The news out of the platforms has been bleak as of late. Mass layoffs, entire departments gutted, the latest at Twitter. It once seemed like these spaces were places where journalism would thrive. Well, they were and they weren’t. And it doesn’t really matter now because journalism is surely taking a smaller role in whatever future direction these companies take.
That’s good news — for our focus.
It was easy to be intoxicated during the early days of social. We were reaching audience heights we never imagined. Our journalism was spreading across the globe. We had live dialogues with our readers. But the audience sizes didn’t always translate to engagement or revenue. And we didn’t always develop the kinds of authentic relationships with our readers that we need to build strong businesses. Now, we have an opportunity to build something better.
Even with all of those advertising headwinds, plenty of industry forces are blowing our way these days. Consumers have become more literate in data visualization (thanks, years of poring over the Covid case charts!), providing a long-awaited mainstreaming of one of journalism’s most differentiated assets. Audio journalism is thriving — finding new and innovative ways to engage listeners. Video is hitting its stride as an explanatory medium in both short and long form. We may or may not be at peak newsletter, but it’s a place I’m happy to plateau on for a while since these products have given us a more reliable way to become part of our users’ daily habits and a great way to play with authentic voice that connects with our customers. The eventual death of the third-party cookie presents an opening for publishers to reclaim our rightful place as the way for advertisers to reach premium audiences that we, uniquely, know very well. News fatigue and subscription fatigue are both very real, but they point to a clear path forward:
Every day, and in every department, we need to focus on the value we provide our users.
We must learn everything we can about who they are and what they need. And then we provide it through journalism that helps them navigate their world. We provide it through product experiences that don’t ask our users to work too hard to understand what we have to say. We deliver this news to them through their medium of choice (email, text, video, push) and provide experiences that load quickly, eliminate clutter and get straight to the point.
Once, and only if, we get that user service right, our business models fall into place. We’ll find it easier to convert and retain subscribers if we consistently bring this kind of value every day. Our events will become meaningful connection points for our communities offline. And the more we know about the audiences we serve, the more insightful a partner we can be to our advertising clients once the third-party cookie finally bites the dust.
This kind of growth may not feel as exhilarating as the social growth roller coaster we’ve been on for the last decade. But it’s authentic. Showing up every day and putting in the work speaks to the mission that led us all to this business in the first place. Let’s make 2023 the year we recommit.
Julia Beizer is the chief digital officer of Bloomberg Media.
The news out of the platforms has been bleak as of late. Mass layoffs, entire departments gutted, the latest at Twitter. It once seemed like these spaces were places where journalism would thrive. Well, they were and they weren’t. And it doesn’t really matter now because journalism is surely taking a smaller role in whatever future direction these companies take.
That’s good news — for our focus.
It was easy to be intoxicated during the early days of social. We were reaching audience heights we never imagined. Our journalism was spreading across the globe. We had live dialogues with our readers. But the audience sizes didn’t always translate to engagement or revenue. And we didn’t always develop the kinds of authentic relationships with our readers that we need to build strong businesses. Now, we have an opportunity to build something better.
Even with all of those advertising headwinds, plenty of industry forces are blowing our way these days. Consumers have become more literate in data visualization (thanks, years of poring over the Covid case charts!), providing a long-awaited mainstreaming of one of journalism’s most differentiated assets. Audio journalism is thriving — finding new and innovative ways to engage listeners. Video is hitting its stride as an explanatory medium in both short and long form. We may or may not be at peak newsletter, but it’s a place I’m happy to plateau on for a while since these products have given us a more reliable way to become part of our users’ daily habits and a great way to play with authentic voice that connects with our customers. The eventual death of the third-party cookie presents an opening for publishers to reclaim our rightful place as the way for advertisers to reach premium audiences that we, uniquely, know very well. News fatigue and subscription fatigue are both very real, but they point to a clear path forward:
Every day, and in every department, we need to focus on the value we provide our users.
We must learn everything we can about who they are and what they need. And then we provide it through journalism that helps them navigate their world. We provide it through product experiences that don’t ask our users to work too hard to understand what we have to say. We deliver this news to them through their medium of choice (email, text, video, push) and provide experiences that load quickly, eliminate clutter and get straight to the point.
Once, and only if, we get that user service right, our business models fall into place. We’ll find it easier to convert and retain subscribers if we consistently bring this kind of value every day. Our events will become meaningful connection points for our communities offline. And the more we know about the audiences we serve, the more insightful a partner we can be to our advertising clients once the third-party cookie finally bites the dust.
This kind of growth may not feel as exhilarating as the social growth roller coaster we’ve been on for the last decade. But it’s authentic. Showing up every day and putting in the work speaks to the mission that led us all to this business in the first place. Let’s make 2023 the year we recommit.
Julia Beizer is the chief digital officer of Bloomberg Media.
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Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
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Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
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Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
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Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
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Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
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Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
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Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
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Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
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Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
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Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
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Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
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Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
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Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
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Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
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Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
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Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
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