🔶 #67: "Building trust begins by listening."

Hello from Rio (where later this week I will speak at Festival 3i) and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!

And a first welcome to new subscribers from Stealth, The Fix, and you too, my fellow independent consultants.

Last week I received a very sweet notification:

Whether you signed up just a few days ago or you've been here from the start (remember?), I'm sending you a big orange THANK YOU for believing in this project and for welcoming me in your inbox.

For 15 months, this newsletter has been your weekly dose of hope and fresh thinking about journalism's future. You told me it's helped you discover new ideas, saved you hours of research time, and reminded you why this work matters.

The timing of this milestone is rather perfect: I've been thinking a lot about the future of News Alchemists lately, and I just needed a push to turn that thinking into action.

I'll share more about those future plans very soon, but I have to be honest: I need your help. Growth is wonderful but it has a side effect: the cost of the CMS that I use to send the newsletter increased by 59% the moment I crossed the 1,000-readers mark.

This newsletter has always been free, and will always be – meaning these rising costs come directly out of my own pocket. That's why I'm asking you to help with a small one-time donation, if you can:

Not everyone can give right now – I completely understand. But if this newsletter has been valuable to you, and you're in a position to chip in, it will make a difference.

Can't donate but still want to help? Tell the people in your network what you like about the newsletter by sharing this post on LinkedIn, and help others discover News Alchemists. (You can also do it after donating, not only instead of 😉)

The pricing won't increase again until we become 2,500 so let's invite some more friends to join us.

It's time for this week's links. I call this edition: Newsrooms doing cool things we can learn from – with actionable insights you can use from all of them:

• Do you want to get better not only at listening to your community, but also at doing something with what you hear? I can't wait for you to read Link ❶;
• Your newsletter strategy needs a revamp? Jump straight to Link ❷;
• Struggling to decide which parts of your offering should remain free for everyone, and what's for subscribers only instead? Link ❸ is for you;
• Thinking of dropping your paywall entirely? Link ❹, Link ❹!

📚 Enjoy the links!

1. Building trust begins by listening. But it only grows when newsrooms give back 👉 LINK

"When community members see how their feedback shaped an investigation or the development of a new editorial product, they recognize their role in our organization. This allows them to think of themselves as actors, rather than passive participants."

A great article in which 🧞Nicolás Ríos – chief product and education officer at 🧩 Documented – shares four strategies that show how Documented takes action on the things it learns from listening to its readers.