Month: December 2019

After talking things over with the Globe’s editor-in-chief earlier this fall, Manos worked with the paper’s audience development and web teams to work up Subscribe Sunday marketing language and marketing assets that could be shared on Twitter, as well as a landing page to make it easier to track people who clicked on the publisher’s Subscribe Sunday offer: Six months of digital access for $1. (A full year’s subscription to The Boston Globe costs $1 per day)

Though the Globe originally imagined Subscribe Sunday for itself, the paper decided to tap into a network it assembled last year, when it led an effort across 300 different newspapers to publish editorials on the importance of a free press. Nanos’ colleagues worked up non-Globe marketing messaging and assets and for those partners.

Members of 40 different newsrooms participated, Nanos said, some more officially than others. The New York Times PR Twitter account promoted it; Des Moines Register and The Maine Press-Herald, for example, built a separate gift page which it circulated using Twitter, while reporters at The Virginian-Pilot shared posts on Twitter promoting it. Evan Smith, the CEO of The Texas Tribune, tweeted about it, though the nonprofit did not coordinate any efforts around Subscribe Sunday.

Subscribe Sunday was responsible for 16% of the subscriptions the Globe sold during Cyber Week, Nanos said, who declined to provide hard numbers. The majority of the Globe’s subscriber base is digital; last month, Nanos said, the Globe surpassed 150,000 digital subscribers.

Nanos said her bosses saw the campaign as a success, and plan to do something similar in 2020. But beyond just adding new subscribers to the rolls, Nanos said she thinks the greater long-term value could come from the insights offered by the people who were moved by its message.

“Our thought is: Can we survey the people who use this message, and what can we learn from them going forward?” Nanos said. “Can we learn more about this population and how to serve them better going forward?”

Many news publishers that have begun focusing on consumer revenue have concluded they need to work on explaining the dire financial straits local news is in. For example, many used Giving Tuesday this past week to raise awareness of the problems local news publishers face as well as attract donations.

Beyond individuals buying subscriptions for themselves, Nanos said she think Subscribe Sunday could be buoyed more in further years by people looking to give subscriptions as gifts to one another; she heard several questions about that on Twitter this past week.

“It’s not just about gift subscriptions,” Nanos said. “It’s about doing your part for democracy.”

“Election Social” will be hosted by broadcasters from Sky News and BuzzFeed UK and also feature news, analysis, polls, projections, winning moments. In BuzzFeed fashion, there will be games too. Neither Sky News nor BuzzFeed is currently monetizing this content.

But the show is a Sky News production, drawing on the company’s tech, editorial and broadcasting capabilities. While BuzzFeed brings access to a younger, more diverse audience, as well as a bigger footprint than Sky News in the U.S.

“Elections are not just political but cultural events,” said Alan Strange, output editor for digital at Sky News. “We want to tap into the conversations that are happening across the internet, bringing the people who create this content into our show. It’s not just the numbers and the politics but the people on the internet who are playing a part.”

The show will also feature internet personalities like comedian Micheal Spicer and writer and former Sky News staffer Mollie Goodfellow.

The show will use platform-specific features, like polls on Twitter and Twitch. Comments and questions from viewers on platforms will be answered in the show.

A team of between 20 and 30 people will work on the show, spanning capabilities like camera operators, floor managers, producers and comment moderators on social platforms. Twitch will have its own team of moderators to manage the volume of comments that it expects, another team with manage comments on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Sky News is now part of Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, which has a significant stake in BuzzFeed.

“Being part of the same corporation, there’s a desire for more collaboration,” said Sky News’ head of digital, Mark Alford.

“It’s an experiment with a good chance of success for both parties,” said Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis. “There are many who think of BuzzFeed as light entertainment, animal pictures and ‘top lists,’ rather than for their particular brand of investigative and political journalism. BuzzFeed also has extensive expertise in how to deliver across social video networks, and has a fairly extensive follower base.”

This isn’t BuzzFeed’s first foray into U.K. politics. In 2017, its live U.K. election shows, in partnership with Facebook, drew 2 million views.

“Election Social” will likely get a boost in viewers when it’s featured on the Twitch homepage between 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m., making it more visible to audiences who wouldn’t seek out Sky News. Twitch has previously been a tricky platform for publishers to grow audiences on because profiles can be hard to find unless viewers are looking for them.

“It’s not about creating more TV content, but it’s about creating premium content relevant for people on platforms,” added Alford. “It’s making a big statement about our digital output ambitions.”