There is a lot that is common between Zetland, Republik and Krautreporter. The three news publications are amongst the largest in their respective countries – Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. They are successful and influential, and all three are driven by memberships. In fact, they all operate with a singular idea: financially, rely only on your readers.

Behind the scenes, though, there is a lot that has gone into making and sustaining these publications. At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in April, co-founders and leaders of the three publications talked about what it takes to run audience-funded media houses. The Fix summarised the takeaways from their experiences.

From launch to success

Zetland is a Danish media outlet that was founded in 2012. Zetland specialises in in-depth articles and is driven by subscriptions. Lea Korsgaard, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Zetland, explained the reason for going for such a model during the session in Perugia: “We had an experience that we are on the top of information today in society, but at the same moment we have a hard time figuring out what to spend our attention on, what’s worth your time”.

Today, Zetland has around 30 journalists in its team and publishes only a few stories per day. This gives the authors enough time to dive deep into the stories they write, making them worth their readers. And this strategy pays off well because “we can see the link between quality and the willingness to pay,” Korsgaard said. Zetland has more than 20,000 members and is continuously working on creating quality content to retain them.

Republik is based on a similar idea. Richard Hoechner, co-founder and community head at Republik, said at the International Journalism Festival that their idea of media is “to be slower and more concentrated on things because in this world it’s very fast and not very in-depth”. An independent Swiss magazine that started in 2018 with a manifesto “without journalism, no democracy” and a successful crowdfunding campaign, Republik now has about 28,000 paying supporters.

Krautreporter, on the other hand, was launched to counter the problem of excessively ad-driven journalism. Leon Fryszer, chief executive officer of Krautreporter, said at Perugia that the movement when they launched the media outlet in 2014, was the “pinnacle of ad-driven journalism and clickable headlines. That was the problem that Krautreporter launched into being ad-free”. Now, 25 people are working in Krautreporter’s team on creating content without advertisements.

Choosing a membership model

Publishers that rely on audience revenue to fund their work use different types of paywalls, including hard paywalls (no access to any premium content without a subscription), metered paywalls (limited access by number of articles or time period for non-members), and freemium (content is partially free, complete access requires subscription).

According to a report by International News Media Association (INMA) research, the most widespread pricing strategy in 2022 was freemium. Publishers define the amount of content that the readers can read for free, but for full access to additional content and features, they encourage the readers to subscribe. According to the research results, however, all the widespread membership models – hard, hybrid, freemium, metered – were almost equally efficient in terms of the growth rate of digital subscriptions last year.

The preference for a particular paywall model then depends on the specifics of the product, the newsroom’s mission as well as the publication’s efficiency to get new members. For instance, Hoechner explained that metered paywall would be difficult for them because they don’t want to collect data, and this model is all about collecting information about users’ on-site behaviour to individualise the experience.

Basically, what this means is that different models are suitable for different products. It is fairly normal, however, for newsrooms to keep experimenting and tweaking their revenue models. Fryszer of Krautreporter said that they experimented with no paywall, email registration and even looked for new ways of improving the paywall system for their product.

Korsgaard, on the other hand, said: “We have a problem: our app is a huge part of the product, and also audio versions of articles, and you can only experience these once you convert to become a member. So it’s a huge part of the product that we, more or less, hide from non-members, and now we are in the process of opening the app in more of a Spotify model where you can go and try the product but not on a full scale”.

Publishers are constantly working on their subscription systems, developing them so that they would be more suitable for members and more profitable for media in terms of attracting new readers. Today many are using a model inspired by The Correspondent’s “Choose What You Pay” paywall system, which means that the readers choose how much they can pay for a subscription by themselves. Full access to the magazine’s materials is available from $1.

The newsroom and the audience

Since membership-centric newsrooms depend on the revenue from subscriptions, there is a need for permanent dialogue with the audience. There is a fine line between keeping an outlet independent and listening to members. Publishers create space and ways for readers to communicate with authors, contact them by email etc. “We are in constant dialogue with our audience. If you want to put in more energy and money, you can become a closer part of the community. There are paths designed to do that. For instance, you can become a beta tester,” said Hoechner.

This closeness of authors and readers is still new to the media, but it has a good impact. This way, news can be more aligned to people’s needs. Korsgaard stressed that “most news sites are not driven by personalities, they are not built for your needs and they don’t allow participation. That’s what we try to do – push personalities, our journalists in front of the product, build the technology, so it’s built for your needs and then let them participate.” That is why creating connections between publishers and subscribers is highly needed to create a strong community.

The bottom line is that while there is a broader playbook for membership-based news publications, almost everyone has to study and tinker with different models to see what suits them the best. Once a broader idea is set, publications can then move on to experiment with those models, understand their audiences and tailor to their needs. Despite all such publications falling under the umbrella of membership-centric media, there is no one-shoe-fits-all model within the segment. You have to find your own way.

Source of the cover photo: International Journalism Festival, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-ND 4.0)

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How to run a membership-driven news outlet – experience of three European newsrooms