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Cracking the media management puzzle through insights, solutions and data. ▪️Website — http://thefix.media ▪️Newsletter— http://bit.ly/2Tsr0M9 Reach out: @thefixmediabot
For our latest article, Priyal Shah spoke with Perplexity's spokesperson Sara Platnick about how the AI company structured its deals with news publishers, such as TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and The Texas Tribune.
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We compiled five insights for journalists hoping to pivot from chasing stories to steering entire teams with tips from our interviews with Raju Narisetti, Kait Bolongaro, Gerbert van Loenen, Brad Wolverton, and Thomas Seymat.
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Ahead of the US elections we spoke with SME, EURACTIV, and Deutsche Welle about their approach to covering this major event and how it fits with their editorial strategy.
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Gerbert van Loenen, Director of Campus at DPG Media, told us last year how his company conducts internal training for its employees and what topics are most in demand, how he balances his different roles, and what makes for a good trainer.
▪ DPG Media’s Training and Innovation Center offers three types of training activities: in-person sessions for journalists from different newsrooms across the company, bespoke events for one newsroom specifically, and webinars.
▪ Out of 2,100 journalists who work for DPG Media, more than half participate in trainings at least once a year. Generative AI and mobile storytelling are among the most popular topics, along with more bread-and-butter subjects like editing text and crafting headlines.
▪ The eight-people team includes several program managers who are responsible for developing training sessions and sometimes act as trainers themselves, an innovation manager whose internal newsletter on the latest media developments is widely read, and a staff member in charge of logistics.
▪ Although organising training is the team’s core activity today, their remit is broader. “We want to be a centre of excellence about innovation”, its leader notes, via other activities like an internal newsletter and collaboration with universities to produce research that could inform newsrooms’ work.
▪ An important part of Van Loenen’s job has been to motivate other journalists. Although news media have had their share of problems in recent years, he says the role of journalism during the crisis gives him hope and helps inspire others.
📍 Learn more about Van Loenen’s role and his vision in the full article.
More and more media across Europe are banking on online gaming platforms to gain visitors, subscriptions, and, ultimately, revenue. It’s a strategy that can pay off, Romain Chauvet writes for The Fix.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: The print is (not) the future; Afghan media in exile
▪️The articles featured pertain to local outlets thriving in Britain, the challenges faced by Afghan media under the Taliban, and the problems in Italian sports journalism;
▪️Interesting insights on The Washington Post's data analysis system, and LinkedIn newsletters from our colleagues at Axios, and @journalismnews;
▪️Great opportunities from Vienna Business Agency, DII-Ukraine, and Adessium Foundation.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
Italian sports journalism faces a crisis of respect and outdated practices, Alessandra Vescio writes for The Fix. Economic pressures and algorithmic demands fuel sensationalism and sexism. We look at what needs to change and who’s driving reforms.
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🇦🇫 Over two decades Afghan journalists built one of the region’s most diverse and free media ecosystems. Three years after the Taliban takeover, the sector is looking for a new vision in exile, a study from JX Fund finds.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: Digital subscriptions advice; tech against censorship
▪️The articles featured pertain to how a fake newspaper exposes real threats, what to have in mind when launching digital subscriptions, Meduza's lessons in bypassing the Kremlin's censorship, and how to help independent media in autocracies;
▪️Interesting insights on unrealised fears of AI disrupting search traffic, and an open auction process to buy The Telegraph from our colleagues at A Media Operator, Sky News, and The Guardian;
▪️Great opportunities from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Incubator for Media Education and Development, and Internews.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
“After almost four years of running our support program, we have concluded that the most effective – and perhaps the only – approach to supporting media in authoritarian countries is to concentrate solely on the audience”, Robert Nemeth writes reflecting on Media and Journalism Research Center’s four-year support program for independent journalism.
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Launching digital subscriptions is a daunting task. Gentiana Pacarizi spoke with Paweł Nowacki to identify what media leaders should keep in mind when starting a digital subscription model.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: The power of niches
▪️The articles featured pertain to reporting on Russia's environmental issues amid war, and ways to finance non-profit journalism;
▪️Interesting insights on how journalists are ensuring archiving on their own, and a service for brands to deal with rogue influencers from our colleagues at Nieman Lab, and Financial Times;
▪️Great opportunities from the International Federation of Journalists and European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
✌️ Good evening! Here is the full list of stories we had this week, including reporting on Russia's environmental issues amid war, and ways to finance non-profit journalism.
🏕 How to report on ecological issues in Russia;
💸 Funding non-profit journalism.
Training opportunity for journalists in Ukraine
RSF (Reporters Without Borders) is organising three HEFAT (Hostile Environment and Emergency First Aid Training) Refresher training sessions in August to help renew physical safety and first aid skills:
Kharkiv: August 10 (One-day)
Dnipro: August 17-18 (Two-days)
Odesa: August 30-31 (Two-days)
🕰 Duration: 8am - 7pm
📚 Language: Ukrainian
👨🏫 Trainers: 2402 Foundation
Each participant will receive a comprehensive medical kit. Prior HEFAT or tactical medicine training is required.
Register now using the form 👇
https://forms.gle/cM7LzukNzyYF48jV9
✌️ Good evening! Here is the full list of stories we had this week, including how to make newsletters profitable, and five lessons on audience building.
📰 A guide to making profitable newsletters;
✍️ Five lessons from our audience-building course.
Earlier this year, we spoke with Jennifer Mizgata, a consultant and coach who specialises in improving work culture in newsrooms, about what it takes to build a better newsroom culture for both new and established media organisations. Here’s a roundup of seven tips from her.
1️⃣ Start building a healthy newsroom culture early, but catching up later is better than giving up altogether.
2️⃣ When building a new organisation, provide structure and guidance on how people should work together: it’s okay for them to ask about how to do things and get feedback, and people should know where to go.
3️⃣ Be conscious of communicating organisational values whether it’s a 3-person or a 25-person team. Communicating the values externally, to the communities the newsroom serves is also important but often overlooked by media leaders.
4️⃣ Avoid leadership bottlenecks by normalising handing off responsibilities: Instead of the editor-in-chief being the only one who can sign off on story ideas, empower section editors to make those calls. Try to create clear everyday work processes.
5️⃣ For distributed teams, be mindful of communicating availability and work preferences: Try team norming. At the beginning of projects, check in around what people’s communication styles are, how they would prefer to get information.
6️⃣ For established organisations, use inflection points to make changes more natural and minimise internal resistance.
7️⃣ Start with small actions and experiments. This could be something as minor as asking at the beginning of every meeting how people are showing up today, or building in 10 minutes for feedback at the end of a standing meeting.
📍 Find more useful advice in the full article.
What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: The print is (not) the future; Afghan media in exile
▪️The articles featured pertain to how Russian news outlets overcome the Kremlin's restrictions on YouTube, how online games can be leveraged, and Wikipedia's role in media;
▪️Interesting insights on “three unsolved mysteries” around Telegram's Pavel Durov’s connections with France and its leadership, Bulgarian publisher Capital's subscription model and AI strategy, and how The Atlantic cooperated across teams to launch a new product feature – gifting articles from our colleagues at Politico, Media Finance Monitor, and The Audiencers;
▪️Great opportunities from Journalismfund Europe, The Telegraph, and Public Interest Journalism Lab.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
✌️ Good evening! Here is the full list of stories we had this week, including how Russian news outlets overcome the Kremlin's restrictions on YouTube, how online games can be leveraged, and Wikipedia's role in media.
▶️ How Russian independent media deals with the slowdown of YouTube in the country;
🧩 Tips on how to use of online games to your advantage;
📚 Wikipedia's lessons for news organisations.
We spoke with Stephen Harrison, tech journalist who covers Wikipedia, about the platform’s role as “internet infrastructure” and its lessons for news organisations.
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How do exiled Russian media hedge the government thwarting YouTube? Veronica Snoj spoke with Dozhd, Meduza, and Novaya Gazeta Europe.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is the full list of stories we had this week, including local outlets thriving in Britain, the challenges faced by exiled Afghan media, and the problems in Italian sports journalism.
🇬🇧 Community-powered journalism in the UK;
🇦🇫 Afghan media in exile;
🇮🇹 What needs to change in Italian sports journalism.
🌟 In our interview, Raju Narisetti, the man steering publishing at McKinsey, shared his leadership philosophy and the strategies that have driven success in his role. Here are key takeaways:
🔑 Embrace the intersections. Think past the traditional church-and-state model of journalism and lean on the synergy of editorial, business, and product/tech dimensions.
🔑 Keep an eye on your North Star. The publishing team measures success in McKinsey’s share of voice compared to competitors and inbound engagement from readers.
🔑 Push to “create meaningful differentiation and not better sameness”. Drive true innovation and unique value rather than simply improving on what already exists.
🔑 Cultivate diverse interests and a broad awareness. There is particular value in being a generalist who can connect disparate ideas and spot wide-ranging trends.
📍 Learn more about Narisetti’s role and his approach to work in the full article.
New from The Fix – we looked at how the Waltham Forest Echo and The Bristol Cable are charting a path forward for community-powered journalism.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is the full list of stories we had this week, including how a fake newspaper exposes real threats, what to have in mind when launching digital subscriptions, Meduza's lessons in bypassing the Kremlin's censorship, and how to help independent media in autocracies.
🗞 A profile of Vra!ment;
🤔 Four things to consider before launching digital subscriptions;
👩💻 The technology behind Meduza's uninterrupted operations in Russia;
👊 How to help in the fight against media capture.
Meduza integrated developers into its team from its very start. With Russia’s clampdown on freedom of speech, they have proved to be the backbone of the Meduza we know today. Veronika Snoj looked at what tools they develop to bypass censorship.
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We looked at how a fake newspaper Vra!ment by the Centre d'Action Laïque highlighted real threats.
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Four local papers that are part of the Mill in England have recently reached a total of 100 thousand people on the email list. 7,000 people are paying subscribers, making the company fully sustainable. Mill Media founder Joshi Herrmann shared his story with The Fix.
◼ “Media companies that focus on scale mainly care about getting page views and therefore, they don’t care loads about each individual article,” Herrmann told The Fix. “My concept was to have a small number of articles, but very high quality.”
◼ Within a few months from founding, the Mill’s newsletter had four thousand people on the email list and 400 paid subscribers – the readers’ response proved that there was demand for local news in the area.
◼ One approach Herrmann takes to maintaining and growing the readership is limiting online advertising – he says he advertised on Meta’s platforms in the early days of The Mill, but switched to organic sharing as soon as he could afford it.
◼ Herrmann also made sure to represent his staff in newsletters and introduce them to the subscribers. “They like to feel like they know who’s writing,” he explained how the Mill includes personal titbits of reporters’ holidays or hobbies in newsletters.
◼ The growth of the Mill in Manchester attracted some outside attention to Herrmann’s enterprise. He told The Fix that both colleagues and potential investors were watching how his business model would succeed.
◼ Once the Mill became sustainable in Manchester, people started reaching out to Herrmann, offering to recreate his vision in other urban areas in England. In most cases it was private investors like Mark Thompson who themselves had worked with legacy media, like The New York Times, The Economist, and Axios.
◼ There are, however, limitations to the subscription model, as it’s best suited for larger cities with universities, lots of companies and a population doing professional work.
◼ Despite the limitation, Herrmann encourages local news organisations to put readers first and include sustainability into their business models from the start.
📍 Learn more about this successful local news case in the full article.
🇵🇹 Portugal is a desert when it comes to funding non-profit media, but various ideas could be applied if there was more political will. Let’s look at some measures with international experience that can be used by many countries and various types of organisations.
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How should independent Russian media and international outlets report on Russia’s environment during the country’s war against Ukraine? The Fix’s Veronika Snoj spoke with journalists and eco-activists.
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Hundreds of editorial leaders have already signed up for our limited-run newsletter course, which explores how newsrooms can build, grow, and serve their audience better.
In this article, course author Emma Löfgren, editor at The Local Sweden and contributor at The Fix, rounds up some of the insights she learned when interviewing five leading experts for the course.