Your reading list to start 2021 off right

With hopefully a better 2021 starting tomorrow, we have gathered 5 top performing articles of 2020 that can help better inform your news product strategy going forward. Join us as we learn from leading publishers and tech giants alike.

#1 Learn from successful news innovation projects

While there may be different unique contexts or local landscapes, the global news media industry faces many of the same challenges and opportunities. That is why it is so important for publishers to learn from one another, something we encourage with our future of news community. We dug into successful news innovation projects to pull out key lessons for future projects, including:

• Create content for your die hards
• Listen to your community
• To increase engagement, visualise churn

Explore these innovation projects in the full article here.

#2 Utilise time in paywall strategies

Recent research from INMA shows that globally only 39% of national media outlets charge for their digital content. Of these, 47% of the paywalls use the freemium model, in which most content is available to everyone but select premium content is available only for paying subscribers. One growing type of paywall that stands out is the ‘timewall’, which is a paywall that uses time as the decider of when to go up or down. Join us as we explore how publishers are playing with time in their paywall strategies, including:

• Gamifying frequent visits
• Offering subscriber-first access
• Encouraging frequent visits with ‘first hour free’ access

Learn from publishers in Germany, the US, and Sweden in the full article here.

#3 Use industry research to align strategies

Every year the Digital News Report from Reuters is full of important insights from across the globe for publishers. Based on a survey of 80,000 digital news consumers in 40 markets, the 112-page report is full of actionable findings. We’ve boiled down the findings to the 5 key graphs that should shape your strategy, including:

• How Instagram and Whatsapp are growing as news sources
• Why we still need to educate readers on regi-walls
• How email is key for creating direct reader relationships and habits

See the graphs in the full article here.

#4 Learn from tech giants as inspiration for product strategies

Password sharing is something digital media companies such as Netflix have had to deal with for a long-time. That’s why it is surprising to see that a study of publishers by Digiday found that 76% do not take any special steps to stop subscribers from sharing their login info. To understand how to better respond to the rise of password sharing, join u as we dig into some of the lessons we can learn from Netflix and the like today, including:

• Leveraging new audiences
• Reducing technical friction
• Monetising password sharing

Learn from how Netflix is leveraging password sharing in the full article here.

#5 Leverage edition products for habit formation

We know digital editions are having their moment in the sun right now, or as Rick Edmonds recently wrote for Poynter, “replica editions, the ugly ducklings of digital news, have suddenly become strategic.” In this article, we answer some frequently asked questions regarding edition strategies, including:

• Aren’t editions old-fashioned in the digital world?
• Do editions cannibalise from repeat visitors to the homepage?
• Can non-daily publishers still create reader habits?

Explore the answers to these questions and more in the full article here.