Xavier's Newsletter - Issue No. 28

Interesting question in this article. Can print go ad-free and rely solely on reader revenue? Every market is different, and a big step in UK and US. In markets already highly relying on reader revenue like the Netherlands, this could be a model for the year 2025.

On that note: “If we’re going to be a subscriber-based business at the Times, there has to be a cultural change,” says the vice president of products. What The Times and most other newsrooms mostly do now is not so much listen to readers as watch and analyze them, like fish in a bowl. They article suggests what would prove more fruitful is for newsrooms to treat their audience like people and listen to them.

Very praticle now. Cool insights into convincing online readers to become subscribers. The Washington Post says the number 1 predictor of people subscribing is how much they read. The paper has cut page load time 85 percent and studied reader behavior to determine what articles to offer them next. It’s also making a big push with 50 different email newsletters as loyalty tools. The New York Times has found that people are twice as likely to subscribe if they already receive one of the paper’s newsletters.

Last week the Times separated its breaking news and top stories email alerts, and it’s planning to do the same with mobile push alerts in the coming weeks.

Google research paper on differential privacy. This is the technique Apple is using for some applications to avoid having access to individual users’ information. It apparentely works.