The great paywall conundrum
In a recent episode of the podcast The Rebooting Show, ex-Digiday publisher Brian Morrisey talks to Substack's CEO Chris Best about the business and future of newsletters.
Substack, for all those who don't know, is a wildly successful newsletter platform that gives users the tools to quickly start a (paid) newsletter on any topic. It launched to much fanfare a few years ago, and has succeeded in attracting a large roster of (sometimes) talented or knowledgeable individuals who write regular newsletters for their subscribers.
It's worth a listen, but what stuck with me most was Morrisey's hesitation to switch on the paywall for his own Substack newsletter –– with Best prodding him to do so along the way. At the moment, Morrisey's newsletter makes money through ads, mostly about publishing technology or consulting.
The discussion centred around the fact that there's a misalignment or tension between being a publication that runs on ads versus one that makes its money off subscribers/members/supporters.
Unlike in the grand era of newspapers, (news) consumers have become accustomed to either getting a service for free and putting up with ads, or paying an amount to access content they like. But not both.
The misalignment emerges from the fact that an ad-driven business has advertisers as clients, and relies on selling the attention of their readers. Advertisers are looking for a specific quality of audience –– whether that's size, expertise or intention –– which informs the way the business grows.
If your advertisers want more size, do more content on things that more people like (cats). If your advertisers want more expertise, do more content on technical subjects experts can learn from. If your advertisers want more readers with morose intent, do more 'best headphones to drown out the sickening cacophony of existence' content.
A subscription-driven business has its subscribers as clients. They pay because they value the content, the mission or the creator.
In the last case, running advertising either 1) compromises the relationship by trying to have your cake and eat it too or 2) creates the impression of explicit endorsement, but paid-for — damaging trust and reliability.
Right now, we're square in the middle of this conundrum. We have members who pay for access to our content, but we also run banners and branded content (or stakeholder articles, as we call them).
Now, I'm not opposed to advertising, I think it can play a significant and instrumental role of mutual benefit –– e.g. running banners for an upcoming event of interest to our audience –– so I do think that ads can play a role in media revenue. But until now, our strategy has neither focused on the one nor the other.
That needs to change. We ran a reader survey, and the majority of respondents indicated that independent journalism on the EU should be sponsored by readers/subscribers/members. And I agree.
I've always had great admiration for publications like Follow the Money, De Correspondent and Tortoise Media for placing the fate of their existence in the hands of people who care about the journalism they produce. But I've never had the gumption to follow through on this model.
I think that time has come, to move from being reliant on foundations and advertising, to trusting that there are enough readers out there who care about coverage of the EU from a pan-European perspective. Who value news being brought to them as citizens living on the same continent, rather than filtered through national or Anglo-American viewpoints.
Obviously such a change can't happen overnight. It will be a process in which I'd like to involve our members as much as possible, to hear what they're missing in coverage of EU-wide issues such as rule of law, migration, labour and the economics of the green transition. Issues that affect us regardless of national borders, might be more similar from country-to-country than you might suspect, and could benefit from a European solution.
At the same time, these kinds of wider solutions require extra scrutiny. Scrutiny of who is pulling strings, who might be benefiting at the expense of others and how the decision-making process might be influenced. Coincidentally, that's what EUobserver has been doing in our journalism for over 20 years.
So expect some changes in the short term to EUobserver (e.g. on the paywall, to justify this newsletter's title). Not in our coverage, quality or values, but in the way we approach how we rely on you, our readers to support what we do.
I have the feeling that this will be great. I hope you do too. Our work will depend on it.
In other news, historically-high worker shortages have led the EU to dub 2023 the European Year of Skills. The aim is to "help businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, to tackle labour shortages, and individuals to get the right skills for quality jobs," Paula Soler Rodríguez reports.
But the lofty quest for skills seems to be looking forward while ignoring some of the existing and underlying problems of the current shortages. The plan is "vague in terms of necessary skills and funding, does not mention young people, despite the high unemployment rates among them, nor does it pay attention to groups excluded from the labour market, such as informal workers, Roma communities or the reintegration of the older population."
It also fails to stress the importance of ensuring job quality and adequate working conditions. Read the rest of Paula's analysis here.
Onwards to the stories you should not have missed this week, and please consider a membership if you value our work and continued existence –– or subscribe to our daily newsletter to get a taste of what you can expect:
Labour
Shortages squeezing EU labour markets go beyond a mismatch between needed and existing skills. Poor working conditions, pay, or exclusion of certain demographics, are also at the root of the challenge.
Migration
Frontex officers regularly interrogate asylum seekers to glean information of possible smuggling and trafficking suspects. This is then shared with the EU's police agency, Europol. Frontex says it has over 1,000 documents linked to those interrogations where NGOs appear.
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Ukraine
A distillery in Montenegro has started making Russian vodka for export to the EU, in a highly public test of its sanctions regime.
Russia's shadow fleet not only helps the Kremlin subvert European sanctions. It is also a serious threat to Europe's marine environment. Many Russian tankers are elderly and substandard vessels with questionable insurance and safety standards.
Digital
In truth EU lawmakers are in the dark about what to do. At a recent lunch with senior Brussels lawmakers and industry representatives, civil society voices asked whether it all could be stopped. The answer? It could only go faster.
EU-AU
"Each morning, I see at least seven fish dead from pollution," says Abraham Npkor, a fisherman from Rumuekpe in Rivers State, southern Nigeria. He claims even those he can still bring to the market now "have an odour."
Green Economy
Not one Council of Europe country refers to people with disabilities in their mitigation policies, and they are consistently under-represented and not meaningfully consulted or invited to participate in climate policymaking decisions.
The EU deforestation regulation is about how to force other nations, especially in the Gobal South, to follow EU rules to protect its own products — and is not about real concern for the environment, writes Indonesia's ambassador to Germany.
As always, thank you to all new subscribers to this newsletter, and my various inboxes are open for feedback, suggestions, tips, leaks, ideas and gossip.
See you next week,
Realtor Associate @ Next Trend Realty LLC | HAR REALTOR, IRS Tax Preparer
1 年Thanks for the updates on, The Editor's Weekly Digest.