5 lessons from The Economist on attracting paying readers.

As the recipient of the 2024 Michael Elliott Award from the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) for African storytelling, journalist Linda Ngari spent two weeks working at The Economist to learn about the magazine's successful digital transformation strategy and see if there were any lessons that could be applied to newsrooms in her native Kenya.

Here are some things Ngari learned about how The Economist maintains engaging and sustainable content:

Illustration photo: Unsplash

Reporters can cover any topic.

Africa editor Jonathan Rosenthal explains that The Economist is the collective voice of the magazine's reporters around the world. From articles on climate change to politics or health, reporters worldwide can share their thoughts in editorial meetings.

To ensure consistency, at least five editors will proofread each article before publication, checking that it aligns with the editorial style.

Prior to the professional meetings, individual departments meet privately to refine ideas for the week's articles. Members of the graphic design team offer suggestions for the magazine cover. Research teams, data journalists, and fact-checkers review each article before publication.

This combination helps newsrooms identify important content and minimize the risk of misinformation.

A diverse team of editors and reporters.

The reporters and editors at The Economist come from diverse backgrounds, including many who don't even work in journalism.

Editor Richard Cockett was formerly a university lecturer in history and politics at the University of London, and reporter Tamara Gilkes Borr, an American, was a former public school teacher. Borr was able to draw on this experience to report on education , such as her article about American parents wanting their children to have cell phones at school in case of a mass shooting.

Having experts on each topic can improve storytelling and idea exchange in editorial meetings, ultimately leading to more comprehensive coverage.

Retaining talent

Staff at The Economist often rotate between editor and reporter positions, across departments, and even between countries.

The editorial office also provides regular training, such as AI workshops, to ensure that employees are as comprehensively trained as possible and to ensure their long-term commitment.

Most of the staff have worked at the newsroom for at least 10 years.

Reconstruction, repurposing, and restrategy.

The Economist offers content in print and on its website. The magazine also distributes over 20 weekly newsletters, operates five podcast channels, and two news apps. The Economist also has a team producing vertical video content for Instagram and TikTok.

According to The Economist Group's annual report, 86% of the magazine's new subscriptions are digital. "Our digital transformation means we can deliver more insights to more people, through more channels than ever before," the report points out.

The digital transformation has also led to a major shift in revenue towards paid subscriptions. "We used to rely on advertising revenue from the magazine, but not anymore," said Ketna Patel, who has worked for The Economist since 1996. Last year, digital subscriptions generated more than $250 million in revenue.

Solutions for local newsrooms

However, the lessons learned from The Economist's success are not easily applicable to local newsrooms, such as in Africa, where persuading people to spend money on reading and buying newspapers has become a major challenge in the digital age in most developing countries.

Whether paywalls can become a stable source of revenue for newsrooms in Africa is uncertain, and it could even become a significant risk.

Nation Media Group (NMG) previously paid for advertising space for The Nation in Kenya in 2021, The Citizen in Tanzania, and Daily Monitor in Uganda in 2023.

However, NMG's paywall strategy in Kenya encountered a number of obstacles. For example, users often left immediately upon encountering the paywall, while the few subscribers copied and redistributed the content through other free websites and platforms.

The loss of readers forced NMG to temporarily suspend its paywall strategy in June 2022 before relaunching it later. The strategy seemed effective as NMG offered readers the option to pay daily to access the newspaper (instead of monthly or annual subscriptions).

As a result, about 80% of NMG subscribers have accepted the small payment via smartphone to read the daily news, similar to paying a small amount for a printed newspaper as they did before.

This suggests that quality content and a sound pricing strategy can help drive paid subscriptions to newspapers in developing countries like Kenya.

Another lesson is that instead of competing in breaking news, The Economist often publishes in-depth analysis and explanations of pressing issues. Similarly, African news outlets like News24 and NMG have adopted a "freemium" model, placing their in-depth investigative stories behind a fee wall, while breaking news on the subject remains free.

Hoai Phuong (according to IJNet)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/5-bai-hoc-tu-to-the-economist-trong-viec-thu-hut-doc-gia-tra-phi-post308356.html