Beyond the Paywall: Your November membership and audience to-dos
The Hub team would like to give a major thank you to everyone who attended the Independent News Sustainability Summit in Austin last week. This was our first time co-hosting a conference and we’re so grateful for the community of people who shared their knowledge, experience and presence throughout the week.
It was truly special to connect with journalism folks on the business and operations side. We’re all working towards the same goal: long-term sustainability. It’s rare to be in a room with so many people who really “get it.”
We’d also like to take a moment to applaud our Hub teammates who spent months figuring out logistics, putting together stellar programming, reviewing stipend applications and getting the word out: Rachel Glickhouse, Christina Shih, and Stacy Fernández.
And we’re eternally thankful for the Hub newsroom staffers who took the time and energy to lead sessions and share their expertise.
Finally, a big shout of congratulations goes out to Hub newsrooms that won LION awards: Montana Free Press, Borderless Magazine, Chalkbeat, Fort Worth Report and Sahan Journal.
In the next edition of the newsletter, we’ll share key takeaways from the summit. If you learned something that you want to share with the “Beyond the Paywall” community, please reply to this email. Your comment might get featured in our upcoming write up!
And now on to your November audience and membership to-dos!
Mary Walter-Brown
Founder and CEO
November Audience and Membership To-Dos
We know that year-end campaign season is an ultra-busy time. Our team has designed a support package to help you lighten your load and wrap up your year with a bang. We will help you tailor your campaign appeals and provide strategic advice to your team before, during and after your campaign. The cost of this year-end add-on package is $2,000.
Openings are limited – click here to learn more and secure your spot now!
End-of-year campaign season has arrived, so this month we’re dedicating all of your to-dos to helping you finish out the year strong.
📊 Campaign goal setting. We recommend newsrooms take a look at how much revenue they have left to earn this year and set that number as a starting point for their end-of-year campaign fundraising goal. We say “starting point” because you should also take into account whether the amount is over- or under-ambitious based on previous campaigns.
👏🏽 You know how the saying goes. If you fail to plan… Whether you’re a team of one or a team of many, it’s time to have a plan in place (ideally with deadlines included) for what needs to get done to run a successful end-of-year campaign, and most importantly, who is taking on what tasks.
⌛️ Prepare a back-up plan or two. You might have the most detailed campaign plan and still end up far from meeting your goal once you’re halfway through. We know from experience that this happens and we recommend taking time to brainstorm a few creative ideas you could plug into your campaign if you need a boost. One tactic that’s been successful for multiple Hub newsrooms is to do a sprint campaign (sprint just means it happens in a shorter time frame) with a specific goal and a match amount. Creating a sense of urgency helps capture people in the moment. Check out an example of this kind of campaign from CT Mirror’s Kyle Constable, who raised over $36,000 in 36 hours.
Hub Clients: Our end-of-year training schedule
We will offer complimentary, Hub-exclusive trainings every month for the rest of the year. Look out for a message in your newsroom’s Slack channel with dates and registration information. In the meantime, check out the schedule below:
November 15 at 10 a.m. PT | 1 p.m. ET: What metrics should you care about? – led by Evan Mackinder, Vice President of Consulting Services
December: Last-minute campaign boost – with Will Warren, Project Manager*
*This training will only be available to newsrooms on our premium plans.