🔶 News Alchemists #57: "How many subscribers did you call this week?"
Hello, and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!
And a special first welcome to new subscribers from... (long list today) Recorder, AJOR, Dialogue Earth, Project Syndicate, Splice, Centrul FILIA, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Global South World, Maldita, Main-Post, JournalismUK, Translator, IMS, Ouest Médialab, New Eastern Europe, Planet Detroit... and all of you brave souls working independently.
Two weeks ago, I told you I was preparing an article to reflect on my first year writing a weekly newsletter. This is how it went, multiple times:
Many drafts later, I finally did it:
Mattia Peretti
In the article, I share seven things (of course they are seven) that I learned from writing an independent newsletter every week for one year. Like: three things that bring in new subscribers more than anything else; and why numbers lie all the time.
It doesn't answer all the questions I received from readers on the topic, but I plan to make time to write more reflections like this one soon. For now, I hope you'll find this interesting.
I know I say it often, but today more than ever: I'd love to read your comments, and your questions, and your own experiences, and anything else.
Just hit that reply button. I always reply back.
And after two consecutive editions without them (for the first time ever 😱), it's finally time for the links 📚
See you next week. Same place, same time 👋
1. How many subscribers did you call this week? Not surveyed. Not profiled from your data. Called. 👉 LINK
I love so many things about this post by 🧞Greg Piechota (who is quoting Robert Skrob, author of "Be Unleavable").
First of all, the message itself: it's easy to say you're audience-first, but when was the last time you actually had a conversation with one of your readers? "If you have five subscriber conversations a week for the next four weeks, you will be an entirely different human being approaching these problems."
Then, the double serendipity:
- Just a few weeks ago, I decided to do just that: every week I'm having at least one call with a reader of this newsletter. (Maybe next week it's you? Reply to this email if you want to chat.)
- Another tip by Robert Skrob that Greg shares in his post is exactly one of the seven lessons that I share in my article: "Readers write your best marketing copy. You just need to ask them."
2. What's working? Signs of sustainability 👉 LINK
"Today, I’m focusing on what’s working in the media business. We are all well aware of what’s not, so I want to take a step back and see what’s moving in the right direction." That's how 🧞Brian Morrissey recently announced that The Rebooting is joining News Alchemists in the business of hope. 😜
Guess what's first in Brian's list of what he sees and hears is working?
3. But something kept her going: the community she was serving. 👉 LINK
This is a story about what happens when you stop asking for permission and start serving the needs you see clearly in front of you.
It's the story of 🧞Nalan Sipar, a German-Kurdish journalist who, during the pandemic in 2020, noticed that no German media outlet was providing information in Turkish for the biggest immigrant community in the country. She was given no space to fill that gap by her news organisation, so she decided to do it by herself.
Five years and a fellowship at Stanford later, her digital platform 🧩 MedyaN has turned into a trusted source that connects migrant communities with German society. And she just started a cooking show.
4. Introducing the Sports User Needs model: a new framework for audience-centric sports content strategy 👉 LINK
"A practical framework for sports newsrooms and brands to plan, commission, and measure coverage based on why fans consume content in a given moment - not just what happened. It's built specifically for sports behaviour, not borrowed from general news."
🧞Dmitry Shishkin and Smartocto have done it again.
5. Asahi Shimbun’s digital scoring system helps journalists rethink audiences and content 👉 LINK
How do you measure the success of your journalism if the goal is creating value for your readers rather than counting eyeballs? It's a thorny question many of us are struggling with. Japanese newspaper 🧩 Asahi Shimbun has come up with an answer.
6. Journalism’s core product is orientation, not content. 👉 LINK
"In practice, people aren’t looking for more stories. They are trying to figure out where they stand: what’s happening, what matters, what’s changing, what’s still unclear, and what actually deserves attention today. Content is just the delivery mechanism. Orientation is the service."
Great post by urban planner and systems designer 🧞Justin Auciello.
7. Pulitzer Center: Celebrating twenty years of impact 👉 LINK
Shout-out to the fantastic team at the Pulitzer Center that is celebrating its 20th anniversary. They have been doing important work helping journalists all over the world not just produce stories but also engage diverse audiences and strive to achieve measurable impact.
Have fun playing around with the interactive map showcasing the 11,000+ stories they've supported in the last 20 years. And help them scale up their efforts by filling in this survey on "how journalists and newsrooms think about impact, what capacities exist, and where the gaps are".
And the most clicked link from the previous edition is... 🥁
Very happy to report that the most clicked link was my coaching page 🤓 Are you launching a newsletter, building a media project, or reimagining your editorial mission? I can help. Book a free 15-min chat today to learn how I can help you find the clarity you need.
⇲ The LinkedIn Corner
A section of this email in which I highlight LinkedIn posts written by newsletter readers that, for different reasons, may not 'qualify' for the 7-links league, but are still interesting to share. This week:
🫶 Alessia wrote a lovely post to say something I wish I remembered to say more often: "I want to thank all my colleagues in the journalism community for being so amazing."
🔶 Francesca wrote a good post about the article by Eric Ulken I shared in #54: "It’s not about publishing more."
📢 One reader (Federica) gave a shout-out to a post written by another reader (Rishad) in his latest newsletter: "What cooking taught me about media products".
📝 Lucas is hosting a webinar on 17 March for the launch of a report on "Funding the future of local news".
Have you posted anything worth sharing with other NA readers? Send it over and I will consider including it in next week's newsletter! 💌
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📚 Want more links? There are 300+ in the archive.
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