Key Insights from the News Industry Mega-Conference

America's Newspapers, a North American newspaper industry body, convened a number of publishers from across America in Dallas, Texas for two days of riveting discussion around the state of the news industry in the region. The topics discussed were vast and plentiful, all centred around the theme of digital transformation. Below is a recap from our team members who attended the conference on the key themes discussed throughout the event:

Greg Watson kicked off the conference with an insightful session sharing highlights from America’s Newspaper most recent national study. According to the study, 66% of Americans access local news every month, with their key reliances on it being for insight on civic involvement, to feel a sense of community, and to access entertaining and helpful content. Consumption trends continue to diversify away from print, with the under-40s demographic keen to consume their news on social media. Ultimately, the key takeaway from this session was that readers do not define a newspaper by how the news is delivered, but rather by the medium that creates the content. This emphasises the importance for local newspapers to continue producing region-specific news that provides value to their audiences and ensure they deliver the content through the relevant channels.

As many papers are going through the necessary transition of reducing their print editions, it is important to remember that most audiences have already transitioned to digital. It is about understanding where these audiences are and how to best reach them. As this transition can be arduous for many publishers, the overarching message must be steadfast - to continue the dedication to the mission of journalism and to serve the communities, today regardless of the medium.

With the average digital subscription in the US being $7.78 per month, versus $30.34 per month for a print subscription, publishers have to convert 4 digital users to achieve the same revenue as a print subscriber. The real magic here is encouraging digital subscribers to stay for as long as possible, and with advances in data capabilities, publishers know what features are holding on to their subscribers for longer - e.g. newsletters, app downloads etc. By promoting these features to their digital audiences, publishers should be able to increase the lifetime value of each subscriber, increasing their overall revenue.

Scaling digital subscriptions is key to a publisher's success, and often the hardest task can be simply creating a clear three to five-year plan. Establishing such a plan will create the foundation for digital transformation efforts, clearly exposing what changes and investments need to be made to succeed. Having a singular focus will drive a plan and allow publishers to identify what they prioritise. These were the principles discussed throughout the conference, which happen to also resonate with the Financial Times' tried and tested North Star Methodology. Read more about it here and learn how the FT utilised this process to successfully achieve their digital transformation journey and continue to use it to this day for their transformation needs. Getting the price right and using a step-up model will attract an audience that will form a habit, rather than isolating them from the onset with a price that may be too high initially.

This topic reverberated throughout the conference, whether it was in the context of first party data or leveraging data to create audience segmentation to enhance engagement efforts. It is clear that publishers have more data than ever at their fingertips and it only takes a few simple steps to start putting it to work. The Dallas Morning News uses data throughout their newsroom to understand from a content perspective, what is encouraging readers to subscribe. By reorganising their newsroom around the topics that most matter to their audience, they're able to increase revenues to fund the newsroom.

The tone of the conference was overall positive, and whilst there’s still a long way to go for many local publishers, to understand their audience, provide timely news alerts, market themselves better, adapt to digital transformation, and publish the right content, they can continue to thrive.