A User-First Framework for Sustaining Local News - Harvard ...

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20% from businesses via corporate underwriting 11% from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) 10% from licensee support 9% from foundations and major gifts 5% from local and state governments, and 14% from all other sources. 73 When the wife and husband team of Morgan and Askins founded their Ann Arbor Chronicle site, they anticipated drawing all of their revenue from advertising. But then a funny thing happened to them—something that also happened to The New York Times some months later—readers began telling them that them they wanted to pay for the news they provided. They just needed a way to do so. 74 The Chronicle installed both a DONATE button (for one‐time gifts) and a SUBSCRIBE button. Subscriptions include both a minimum ($10‐a‐month) and maximum ($250‐a‐ year) rate, the latter to prevent individual subscribers from claiming too big a stake in the enterprise. Unless subscribers request anonymity, their names are listed on the site. Other than saying they’re covering their costs and paying their bills, Morgan and Askins don’t reveal their revenues. The site includes a list of subscribers indicating payments by 15 to 25 people a month, and a list of 54 advertisers—paying monthly rates of $100 or $200 or $300 a month—for the period of October through December 2009. 75 The Miami Herald began soliciting donations—right next to its pitch for print subscriptions—in mid‐December. 76 Media analyst Steve Outing provided a detailed critique, concluding that the Herald had been way too subtle in its pitch—criticism that Gyllenhaal noted in the comments section attached to his weekly column. Perhaps news organizations could learn a lesson from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who appeared safe from charges of subtlety with the pitch he tacked on the top of Wikipedia pages: “Please read: A personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.” The banner linked to a page encouraging donations in any of 18 national currencies. 77 The result? The fundraising drive exceeded its $7.5 million goal by more than $500,000. 78 26
No DONATE button has appeared on nytimes.com yet or the vast majority of Web sites maintained by legacy news organizations. But Kachingle, a new service designed to facilitate donations, is inviting publishers, bloggers and users to test their system for distributing donations among users’ favorite sites. 79 Joel Kramer didn’t wait for that sort of special donation service to begin soliciting donations at MinnPost, the local news site he founded two years ago in the Twin Cities. “Serious journalism is a community asset, not just a consumer good,” Kramer argues, “and people (and foundations) should support it, as they support museums. We’ll see if that argument persuades enough people.” 80 His focus may be on serious journalism, but he avoids taking himself too seriously in his fundraising. To raise sponsorship money for the blog written by David Brauer, Kramer solicited both $10 LoBrau and $25 HighBrau gifts. 81 The site lists contributors as members at various ranks, including “night police reporters” (the site boasts more than 200 of them, at a donation rate of $100 to $250) and “media moguls” (there are only 10 donations at that level—$5,000 to $10,000). MinnPost lists the names of its contributors online and includes a “Donors’ Wall” where they’re invited to explain their gifts. 82 MinnPost added 500 first‐time donors in 2009, increasing its revenue from individual donors and the organization’s annual MinnRoast event from $356,000 in 2008 to $458,000 in 2009. With expenses down 20 percent year over year, the growing revenue burden carried by the donors and the roast in 2009 is even more striking. 83 ADVERTISING With ad supply swamping demand, advertising that interrupts users—as opposed to serving them—can’t last long. Good advertising has always been regarded as valuable content in news products. It offers users information they need and often provides them with clear benefits in the form of money‐saving coupons or competitive comparisons. Advertising will become even more user‐focused in the years ahead, especially in the double‐edged context of behavioral targeting. Users are also at the core of changes in the relationships between news organizations and advertisers—and between news staffs and advertising staffs. 27
Page 1 and 2: Joan Shorenstein Center on the Pres
Page 3 and 4: When my search for the financial fu
Page 5 and 6: governments can help news operation
Page 7 and 8: for Public Broadcasting. NPR plans
Page 9 and 10: Discussion of journalism’s disint
Page 11 and 12: daily newspaper when Advance Public
Page 13 and 14: elationship with its most loyal, on
Page 15 and 16: The Money Goes to the Niches Consum
Page 17 and 18: The paper kept the site free for su
Page 19 and 20: decision to defend the old model yo
Page 21 and 22: In addition to charging by niche, t
Page 23 and 24: A wide distribution of subsidy has
Page 25: Chicago Tribune for 18 years. Dubai
Page 29 and 30: advertising over the past two decad
Page 31 and 32: inviting them to the announcement
Page 33 and 34: The behavior gauged by those percen
Page 35 and 36: ‘Worthless Traffic’ and Scary M
Page 37 and 38: generate more revenue from corporat
Page 39 and 40: neighborhood blogs” in Seattle to
Page 41 and 42: The arrangement frees up staff for
Page 43 and 44: “You Are What You Do” At Off th
Page 45 and 46: interesting choice of words—”tu
Page 47 and 48: where GlobalPost is positioned to d
Page 49 and 50: Abernathy and Foster concluded that
Page 51 and 52: that the guidelines do not address
Page 53 and 54: Kachingle.com and other services en
Page 55 and 56: so, too, will business‐side staff
Page 57 and 58: Endnotes 1 Thanks to Daniel Okrent
Page 59 and 60: 30 “The Ann Arbor News Covered Bi
Page 61 and 62: 73 NPR.org, Annual Reports, Audited
Page 63 and 64: 110 Wilson, Kinsey, e‐mail exchan
Page 65 and 66: 150 McClatchy Press Release: “McC

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