Mistakes news organisations make

Editor’s note: we are republishing a version of the note that previously appeared as a special edition of The Fix Media’s flagship newsletter. Subscribe to get everything you need to know about the European media market every Monday, along with monthly special reports.

Today let’s look at a few mistakes news organisations often make – and how to think about avoiding them.

The most profound mistake, no doubt, is failing to come up with a working business model that aligns with your editorial mission. This year we’ve heard a lot about the end of the social traffic era, exemplified by the shutdown of BuzzFeed News and many other digital news organisations struggling to make ends meet. Yet, as David Tvrdon wrote for The Fix last year, running to copy a winning formula created by The New York Times would be a mistake.

“There is not a universal formula for building a sustainable business model for news”, David writes, but running a diversified business model with several revenue streams helps. A more important point, though, is to be flexible enough so you can adapt to changing conditions, whether it’s a slate of new platform pivots or the rise of AI.

A good business model isn’t possible without people (assuming your model isn’t to flood the zone with AI-generated content – and I hope it isn’t). Media organisations are often bad at retaining talent. People get tired or burnt out and leave in pursuit of better-paid opportunities. Last year David also explored some important retention strategies newsroom leaders should think about, such as investing in leadership development and getting explicit about career paths.

One useful approach in talent management might be harnessing relationships with journalist-influencers. “If treated right and given enough freedom and ownership stake, these high-profile journalists can fuel growth of the news brand”, David writes in another piece exploring this topic.

Finally, one operational mistake publishers often make is producing too much content and not using archival stories to their benefits. There are many approaches to recycling evergreen content you can start with, from investing more resources in explanatory journalism to using newsletters – which is, indeed, what I’m doing right now.

Eight stories from The Fix on mistakes & how to avoid them

• Let’s start the year by questioning your newsroom’s business model (by David Tvrdon, January 2022)
• Building a future-proof newsroom: 5 strategies you neglect at your peril (by Emma Löfgren, April 2023)
• Big newsrooms have problem with talent. What about the smaller ones? How to turn it around (by David Tvrdon, February 2022)
• What can journalist-influencers bring to newsrooms and what do they expect in return (by David Tvrdon, July 2022)
• Too many news media are terrible at communicating their value proposition (by David Tvrdon, April 2021)
• Is your newsroom producing too much content? The answer is probably yes (by David Tvrdon, February 2021)
• How to recycle your evergreen content (by WNIP, Octover 2022)
• Explanatory journalism: What it is and how to do it (by Emma Löfgren, February 2023)

Source of the cover photo: https://unsplash.com/

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