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

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.
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