Journalists lean into the emotional pull of membership in Asia news media
As news media focus on building reader revenues, both traditional and start-up players in the Asia-Pacific are engaging their audience through membership programs.
Membership requires a profound understanding of the emotional relationship and of the product’s value proposition, in both a transactional sense and in the underpinning journalistic principles.
Over the last 12 months news sites like The Spinoff in New Zealand and Rappler in the Philippines have pivoted to membership. New Naratif is building a community across south-east Asia and Australia’s Future Women is creating a membership-based organisation for working women. Myanmar Frontier is developing a membership offering with support from the Google News Initiative.
The key journalistic value that underpins a membership strategy is summed up by the US- based The Membership Puzzle Project: they have to optimise for trust.
Beyond trust in the journalism, successful membership programs build a deeper trust relationship between the organisation and the member. Unlike subscriptions, the transaction is layered with engagement which aligns the transaction with the journalistic principles of the organisation.
As Helen McCabe of Future Women says: “We are asking members to give time, expertise and connections, as well as money. It’s a different emotion to signing up for subscriptions.”
It can change the nature of the organisation. Duncan Greive of The Spinoff says: “We feel like we’ve opened the door to something which will have a profound impact on our business and purpose.”
Alex Clark from New Zealand-based PressPatron has worked with organisations to launch their membership campaigns and improve their strategies. He says: “Readers want to support the mission of your media organisation. From their perspective, this isn’t the transactional purchase of a product. Instead, this is a values-driven partnership to become a part of your community and support your growth.
“Rather than selling your product, promote the values of your team and the impact of your journalism. This type of focus drives our most successful membership campaigns.”
The Spinoff’s undying gratitude and love
This emotional relationship guided The Spinoff in New Zealand. The web site had been taking donations through the New Zealand start-up PressPatron (since July 2017). In June this year (2019) they worked with PressPatron to launch a membership program based on a member nominated level of contribution which could be paid either monthly or annually.
Apart from some swag (tote bag, annual book), the membership offering is network and values based, highlighting: “Opportunities to tell us what topics you’d like us to cover” and “Undying gratitude and love”.
The membership program took six months of planning and prep work: programming to accept monthly continuing payments, design and artwork, getting the book ready, says founder Duncan Greive.
“We really sweated the copy and the message of the membership landing page because we wanted to emphasise that this wasn’t a paywall and would not change the experience of The Spinoff, but would allow us to do more and open up a two-way conversation where members could speak to, inform and contribute, “ says Greive.
By launch, he says: “I was pleased that it felt like we had figured out the proposition that made sense for us.”
About 1,000 people signed up in the first week. Although there was no minimum payment (members can pay as little as $1), the average contribution is about $NZ100 a year. Greive says they are continuing to pick up members every day and are on track for a target of about 2,500 people by the end of this year on the way to a tripling of current membership income.
Participation in the Facebook/Walkley Foundation reader revenue program has encouraged them to be less coy about asking for money, and understanding the importance of funnels — “basic stuff for many, but we were really flying blind.”
They launched their first membership based product — a pop-up newsroom to cover local government elections around New Zealand.
The challenge is to respond to members, without, Greive says, being edited by members. They conduct monthly surveys of readers to identify interests and then consider how or whether they can bring an appropriate stand-point to the subject. Major topics so far have been climate change followed by national politics. They are currently road-testing climate change coverage with the aim of developing an ongoing unique coverage that doesn’t duplicate what others are doing.
Clark stresses the importance of the journalism: “Readers will financially reward quality journalism, particularly within areas such as investigative reporting, in-depth analysis, thoughtful opinion pieces, coverage of under-served communities, and environmental reporting.”
But, he cautions: “On the flip side, we’ve found that readers will not support clickbait and sensationalist content.”
Rappler membership to help communities
Rappler in the Philippines started to think about the benefits of a membership program as a way of working with individuals and institutions as they become more involved in their own passions and programs to help their communities. It shaped its recently launched Rappler PLUS membership with a clear emotional proposition based on the site’s journalism: “moving communities to action, speaking truth to power, and using technology for the greater good.”
It uses membership to fuse freedom of expression and social change. “If you want to be a movement for freedom of expression, you can’t paywall the information off,” says head of commercial Carla Yap-Sy Su. As a result, Rappler has a giving ethos embedded in its membership marketing, that encourages members to contribute to keep Rappler open.
The membership brings direct transactional value through access to exclusive content “that gives deeper perspective on a wide range of topics”, it also offers “opportunities for collaboration with other members of the Rappler community”.
Rappler was able to activate their members initially through previous subscribers to Rappler’s daily newsletters, providing a ready-made funnel. This allowed it to connect with the most loyal audience and convert them into members.
Later on, Rappler diversified marketing efforts into social to attract more members. Head of partnerships Jenny Chua says: “We were able to attract more millennials by sharing with them why we needed their support every time to publish and push special and investigative-driven stories.”
Rappler’s global reputation also helped, she says: “Because of the global attention on Rappler, we were able to attract Filipinos and media advocates who want to support what we do from around the world.”
The exclusive member benefits include weekly e-newsletters (from each of the founding editors) which, Rappler says, is as much about building relationships as providing content. The benefits also include access to special reports, research data, industry reports and e-books, invitations to monthly and quarterly expert briefings, forums and workshops and discounts on Rappler merchandise and books.
The site promotes a Founder member price of PHP3,500 (about $US70). The organisation is onboarding a payment gateway partner in 2020 and expect that to increase membership.
Sy Su’s advice is: “Just do it. Keep trying. Your community will guide you.”
Future Women centres membership
Australia’s Future Women has one of the few programs that centres the sense of membership from the beginning. This treats the journalism as a benefit of the membership rather than bolting on the membership as a means of supporting a media model.
Future Women finds social media vital for growth: “Instagram is at the very heart of our brand building and acquisition strategy. I would say it is probably our most valuable platform outside the paywall,” says founder and managing director, Helen McCabe.
The organisation defines its target as “educated, professional, progressive….and ambitious”. They are usually mid-career university educated women. They are engaged through newsletters (four a week), podcasts (three a month) and a closed Facebook community. Their members are also linked through a members’ directory.
“Listen carefully to what the members are telling you,” says McCabe. “This is counter intuitive when I have been used to curating the product on the basis of my ‘experience’ but with the membership model we are talking about we listen to what they want. I am not sure it is gender specific other than to say it works because women are so time poor, keen to meet new people and often looking for quick answers to health, career or relationship challenges and don’t have the time for more study or unreliable google searches.”
The strength of the membership bond, says McCabe, means you lose some control of the brand, for example, when they start their own member events or book clubs. “But that’s a good sign,” she says.
New Naratif starts with a membership model
New Naratif is one of the few media organisations that has been structured as a not-for-profit membership organisation from the start. “We build communities of action,” says Editor-in-chief Kirsten Han, “and the journalism feeds the movement.”
It’s web-site pitches its call with: “We believe in the people of Southeast Asia. We want to tell their stories. When the people of this region come together, we can create a better future.”
“We want to provide in-depth, evidence-based journalism about Southeast Asia, for the people of Southeast Asia,” says Han. “We’re interested in stories that might be overlooked or under-reported, and want to speak to people on the ground who have been affected or are involved in this issue one way or another.”
Freelance writers working for New Naratif can file in Bahasa Indonesia or Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia and work is published in at least two languages.
“This allows us to work with people who might otherwise never have a chance to be read by audiences who predominantly read in English, and also helps us tell stories that are outside capitals and/or urban centres, and include different perspectives,” Han says.
The core membership promise is: “We will be accountable to all our members.” They hold monthly meetings that allow members — and anyone else interested — to question senior management on any issue. Members have a say in how the site is run and encouraged to contribute what they can, ranging from $US52 to $US552, with all members treated the same. Supporters are also able to make one-off donations, either to the organisation as a whole, or to specific projects.
By March 2019 they had reached 600 of the 2,200 members they have identified as needed for financial stability. Their stretch target is to reach 3,500 members.
Members also contribute time, translating articles or transcribing podcasts or, even bringing food for the editorial team.
It has a hard paywall requiring a member log-in, but, it encourages members to share with whomever they chose. The recipient gets access to the page with the identity of the sharing member in a banner at the top of the page.
This reliance on memberships, though, can be challenging, particularly in contexts where people still largely operate within a cash-based economy, and aren’t able or comfortable with paying for membership by credit card or PayPal. The company is in the process of working on opening an Indonesian bank account, for instance, so as to further expand their membership base in the country.
Han says that while the members input is helpful, running a membership model is also hard work.
“Engaging with members is a job in and of itself that requires a lot of thought and consideration. It is definitely not a model that allows publications to reduce the amount of resources they need to operate, because you need to put resources into making sure the experience is meaningful to members too,” she says.
Frontier Myanmar building a community for journalism
The Frontier Myanmar says it is also building “a community for people who care about independent journalism in Myanmar.” Its website says its purpose is to “maintain our independence and keep our journalism accessible to everyone.” It intends to offer certain benefits designed to encourage engagement by providing members with exclusive insights and analysis through journalism, events and research built around membership.
Practically, what does it mean?
Clark from PressPatron says that investment in membership programs consistently results in a strong return on investment. He says it needs leadership from the top and strong team support. Practically, the program needs to be promoted and made accessible through the news media product.
“It’s important to create ‘call-to-action’ elements that are placed prominently within several locations across your website and communications channels,” he says. “Different readers will be drawn to different types of promotion. There are lots of options, such as promotion directly within articles (near the byline, within the body of a story, at the footer) display advertising, targeted website popups, email marketing campaigns, newsletter promotion, social media posts, a signup button within the menu, and a promotional banner at the top of the page.
“It’s useful to brainstorm with your team, conduct measurable testing, as well as research techniques that are working well on other sites.”
Using membership to build or structure communities is not new. Organisations as diverse as trade unions, churches and football clubs have long been thinking(and writing) deeply about what attracts and keeps people as members and just how that membership both reflects and creates an engaged community. They have understood that membership is stronger when based on aligned values than on an offer of services.
There are two key differences between these traditional membership organisations and news media: first, for these traditional organisations, the membership community was not an add on, but the existential point of the organisation. And, second, as Robert Putnam wrote in his influential 1990s book Bowling Alone many traditional membership organisations face long-term decline without continuing organising for engagement.
Five takeaways for your membership model
- Clearly understand your own core journalistic and community values and test that these values are shared and understood by your audience community;
- Entrench these values in a journalism that is always useful, entertaining and network-building; Ensure your business model (including advertising) aligns with these values;
- Resource your membership program, with dedicated membership expertise if possible, including systems and business processes that manage both members and the funnel to membership. Encourage champions within your organisation — led from the top;
- Empower your members to give more than money: Engage them through creation with their ideas and expertise, consumption through their time and distribution through their connections and networks.
- Build affordable benefits that align with your values and that will in their own right encourage engagement and sharing.
Christopher Warren is a writer, journalist and media commentator for Crikey Daily. This report was written for the December 2019 issue of The Story, a fortnightly newsletter on reinventing journalism in the Asia Pacific, published by Jacqui Park. You can sign up for the newsletter here: http://bit.ly/TheStory-AsiaPacific
