Beyond the Paywall: Your July membership and audience to-dos

Pitches are open for the Independent News Sustainability Summit!

What knowledge or experience do you have that would help the rest of our industry? Write it down and put it in a pitch. If you need some help to jumpstart your idea, take a look at our website — we include summit themes, guidance on what we’re looking for and sample sessions for inspiration.

If you’re struggling with imposter syndrome, tell it to hush — we know you have a great idea and you’ll have our support. Once you submit a pitch, we’ll work with you to refine your idea, figure out the best session format and give you resources to prepare. We’re also happy to provide extra support for first-time speakers — just ask!

In addition to pitching a session idea, you can also indicate whether you’re interested in being a speaker, (whether it’s to share your subject matter expertise or a lived experience) recommend a speaker (who would you love to hear from?) or share a practical insight to be featured at the Summit.

The submission form closes on Tuesday, July 12 at 5 p.m. ET.

And now on to your membership and audience to-dos for the month!

P.S. Here is a photo of our lovely consulting team from our recent team retreat.

Stacy Fernández
Marketing & Communications Manager

🤖 Have you set up GA4 yet? Google is phasing out Universal Analytics in July 2023 and replacing it with Google Analytics 4. While a year may seem like a long way away, there’s a catch: there’s no way to transfer data between the two systems.  So if you want to have a year’s worth of data in Google Analytics by next summer, you should set up GA4 now. This is a no-brainer because for the next year, you can run both Universal Analytics and GA4 in parallel. Here’s a guide on how to set up GA4 as well as some frequently asked questions.

📰 Campaigning during major news events. It can be difficult to decide whether your organization should send out a donation appeal in the midst of a major news event or tragedy. If your newsroom is facing this question, consider these three things:

• Do you have a proven track record of thoughtfully and consistently covering this topic or community?
• Are you committed to covering the aftermath in the months and years to come through a lens of accountability?
• What can you do to help affected people, like matching donations to a relief fund or partnering with a local organization for an event?

Being open with your audience about your public service mission and how your work supports the community is critical. Here is a recent example from The Texas Tribune which tactfully fundraises around their coverage of the Uvalde shooting.

📝 Serving your audience after the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. As you continue to cover last Friday’s ruling, consider publishing an evergreen FAQ about what abortion now looks like in your state. Readers will be searching for answers about abortion policies in their state (or neighboring states) for a long time to come. This is an opportunity to help guide your readers by consolidating many of their key questions into one searchable, scannable article. We like this FAQ from Hub member Bridge Michigan. It answers key questions about the state and the subheds make it easy to find the answers readers need.

Current Hub members: You can find a list of six best practices to follow in our Slack community.

☀️ Don’t put off your summer campaign. Last month we got you thinking about your summer campaign theme, and now is the time to get down to specifics. Put together a document that outlines how many emails you’ll send and when, the outline of each message and its recipients. Remember that this campaign can be shorter and is a good opportunity to fundraise around a specific goal.

If you want to explore how the News Revenue Hub’s services and campaign support can help you reach your membership and audience goals, learn more here. On average, members see a 68% revenue increase following their first calendar year with the Hub.