second Rough Draft. As always, your reactions are welcomed.

Q. I think we agree that the only way to really sustainably achieve the vision of reviving local journalism– most recently of Press Forward– is to draw in more local as well as national funding, right? A: I agree with that.

Q: Why? A: We have to increase the overall pie for media funding. $500 million is a nice sounding number, but when you start doing the math, you realize that doesn’t go very far. It’s going to have to become a more collective effort that is embraced and valued by local and national funders (and public funding) — long term work that is going to require a lot of investment from many different players who come together and believe collectively that local news and information is essential.

Q: Isn’t a big part of the problem than national philanthropy in this country is not big enough to simply carry this mission even if it wanted to? A: Right. Also, there are lots of obstacles to unlocking local dollars.

Q: Can you just give people at a very high level your own background and experience in local journalism funding, first in New Jersey, and now in Philadelphia? A: I was the program director of the Informed and Engaged Communities program at the [Geraldine R.] Dodge Foundation in New Jersey, funded with Dodge money, Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund and a few other collaborative grants. We were able to establish some core work that continues to grow and thrive to this day, primarily through the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, along with a lot of community organizing work that Free Press has done throughout New Jersey. That work was really focused on how you build a statewide, connected and collaborative and thriving local news ecosystem that includes lots of different kinds of news and information entities, getting people to be more informed and active in their own communities.

Publishing Execs Express Concern Over Generative AI’s Impact On Traffic And IP Protections

Publishing executives shared their honest and unfettered opinions on the rise of generative artificial intelligence technology and its impact on traffic, jobs and content production and protection at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Key Biscayne, Fla., last week.

In closed-door sessions, executives opened up about their concerns around how generative AI chatbots will impact site traffic and jobs in the media industry, and the limitations of protecting their content from chatbot web crawlers. On the other hand, the publishing execs described how they’re using AI to help with content production, ad sales and other tasks.

Execs were granted anonymity under Chatham House rules. Below are snippets from those conversations, which have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Impact on traffic “We’re probably going to lose traffic as people go to ChatGPT or whatever and type in a question that they would Google and then you don’t get the traffic from a link. It seems like a double whammy, where you lose the traffic and you lose being the trusted source of information… Once [ChatGPT] becomes more real time and it goes past [its limitation of accessing information no more recent than] 2021 — we’re a local news publication, so it would be [a real] impact.” “A summarized answer from a chatbot is not going to lead to clicks to the content, even if it’s included as a source at the bottom. People got the answer that they’re looking for — how many really do the follow-up reading to keep on going deeper and deeper and go to the source? It’s totally a traffic risk concern to me.” “The way that Google now is doing generative AI, in terms of serving up those search results, has a massive impact on how we are getting very, very high conversion traffic to our content. So we’re really having to start to think about… How are people going to want to search for products and get product recommendations 10 years from now?”

American Press Institute Awards $50,000 In Beyond Print Convening Grants To Support Digital Transformation

The American Press Institute awarded two $25,000 grants to The Keene Sentinel and the National Trust for Local News to support experimentation and progress around the print transition with the goal of keeping customers and revenues.

The grantees participated in the Beyond Print convening, an event hosted by API and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism in Detroit this past June. Over the course of two days, more than 20 news organizations shared best practices for shifting from print to digital revenue models while growing their customer bases. API offered the funding opportunity to help boost news organizations’ efforts following the event.

“The Keene Sentinel has been printing since 1799, but we know success and sustainability in the 21st century depend on our evolution into a digital-first news organization,” said Jack Rooney, managing editor for audience development at The Keene Sentinel. “The Beyond Print Convening provided us with invaluable insights and connections to inspire and guide this transformational work. Now, this grant funding will accelerate our efforts to meet our community’s growing need for trusted local news and information online.”

Each organization received funding to support the following community engagement work:

•› The Keene Sentinel will enhance its e-edition to improve readers’ experience, transition print subscribers to

digital products and provide automation that will allow The Keene Sentinel to redeploy resources to bolster

digital-first news coverage.

•› The National Trust for Local News will support a bilingual newsletter in Commerce City, Colorado, including

contracting a newsletter writer and editor to cover issues in Commerce City, such as affordable housing,

growth and development and local government decisions, with an aim at increasing the civic engagement of

residents. “We’re thrilled to receive an American Press Institute Beyond Print grant, which will enable us to provide important coverage to Commerce City, a growing Colorado community,” said Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News. “This grant will allow us to move quickly to experiment and make adjustments based on community feedback. What we learn in Commerce City will inform our entire portfolio of nearly two dozen publications serving residents along Colorado’s Front Range.”

API and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism will be sharing insights and lessons from the news organizations’ initiatives in an upcoming Beyond Print Toolkit. To receive updates when the toolkit is published, fill out this form or subscribe to API’s Need to Know newsletter and updates from the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

“We are happy to be providing The Keene Sentinel and the National Trust for Local News support in continuing their work inspired by the Beyond Print Convening,” said Emily Ristow, API’s director of local news transformation. “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.”

Ohio Enacts Law Curtailing Newspaper Notice

Earlier this month, we reported that through the end of the summer there were no states that had approved legislation significantly altering their public notice laws. We were wrong.

Unbeknownst to most in the newspaper business, two months earlier Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had signed into law measures buried within the legislature’s 6,198-page budget bill that will bring sweeping changes to the state’s public notice regime. DeWine signed the bill less than a week after it passed both the GOP-dominated state House and Senate by wide margins on June 30.

Most importantly, Ohio HB-33 allows municipalities to publish many or most of their notices on their own websites and social media feeds or on the Ohio News Media Association’s statewide public notice website, instead of publishing them in local newspapers or legal journals. The bill also reduces the number of newspaper ads required to be published by some municipalities and state agencies in connection with specific types of notices; allows Ohio’s state environmental agency to publish all of its notices on its website instead of local newspapers and legal journals; and raises the spending threshold above which many or most government agencies are required to publish newspaper notices soliciting bids. It takes effect on Oct. 3.

Perhaps most bizarrely, HB-33 extends the state’s prohibition against newspapers charging a fee for publishing notices on ONMA’s statewide public notice website. (Ohio was one of the first states to pass a law requiring newspapers to publish their paid print notices free of charge on a state press association website. That law remains on the books.) The proscription against compensation now includes situations in which “the notice or advertisement is not otherwise published in a newspaper or journal.” Taken in tandem with the provision in HB-33 allowing municipalities to publish their notices on the ONMA website, it means the Ohio legislature passed a law that apparently requires the newspaper association to publish the state’s public notice ads without compensation.

The absurdity and potential illegality of forcing a press association to provide free services to the state demonstrates the extent to which the legislature was flying blind when it passed the bill. In a Sept. 18 email, ONMA President and Executive Director Monica Nieporte told her members the association “was never consulted about the functionality or capabilities of www.publicnoticesohio.com prior to enactment of the changes.” She also wrote the website wasn’t presently capable of accepting ads directly from customers. Moreover, most of the public notice provisions jammed into the bill had never been introduced or debated by the legislature.

Sneaking controversial, non-germane provisions into a humongous spending bill at the last minute is an opaque tactic permitted by many legislatures. At present, it isn’t clear when the public notice measures in HB-33 were added to the bill or who knew about them. But as far as we can tell, not a single newspaper or media outlet in the state has yet to report on their impact on public notice laws despite the fact the bill was signed into law on July 4.

There is still a lot we don’t know about the substance of the public notice provisions in HB-33 or about the process by which they were added to the bill. What is clear, however, is that Ohio is now the second state to pass a law allowing local governments to post a substantial portion of their notices on their own websites. While HB-33 is clearly less comprehensive than the bill passed last year by the Florida legislature, it contains fewer guardrails and hurdles before local governments can alter time-tested systems that provide their citizens with official notice.

Local News Consumers Are Hungry For More

The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media released study this month that demonstrates the ongoing significance of local news as a crucial information source for many Americans. The report specifically investigates the characteristics of regular local news consumers, including their demographics, geographic location, political beliefs, and preferred media platforms. As the authors point out, despite declines in both the supply and demand of local news, a significant portion of the American public still consider their local news outlets as an important source of information.

According to The Center’s study, approximately 29% of Americans regard local news media as a favorite source of news. Survey respondents were asked to provide up to three preferred news sources. Of those who specified local news as at least one of their three preferred news sources, 82% named one local source, 15% named two local sources, and 3% named three.

The research highlights notable variations in the proportion of local news consumers across different social demographic groups, regions of the country, and political ideologies. The survey used data from a Gallup Panel that was designed with The Knight Foundation and distributed to 10,226 adults in the U.S. via mail and phone from July 30 through August 26, 2021. Researchers used weights provided by Gallup for gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, and geographic region based on the 2019 Current Population Survey

The Power Of Printed Circulars: Fueling Multichannel Success In Reaching Today’s Consumers

Print circulars may seem like an outdated promotional tool but recent studies show that consumers still rely on printed ads to inform their purchasing decisions. This is why a regional grocery chain has decided to reintroduce their printed circular after discontinuing it earlier this year. Consumer demand for print circulars remains strong, making them an essential component of retailers’ marketing strategies.

Navigating print and digital media in retail marketing strategies The significance of print circulars in retailers’ promotional strategies is well-established, but the current challenge lies in optimizing marketing efforts amidst the rise of digital engagement. As costs increase and profitability pressures mount, marketers are faced with the task of determining which media channels to prioritize. While print circulars remain a crucial component, finding the right balance between traditional and digital media has become a struggle. Some brands and grocers have made the mistake of overemphasizing digital media at the expense of print, resulting in a loss of customer shopping trips. It is crucial for marketers to conduct market-by-market analysis and focus on what actually works rather than solely relying on cost or other perceptions.

Consumer data supports the value of print advertising methods Today’s consumers are not bound by the medium when it comes to utilizing deals. They skillfully navigate between traditional and digital platforms, tapping into the strengths of both. While digital methods are undoubtedly gaining traction, the core message remains — printed circulars hold substantial value. According to the 2023 CPG + Grocery TrendWatch report from Vericast, 72%1 of consumers regularly look at ads that come in the mail, and 69%2 deploy circulars to strategize their shopping escapades.

Delving deeper, paper coupons continue to hold their ground:

• 67% of all consumers surveyed still use paper coupons

• 71% of parents continuing to rely on them

• 67% of Gen Z report using coupons

On the other side of the spectrum, the rise of digital coupons is unmistakable:

• 69% of consumers are embracing digital coupons

• 80% of Gen Z and millennial parents are utilizing them

• 76% of millennials and 75% of Hispanic consumers are also turning to digital coupons for saving

Taboola And Gannett Extend Content Partnership For Five Years

Taboola and Gannett have renewed their content partnership, agreeing to a deal that extends their 10-year relationship by five years.

Gannett has since 2103 used Taboola Feed, a feed that provides readers with personalized content, including video. Also, Gannett has implemented Taboola Newsroom, a solution that provides content-creation insights from Taboola’s dataset of nearly 600 million daily active users.

Under the new arrangement, Gannett will also add Taboola offerings such as Homepage For You, a platform that applies AI to power editorial recommendations on publisher homepages.

And, Gannett could adopt Taboola Turnkey, a new capability that gives premium publishers the ability to create trustworthy content that helps shoppers make purchase decisions. This would support Gannett’s consumer product review site, Reviewed, a part of the USA TODAY Network. “Taboola continues to help us test different content for specific audience segments for improved engagement through services like Newsroom and drive more valuable user engagement across our network of digital properties,” says Kate Gutman, senior vice president, Content Ventures at Gannett.

Gutman adds, “We’re looking forward to seeing how Taboola’s homepage-specific recommendations and ecommerce offerings can make us even more successful.”

“Gannett is taking a holistic approach to growth — from insights, to creating content that resonates, to getting additional ways to monetize their large audience,” says Adam Singolda, CEO and founder of Taboola.

 

Beaufort Media Group Acquires Lowcountry Local Media

The Bluffton Sun and Hilton Head Sun have been purchased by a group whose history with South Carolina newspapers dates back to the 1890s. Jack and Kyle Osteen — part of the family that has owned The Sumter Item, a five-day-per-week community newspaper in Sumter, South Carolina, since 1894 — purchased the Bluffton-based newspaper group along with Vince Johnson, the current group publisher of The Sumter Item.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Lowcountry Local Media in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed. The transaction closed on Aug. 31.

Osteen, Osteen and Johnson also own the Lexington County Chronicle in Lexington, South Carolina, and Gulf Coast Media newspapers in Baldwin County, Alabama.

As part of the change, former owner and publisher Kevin Aylmer — who has owned Lowcountry Local Media since 2017 — is planning to retire. Aylmer will assist in the ownership transition. “We are pleased to have served the readers of The Bluffton Sun and Hilton Head Sun for the past six years. We are proud of the newspapers we produce and are confident the Osteens will continue the tradition of providing timely local news and information going forward,” Aylmer said.

The Osteen/Johnson companies are known for quality journalism in print and online and as innovators in publishing local news. The group plans to build on the success of The Bluffton Sun and Hilton Head Sun. “We’re excited to continue the legacy of this important local news operation in Bluffton and Hilton Head,” the company said in a statement. “The fact that every resident receives the publication for free is a great resource for readers and is ideal for advertisers, and these are phenomenal communities for local news.”

The new ownership group plans to retain current staff positions and add to the local staff in the coming months

Times Media Group Acquires SoCal-Based Acorn Newspapers

Accelerating Times Media Group’s expansion into southern California, the company has acquired The Acorn Newspapers, with five award-winning brands serving more than 340,000 readers in western Los Angeles and eastern Ventura Counties, according to TMG founder and President Steve Strickbine.

The acquisition includes weeklies The Acorn of Agoura Hills, the Moorpark Acorn, the Simi Valley Acorn, the Camarillo Acorn and the Thousand Oaks Acorn, along with several companion publications and associated websites.

“This is a great day for both Times Media Group and the Acorn Newspapers,” said Strickbine. “Jim and Lisa Rule have built a highly respected, trusted community news brand that provides exceptional news coverage for readers and terrific value for advertisers. This alliance blends perfectly with Times Media Group’s commitment to providing communities the local news and information they need with a high degree of accuracy and truth.”

The Acorn publications join Times Media Group’s other Southern California community news properties, including the Pasadena Weekly, LA Downtown News, Argonaut in Santa Monica, Ventura County Reporter and the recently acquired Picket Fence Media, publisher of several publications in the Orange County area.

Conejo Valley residents Jim and Lisa Rule purchased the Agoura, Calabasas, Westlake Village Acorn in 1996. Under their leadership, the publications grew to become one of the most respected and trusted community news groups in the state of California. The couple subsequently added papers in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Camarillo, and also launched Beyond the Acorn, a news and features magazine.

“While passing the torch is never easy, we are confident in the bright future of Acorn Newspapers under Steve Strickbine’s leadership,” said the Rules, who in 2017 shared the California Press Foundation’s Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year Award. “Steve shares our passion for hyperlocal journalism and deep community ties. We are proud to have nurtured these publications and now entrust their legacy to such a capable new caretaker. “Though we as a couple are no longer at the helm, both of us look forward to contributing as loyal readers while cheering on Acorn Newspapers’ continued success in this next chapter with Times Media Group.”

The Colorado Sun, A Pioneering For-Profit/ Nonprofit Hybrid, Moves Toward A Fully Nonprofit Model

The Colorado Sun is going nonprofit. The five-year-old digital news organization, launched by journalists who’d left The Denver Post following round after round of cuts by the paper’s hedge-fund owner, Alden Global Capital, had operated as a rare for-profit exception in the universe of local news startups. Now the Sun is joining its tax-exempt peers. “Whether I agree with it or not, whether I even like it or not, the reality is that many individuals, many institutions and philanthropic groups, have concluded that journalism should be nonprofit,” editor Larry Ryckman said in a phone interview on Monday. “I have my own thoughts on that, but that is reality.”

The move was not entirely unexpected. The Sun is one of the projects highlighted in a forthcoming book by Ellen Clegg and me, “What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate,” which will be published by Beacon Press in early 2024.

News Media Corporation Sells Oregon Cluster To Country Media, Inc

News Media Corporation has sold its Oregon cluster of newspapers to Country Media, Inc. The sale included the Newport News Times, Newport, Oregon, the Siuslaw News, Florence, Oregon, and the Cottage Grove Sentinel, Cottage Grove, Oregon.

John Cribb, of Cribb Cope & Potts represented the Tompkins family and News Media Corporation in the sale. Terms were not disclosed. JJ Tompkins, CEO of News Media Corporation, said it was important his family’s company found the right company to sell their Oregon newspapers to.

“News Media Corporation is proud of its 20 plus years doing business in Oregon,” Tompkins, said. “It has been a successful run and would not have been possible without the many dedicated employees who have worked at these offices. We are so grateful for them.”

“When we listed this group it was important to us to find a company with ties to the coast,” Tompkins added. “We couldn’t be more pleased that Steve and Carol Hungerford of Country Media are the new owners. We know they are committed to local journalism. They have more people and more resources to make these individual publications even stronger.”

Said Country Media president Steve Hungerford, “As a media company with paid-circulation newspapers in seven Oregon communities, we know first-hand the value these three newspapers and digital sites bring to their readers. “It’s a privilege to continue News Media’s legacy of local news coverage in dynamic, smaller communities.”

The Tompkins family and News Media Corporation were represented by John Cribb of Cribb, Cope & Potts. CCP is a leading merger and acquisition firm with offices in Montana, California and Arkansas

MediaNews Group Acquires Times-Shamrock Communications Newspapers

Unhappy family issues statement

Times-Shamrock Communications is selling its newspaper group, including The Scranton (PA) Times-Tribune, to MediaNews Group effective Thursday, CEO Jim Lewandowski announced. The Times-Shamrock family of newspapers reaches a combined readership of more than a million in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Times-Shamrock Communications in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.

The sale, announced during an all-staff Zoom meeting, includes the company’s four daily newspapers — The Times-Tribune, The Citizens’ Voice, The Republican Herald and The Standard Speaker — as well as its weekly and periodic newspapers, commercial printing operations, Absolute Distribution Inc. and Times-Shamrock Creative Services.

It does not include the Times-Shamrock’s radio or billboard operations, or the Scranton Times Building.

Meta Rejects Bid By Canada To ‘Clarify’ Online News Act

Canada has issued draft regulations that would require Google to offer $172 million and Facebook $62 million per year to compensate publishers for using their content, as required by the Online News Act (C-18).This would seem to address fears of uncapped liability. But Meta has rejected this “clarification” and continues to block news content in reaction to the law.

“As the legislation is based on the incorrect assertion that Meta benefits unfairly from the news content shared on our platforms, today’s proposed regulations will not impact our business decision to end news availability in Canada,” says Rachel Curran, head of public policy at Meta Canada.

However, the Trudeau government says it is merely trying to level the playing field. “The goal of it is to make sure that those that benefit the most from the Canadian market fall under the bill,” said Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge to reporters on Friday.

The act applies to companies with annual global revenue of $1 billion that have 20 million average unique visitors per month in the country, according to CBC.

The tech giants argue that they help local news publishers by linking to their content. (They could also point out that many news sites they link to have paywalls and thus have a form of compensation).

The law takes effect next year, and Google has also said it will block news content. Meta started doing so earlier this month.

In response to Meta’s action, the federal government pulled $10 million in annual advertising from Meta’s platforms. News and telecommunications businesses Quebecor, Bell Media, Torstar Corp., Cogeco, and Postmedia Network Canada Corp. also withdrew advertising.

Wick Communications To Acquire Flagstaff’s Arizona Daily Sun

Sierra Vista-based Wick Communications will acquire the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff in a move that strengthens the company’s holdings in Arizona. The company is acquiring the Daily Sun from Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, Inc.

Wick Communications, a third-generation family-owned and operated media corporation, owns 21 newspaper titles throughout 10 Western states from Alaska to Louisiana. Wick owns seven newspapers in Arizona and holds half ownership in four others in the state as a partner in River City Newspapers. The announcement was made Tuesday in Flagstaff by Wick CEO Francis Wick, a fourth-generation Arizonian, and Daily Sun Publisher Colleen Brady.

“The Daily Sun and the Flagstaff community represent some of the best qualities of Arizona. We’re honored to be carrying on the strong legacy of this important community institution in the state we call home,” Wick said.Brady will remain publisher, and all employees of the Daily Sun have been offered positions with Wick Communications. “We are very excited about joining the Wick Communications team. This will give us the ability to continue to invest in more local news for our readers and offer media solutions to our advertisers,” Brady said.

The Arizona Daily Sun, the largest newspaper in Northern Arizona, originated in 1883 under the name Arizona Champion in Peach Springs. It was moved to Flagstaff in 1891 as the Coconino Sun and was renamed Arizona Daily Sun in 1946.

The Daily Sun was part of Scripps League Newspapers until 1996, when the company was purchased by Pulitzer. Lee Enterprises acquired Pulitzer in 2005. Today the publication reaches hundreds of thousands of people every month through its website, apps, newsletters and specialty publications.

An agreement to purchase the newspaper was signed Aug. 31, and the acquisition is planned to be final on Sept. 25.

Merger Creates Large Print Media In Southern Alabama

After months of negotiations, Gray & Gray Inc. has merged with investors to form Deep South Media Group LLC of Citronelle, creating what is likely the largest print media group in southern Alabama. The merger includes these eight publications — the Call News, Washington County News, Shoppers Plus, the outdoors guide and the Mobile Record — under a corporate umbrella that includes the Thomasville Times, Clarke County Democrat and the South Alabamian, three Clarke County publications which were owned by Jim Cox and Linda Breedlove. Willie Gray, the longtime publisher of the Call News and Washington County News, will remain as the company’s manager of business operations and co-publisher Rhonda Gray will remain as the legals manager. The merger was facilitated with the help of Lewis Floyd / Business Valuation Consulting, LLC Mr. Gray emphasized that positive changes are in store for all the publications. “We are really excited about the opportunity that we have with this organization and I believe our current and future readers will share in our excitement,” Gray said. “While the first wave of changes will be most noticeable in Clarke

County with a new look and format, there are also changes coming for our publications in Mobile and Washington counties as we prepare to roll out a new digital format that we believe will enhance all of our publications and expanded print coverage.” Gray said all staff members are being retained and new staff will be added in all three counties. “We will immediately begin increasing our staff by adding sales positions, writers and support staff,” Gray said. Resumes for any of those positions can be sent via email to williegray@thecallnews.com . The owners and employees of all five newspapers said they are committed to expanding the weekly newspapers serving their communities in an era when larger newspapers are struggling. “These newspapers are vital to each of the communities that they serve,” Gray said. “They are the legacies of the Breedlove, Cox and Gray families and we want to continue that tradition. But at the end of the day, a community newspaper belongs to the community that supports it. We will continue to invest resources into these communities, employ local people, expose corruption and brag on everything that is good.” These are the ingredients of successful community publications which encourage everyone to support their local newspapers.

CherryRoad Media Acquires Hutchinson Kansas Printing Operations From Gannett

CherryRoad Media Inc. announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Hutchinson, Kansas, printing operations from Gannett Co., Inc. The printing operation currently prints most of CherryRoad Media’s Kansas publications as well as numerous other newspapers in central and western Kansas. All current employees of the Hutchinson plant have been offered continuing employment.

This marks the first acquisition of a printing operation for CherryRoad Media, which entered the newspaper industry in late 2020 with the purchase of the weekly Cook County (MN) News-Herald. It has since grown to publish over 80 newspapers in 17 states, including more than 60 titles purchased from Gannett.

CEO Jeremy Gulban says the company wants to blend new technologies with traditional printed publications to help ensure the future of local newspapers. “We are very excited to be to be acquiring the Hutchinson printing operation,” said Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media and CherryRoad Technologies. “For almost two years we have worked with the talented team in Hutchinson to print our newspapers. Now we welcome them to our organization. I wish to thank the leadership at Gannett for working with us to create a stable printing solution for newspapers in Kansas and Colorado. This is a good thing for the future availability of printed newspapers in the region.”

CherryRoad Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of CherryRoad Technologies, a Parsippany, New Jersey- based technology company that has been in business since 1983. CherryRoad provides complex technical solutions and system integration services to large enterprise customers, particularly state and local government entities.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with CherryRoad Media,” said Doug Horne, Gannett Chief Financial Officer. “This transaction ensures we continue our mission of providing essential, trusted journalism to the community and that our experienced team at the Hutchinson facility will continue their good work, bringing local news to our audiences.”

The transaction is expected to close on September 1, 2023. Specific terms are not being disclosed. The Hutchinson News is not included in the sale and will continue to be printed at the facility in Hutchinson.

Greenville News, Herald-Journal, Independent Mail Transitioning To Postal Delivery

Starting Monday, Oct. 9, the U.S. Postal Service will be delivering the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail as part of an effort to improve delivery consistency and optimize resources amidst ongoing labor challenges, fluctuating fuel prices, competition for workers from door-to-door delivery services and increasing digital demand.

Leveraging the Postal Service will enable the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail to deliver improved customer service while mitigating the challenges of inconsistent delivery some subscribers have experienced. The transition ensures print subscribers continue to enjoy timely deliveries, while benefiting from the Postal Service’s network and expertise.

The round-the-clock online news cycle has made digital products the first choice for breaking-news readers, and print subscribers are increasingly engaging digitally.

Gannett Co. Inc., which operates more than 200 daily local newspapers, has already successfully introduced the approach in multiple markets and now plans an expansion as digital subscriptions are surging.“The transition from carrier to Postal Service delivery will ensure we can provide a more consistent experience for our valued subscribers,” a Gannett spokesperson said. “We also encourage readers to visit us regularly on our digital platforms, as well as to access our eNewspapers.”

Subscribers will receive letters in the mail before the delivery change is implemented. The notifications will also include instructions on accessing digital products.

RJI Innovation Hub Launches, Brings Together Free Resources For Newsrooms

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) has announced the launch of the RJI Innovation Hub, an interactive website where RJI’s toolkits, guides and other resources for journalists and newsrooms are available in one place.

These free resources — such as Agenda Watch, a tool that gathers information from public government meetings, or a guide to sparking civic engagement with community-centered journalism — are now even more accessible through the Innovation Hub, which is designed to make a wealth of information easily digestible and navigable.

“Developing solutions to the industry’s challenges is only part of the equation; those solutions have to be easy to find and easy to use,” said Randy Picht, executive director of RJI. “The Innovation Hub is the next step in our efforts to give local newsrooms all over the country the tools to reach, engage and inform their communities.”

The Hub was designed by William Lager, a senior editor and project manager on RJI’s Innovation Team, to present RJI’s content in engaging and bespoke ways. The aforementioned community engagement guide, created in collaboration with hyperlocal news outlet The Green Line, takes readers on a visual journey through a new editorial practice that encourages civic engagement, while a project with CISLM explores better hiring practices as a playbook, organized to allow both hiring managers and job applicants to find the information that is relevant to them.

“This was born out of the idea that the content can be more interactive than ‘read this and follow the directions,’” Lager said. “It can be interesting and readable enough that reporters can take it on the go with them.”

Franklin News Foundation Expands Portfolio With Acquisition Of Advanced Digital Media

Press Release | Franklin News Foundation Franklin News Foundation (FNF), a leading nonprofit, non-partisan news media organization headquartered in Chicago, is thrilled to announce its recent acquisition of Advanced Digital Media (ADM), operators of BlueRoomStream.com, often referred to as the “C-SPAN of Illinois.”

The acquisition further strengthens FNF’s commitment to delivering reliable news coverage and expands its media offerings.

Under the direction of Tony and Lisa Yuscius, ADM has built a 20-year reputation for providing dependable, unbiased and unedited streaming coverage to its customers in Illinois and the television industry at large. By joining forces with ADM, FNF assumes the responsibility of fostering the future growth and development of this trusted platform. The Yusciuses will remain in their current roles with the company.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to grow again and to take on the responsibility for the future of Advanced Digital Media and Blue Room Stream,” Chris Krug, president of Franklin News Foundation, said. “We are excited for Tony and Lisa to join us. ADM consistently delivers reliable, unbiased and unedited streaming coverage to its customers here in Illinois as well as nationally to the television industry. ADM is a terrific match for our organization.

“Franklin has established a national reputation for providing the highest-quality straight news and information from state capitols, across the states and through our reporting from Washington, D.C. Our team of journalists and digital producers will continue to maintain the quality of the products ADM creates, serve our customers and innovate new and expanded offerings in the future that will bring value to our customers and the marketplace as a whole.”

FNF’s acquisition of ADM aligns with its overarching mission to offer broad access to news and information across multiple media platforms. Adding ADM to the Franklin portfolio affords the organization the ability to distribute highvalue video content to newspapers, radio and television ensuring as many Illinois taxpayers as possible have firsthand access to their state legislative body.

Publishers Spooked As Meta Pivots Away From News: ‘Facebook Nuked Everyone’s Traffic’

News sites have seen traffic plummet in recent months due to a lack of referral clicks from Facebook, whose pivot away from hard news has taken a toll on media organizations.

Media executives told CNN that their firms have seen traffic dip by as much as 40% year-over-year due to the shift made by Facebook parent company Meta.

“Facebook nuked everyone’s traffic,” one news publisher told CNN. Another media executive told CNN: “If you’re a major publisher, you’ve gotten nicked.”

The Post has sought comment from Meta.

olorado Public Radio First U.S. Media To Obtain Journalism Trust Initiative Certification From Alliance For Audited Media

Colorado Public Radio (CPR) is proud to announce it is the first U.S. media outlet to be awarded a Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) certification, an international benchmark initiated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to fight disinformation by rewarding editorial and professional excellence. CPR was independently audited by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), which confirmed CPR’s certification according to the criteria of JTI’s international standard.

In order to achieve the certification, CPR, a non-profit organization delivering meaningful news, music, and cultural experiences to everyone in Colorado, undertook a thorough self-assessment of its editorial practices designed by JTI to help media outlets gauge their transparency, independence and professionalism.

“Our credibility is paramount in our news coverage. We take great care as we report and produce news stories. Going through this process is an endorsement of our standards, but also helps us ensure our values are understood inside and outside of the newsroom,” said CPR News Executive Editor Kevin Dale.

After completing the self-assessment, which is published online in the form of a JTI transparency report, AAM audited the results to provide the certification, which is the first of its kind for a media outlet in the U.S.

“AAM is proud to verify that Colorado Public Radio has met the requirements surrounding transparency, professionalism and accountability to earn certification from the Journalism Trust Initiative,” said Tom Drouillard, AAM CEO and managing director. “JTI aligns with our continuing mission to help quality media earn greater industry recognition for their commitment to trust.”

 

The New York Times Wants To Go Its Own Way On AI Licensing

Expect the biggest media companies to use their market power to cut better deals with OpenAI and its peers.

When it’s time for news publishers and tech companies to negotiate, the rhetorical action is all about the little guy — the local newspapers, the rural publishers, the ones whose business models have taken the biggest beatings from Big Tech and who need the cash. But once rhetoric turns into reality, it’s usually the big dogs who end up getting fed.

In Australia, the government-mandated link tax has been generating a reported $50 million a year in Google/Facebook money for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp properties — while smaller publishers had to fight for a seat at the table. In the U.S., Google’s News Showcase — its “shut up, publishers, we’re paying for news now” scheme — gives the vast majority of publishers zilch, but it’s part of the $30 million-plus that Google reportedly gives The New York Times Co. each year.

The next arena for negotiation is over artificial intelligence — specifically, whether or not companies like OpenAI can use the news stories publishers have put online to train their AIs. Past iterations of those chatbots have been trained on roughly the entire Internet, but now publishers (among others) are seeking to be compensated for the contributions to global knowledge.

It’s still early days for this round, but a lot of familiar plays are being called by all sides. (OpenAI, for instance, has discovered newfound interests in journalism education and local news startups, with a checkbook to match.) And two stories from the past few days make me suspect the big dogs will come out on top again.

First, on Thursday, Adweek’s Trishla Ostwal noticed that The New York Times made a small change to its terms of service recently:

The New York Times updated its terms of services Aug. 3 to forbid the scraping of its content to train a machine learning or AI system. The content includes but is not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, designs, audio clips, video clips, “look and feel” and metadata, including the party credited as the provider of such content. The updated TOS also prohibits website crawlers, which let pages get indexed for search results, from using content to train LLMs or AI systems. Indeed, the updated TOS forbids using Times content in “training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.”

The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll Partners With NBC News

Additional sponsorship support by Mediacom with polls conducted by Selzer & Company

The Des Moines Register, part of Gannett Co., Inc. and the USA TODAY Network have announced that NBC News will partner with the Des Moines Register for the Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll (“The Iowa Poll”). The Iowa Poll is widely recognized for insights leading up to the 2024 Iowa presidential caucuses. The partners will work with Selzer & Company pollster J. Ann Selzer to develop questions that will be analyzed for broad distribution of polling results.

“The Iowa Poll has a storied history of setting the stage for the presidential election cycle,” said Carol Hunter, executive editor of the Des Moines Register. “We are excited to join forces with NBC News and our longtime partners Selzer & Company and Mediacom to bring Iowans and the nation impactful information about the thinking of likely participants ahead of the 2024 Iowa caucuses.”

“The 2024 presidential election is well under way and it’s critical to capture the thinking of the electorate at every stage of the cycle,” said NBC News’ Senior Vice President of Politics Carrie Budoff Brown. “NBC News is committed to covering this election from on the ground and across every state, talking to voters and reporting on the issues that matter most. The Iowa Poll is a crucial and trusted instrument in understanding the sentiment of voters ahead of the First in the Nation caucuses and we are delighted to work with the Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer this cycle.”

Established in 1943, the Iowa Poll celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. Selzer & Company will conduct the Iowa Poll, which will be developed in partnership with NBC News and the Des Moines Register. Polling is conducted with a random sample of voters registered in the state of Iowa, including those registered as Republican, Democrat, no party, or other party. The Iowa Poll, which is closely watched by political observers, will inform voters leading into the important Iowa caucuses, which are scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

“The Iowa caucuses pose perhaps the most difficult challenge a pollster can face. The number of Iowans who typically show up is small, and participation changes — sometimes dramatically — from caucus cycle to caucus cycle. It’s our pleasure to work with The Register, with its deep roots in Iowa politics, and with the veteran political reporters and analysts at NBC News to help craft and interpret the results of our polls to serve the state and the nation with our best take on what is happening politically in the lead-up to the January 2024 caucuses,” said J. Ann Selzer, Selzer & Company. “As the state’s leading broadband provider, Mediacom recognizes the critical role our company plays in providing Iowa voters with access to information about key political and social issues,” said Tom Larsen, Mediacom’s senior vice president of government and public relations. “This is why we began our partnership with the Iowa Poll in 2015 and are proud to continue supporting this invaluable resource during the 2024 caucus cycle.

Telegraph Media Group Hits One Million Subscriptions

More than 70% of the subscriptions are digital. Telegraph Media Group says it has hit its target of reaching one million subscriptions before the end of 2023.

It has become the third UK national newspaper company to reach a major one million milestone, after The Guardian and Financial Times which reached a million paying readers online in December 2021 and March 2022 respectively.

TMG, which publishes The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, said that more than 70% of the one million subscriptions are digital and that “subscriber engagement is at a record high, with circa 300,000 of our subscribers now using our app each day”.

It was helped on the way to the target by its acquisition of Chelsea Magazine Company in March. In June, 207,876 TMG subscriptions were for CMC or the Telegraph Wine Cellar or Telegraph Puzzles products.

TMG said the figures are being independently audited by consultancy PwC and will be formally released in October.

Chief executive Nick Hugh said: “We set an ambitious goal for ourselves in 2018 and I am thrilled we have surpassed this milestone.“As we look to the future, we will continue to grow our subscriptions, develop our subscriber community and set new records for the Telegraph.

Why Publishers Are Investing In Non-News Verticals To Grow Revenue

Building strong verticals beyond hard news can be a useful investment.

The New York Times “bundle”, which gives subscribers access to core news along with its cooking app, games, Wirecutter reviews and The Athletic sports brand, is a key driver of the company’s revenue growth. In the last quarter, monthly average revenue per user was $13.40 for subscribers signed up to the bundle or at least two of the products, versus $9.29 for news-only subscribers.

“…increasingly, it’s this kind of constellation of products that surround the news – with the news being the sun in that analogy – and what we’re really finding is that we can just bring a lot more value to our subscribers, and engage them and retain them over longer periods of time, when we offer a suite of products,” NYT head of games Jonathan Knight told Press Gazette earlier this year.

The New York Times is not the only publisher investing outside core news verticals. As news fatigue has caused traffic to breaking news coverage to slump for some publishers, many are capitalising on growing audience interest in areas such as hobbies, lifestyle and special interests.

Gannett, publisher of USA Today and many US local newspaper brands, has launched several niche subscriptions including USA Today Sports+ and a special crossword product. In Europe, French title Le Figaro launched a standalone cooking app, Le Figaro Cuisine, in May last year to add to its dedicated games offering.

In the UK, The Times and The Telegraph both offer puzzles-only subscriptions, while verticals dedicated to cars, travel and gardening are also drawing in audiences to advertisers at newsbrands such as The Sun and The Independent. Luxury is another sector that is booming, with The Times, New Statesman Media Group and the Financial Times telling Press Gazette how targeting high-end advertisers and wealthy audiences is helping them bring in readers and revenue during difficult times.