Want to combat reader fatigue? Learn from The Uplift
The team at Rewire News Group had a problem to solve. Their readers, like the staff themselves, were feeling fatigued.
Rewire News Group has been reporting exclusively on reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice since its launch in 2012. The nonprofit newsroom is committed to countering misinformation and disinformation in the reproductive space. But in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landscape shifted. The volume of coverage increased — and so did the heaviness of the news.
In October 2023, Rewire News Group signed on with The News Revenue Hub to get hands-on support around audience and revenue growth, including copywriting for a monthly timely topical fundraising emails. Like many news organizations, Rewire News Group had hit a plateau. Newsletter growth had stalled, and reader retention was becoming more difficult.
The team had a theory: readers might be struggling to stay engaged because they were exhausted by the bleak news cycle. After a few months of sending out timely topical appeals, Galen Donoviel, development director at Rewire News Group, and Anisa Shukla, digital development specialist, floated a new idea — what if their next appeal focused on something positive?
“Readers were feeling what Anisa and I were feeling, which is that this is exhausting,” Donoviel said. “We understand what’s at stake. We cannot just keep hearing the same thing over and over again. There has to be something else out there.”
The Hub was on the same page. Having heard similar concerns from other newsrooms, its staff started to put more dedicated energy into testing ideas around news fatigue and had seen early wins with a few organizations’ audiences when focusing messaging on solutions, wins, and ways readers could help overcome challenges. By February 2024, Hub copywriters began weaving in stories of resilience and progress in Rewire News Group’s monthly stewardship emails.
The results were immediate.
“The response was just great,” Donoviel said. In addition to an uptick in donations and open rates, readers took to social media to share overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Just nine months later, Rewire News Group turned those hopeful monthly appeals into a new newsletter brand: The Uplift.
Mikaela Rodenbaugh, Rewire News Group’s project manager at the News Revenue Hub, coined the name and continues to track performance. Published monthly, The Uplift complements their weekly newsletter, The Fallout, which focuses on the ongoing impact of the Roe reversal. While The Fallout tracks developments that are often grim in the eyes of reproductive rights activists, The Uplift offers something different: stories of hope, resilience, and progress in the fight for reproductive justice.
From the start, The Uplift exceeded expectations. It quickly surpassed The Fallout in both open and click rates — a trend that continues today. Its open rate is 34%, six percentage points higher than Rewire News Group’s next best-performing email category.
Click rates rose, too — outperforming fundraising appeals and event updates by about a full percentage point.
“Click rates tend to be small, but if you’re seeing a one-point difference, that’s a big deal,” Rodenbaugh explained. “And in the case of The Uplift, many of those clicks are tied to fundraising, so the engagement really matters.”
The Uplift ranked in The Hub’s top 20 timely topical appeals for revenue raised in 2024. Each issue of The Uplift raises a median of $0.35 per 100 recipients. The announcement email in December raised over $1,000, with 50% of donations above $200.
The Rewire News Group development team speaks highly about their experience working with the Hub. “From the outset, Mikaela believed that we could better understand our audience and try something new,” Shukla said. “The Hub’s support gave us the confidence to do that without thinking twice.”
Rodenbaugh believes The Uplift model is replicable for newsrooms of all beats and sizes. “A lot of the topics our newsrooms cover can seem pretty grim,” they said. “Why not give readers some hope?”
Here’s how news organizations can do that:
Consider a solutions journalism lens
Reader fatigue isn’t unique to Rewire News Group. According to the Reuters Institute, 43% of Americans now say they actively avoid the news. But highlighting responses to problems — not just the problems themselves — can keep readers engaged.
“Give readers a sense of hope or progress,” Rodenbaugh said. “What’s a possible solution? What’s working? Report on what could be done in response to the negative thing that just happened.”
This doesn’t mean being unrealistic. Reporting on problems is essential to journalism, Rodenbaugh acknowledged. But there’s an opportunity to consider problems “on a larger scale and ask whether there’s something that can be done about it.”
Start small, and start with newsletters
Newsletters are a great place to test new ideas. They’re low-risk, easy to measure, and don’t require an overhaul of your editorial strategy.
That’s exactly how The Uplift began, by embedding hopeful stories in stewardship emails and tracking their performance alongside Rewire News Group’s existing newsletter products.
“A newsletter lets you try something new without a huge investment,” Rodenbaugh said. “You can test your hypothesis, compare metrics, and adjust from there.”
Work with what you already have
“A lot of newsrooms are stretched thin. Capacity is a real issue,” Rodenbaugh acknowledged. “That’s why my advice is to use where you’re already putting energy to try something new.”
Not ready to launch an entirely new product? Start with a note at the top of an existing newsletter. Even a simple new element — a quote, a reader win, a resource — can spark something bigger.
Rewire News Group’s development team is just two people — Donoviel and Shukla — within a 14-person newsroom. Launching The Uplift required leadership buy-in and some reprioritizing, but it was worth it.
“The Uplift acts like an anchor in staying connected with our readers,” Shukla said. “It’s a positive experience for us, too — versus just constantly asking for money.”
Listen to your readers
Newsletters offer a built-in channel for transparency. You can let readers know you’re experimenting, and ask what they think.
“I really liked that today’s Rewire was celebrating wins,” a reader shared with Rewire News Group editor-at-large Imani Gandy. “It’s a nice change and is helpful to know we’re not losing everywhere.”
“Another great newsletter for Rewire today,” another reader wrote in June 2024. “I really do love the recent highlighting of wins.”
Ultimately, reframing your coverage to include hope isn’t just about engagement — it’s about building trust and long-term sustainability.
“We’re very proud of The Uplift,” Donoviel said. “The value that we’ve seen from it in dollars is significant, but more than that, the value comes from bringing folks reasons for hope. The idea that, at least one day out of the month, we are bringing folks tangible reasons to keep doing very difficult work that they’re doing is enough of a justification for the work put into it.”