An “executive platinum subscriber” to The New York Times? Or perhaps the title of “grand ambassador” to The Washington Post suits you better?
Loyalty programs — perhaps best known in the travel industry — are coming for news, as publishers’ marketing departments try to figure out how to make their subscriptions stickier and more exclusive. A lucrative program encourages potential subscribers to consider a publisher when they normally wouldn’t and, even more importantly, locks in existing subscribers so they can’t imagine switching to a competitor.
This isn’t the same as a referral link for a freebie or 10% off your next order, though. The best loyalty programs focus on tracking and incentivizing a user for the long term. Sound familiar? Lifetime value is something that most publishers are already thinking about calculating and tracking.
Before you tune out the idea of bringing the flying experience anywhere near news — I imagine news loyalty will look different than the massive complexity of travel loyalty. It has to start simple, just as airlines did in the 1980s after industry deregulation forced change.
That probably means discounts first, followed by perks. Instead of jacking up prices for long-time subscribers and praying they keep paying, publishers will have to contend with how to offer those users real value.
News obviously has a different business model than airlines or hotels. The key differences will come out in teasing out the primary metric — the “miles” of news, if you will. Is it attention minutes, à la Chartbeat? Is it the revenge of the pageview?
Most subscriptions are structured as an all-you-can-eat buffet now, so an incremental pageview isn’t the same as revenue-per-seat-mile on an airline. (All you micropayment enthusiasts can chime in here.) The data and tech for loyalty programs aren’t insignificant lifts either, even if publishers are already building their foundations anyway.
At the end of the day, loyalty programs are a game to most people. And gamification is partly why news loyalty hasn’t gained momentum in the internet era. News is serious, and gamification might be seen as cheapening the core product, or confusing users who already don’t love the subscription-discounting game. But as consumer budgets tighten and retention becomes harder, new tactics are on the table to keep user attention and dollars.
My alma mater, The Washington Post, had a program called PostPoints through at least 2019. A decidedly print-based and D.C.-local feature, PostPoints had the right idea but didn’t really transfer over to the modern era. Integrating local discounts and events may show one path toward new loyalty.
I said in last year’s prediction that the way publishers think about the bundle and brand is changing as a wider set of consumer services change. The creative pursuit of reader revenue will continue as we borrow from other industries — even industries we often love to hate.
Ryan Kellett is vice president of audience at Axios.
Ryan Kellett is vice president of audience at Axios.
An “executive platinum subscriber” to The New York Times? Or perhaps the title of “grand ambassador” to The Washington Post suits you better?
Loyalty programs — perhaps best known in the travel industry — are coming for news, as publishers’ marketing departments try to figure out how to make their subscriptions stickier and more exclusive. A lucrative program encourages potential subscribers to consider a publisher when they normally wouldn’t and, even more importantly, locks in existing subscribers so they can’t imagine switching to a competitor.
This isn’t the same as a referral link for a freebie or 10% off your next order, though. The best loyalty programs focus on tracking and incentivizing a user for the long term. Sound familiar? Lifetime value is something that most publishers are already thinking about calculating and tracking.
Before you tune out the idea of bringing the flying experience anywhere near news — I imagine news loyalty will look different than the massive complexity of travel loyalty. It has to start simple, just as airlines did in the 1980s after industry deregulation forced change.
That probably means discounts first, followed by perks. Instead of jacking up prices for long-time subscribers and praying they keep paying, publishers will have to contend with how to offer those users real value.
News obviously has a different business model than airlines or hotels. The key differences will come out in teasing out the primary metric — the “miles” of news, if you will. Is it attention minutes, à la Chartbeat? Is it the revenge of the pageview?
Most subscriptions are structured as an all-you-can-eat buffet now, so an incremental pageview isn’t the same as revenue-per-seat-mile on an airline. (All you micropayment enthusiasts can chime in here.) The data and tech for loyalty programs aren’t insignificant lifts either, even if publishers are already building their foundations anyway.
At the end of the day, loyalty programs are a game to most people. And gamification is partly why news loyalty hasn’t gained momentum in the internet era. News is serious, and gamification might be seen as cheapening the core product, or confusing users who already don’t love the subscription-discounting game. But as consumer budgets tighten and retention becomes harder, new tactics are on the table to keep user attention and dollars.
My alma mater, The Washington Post, had a program called PostPoints through at least 2019. A decidedly print-based and D.C.-local feature, PostPoints had the right idea but didn’t really transfer over to the modern era. Integrating local discounts and events may show one path toward new loyalty.
I said in last year’s prediction that the way publishers think about the bundle and brand is changing as a wider set of consumer services change. The creative pursuit of reader revenue will continue as we borrow from other industries — even industries we often love to hate.
Ryan Kellett is vice president of audience at Axios.
Ryan Kellett is vice president of audience at Axios.
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
To promote and elevate the standards of journalism
Covering thought leadership in journalism
Pushing to the future of journalism
Exploring the art and craft of story
The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.
It’s a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.