Could you comment on the differences between the local North American press and the local European press (which has two differences: northern and southern Europe). It could be very interesting.
All of your advice on encouraging members for local news is good. But the best way to attract members is to seize on good reporting. Our breakthrough on Berkeleyside, a decade ago, was an email we sent after a weekend of amazing reporting during intense Black Lives Matter protests.
Here was how we opened that email: "Last night, Berkeleyside reporter Emilie Raguso spent ten hours straight on the ground reporting minute-to-minute on the riots that consumed downtown Berkeley. She didn't stop to eat or take a bathroom break. She was swatted at with a baton by a police officer, nearly hit by flying glass bottles, and was threatened by rioting activists."
Memberships flooded in. Since then, we've always grabbed the opportunity created by a great story to solicit memberships. That's what people want to support, much more than abstract notions of filling a news desert, in my experience. We also do three campaigns a year (spring, early fall, end of year) as well as monthly "timely topicals."
Between Berkeleyside and Oaklandside we have nearly 8,000 members now and last year that generated $960,000 (just the small-dollar donors).
Could you comment on the differences between the local North American press and the local European press (which has two differences: northern and southern Europe). It could be very interesting.
All of your advice on encouraging members for local news is good. But the best way to attract members is to seize on good reporting. Our breakthrough on Berkeleyside, a decade ago, was an email we sent after a weekend of amazing reporting during intense Black Lives Matter protests.
Here was how we opened that email: "Last night, Berkeleyside reporter Emilie Raguso spent ten hours straight on the ground reporting minute-to-minute on the riots that consumed downtown Berkeley. She didn't stop to eat or take a bathroom break. She was swatted at with a baton by a police officer, nearly hit by flying glass bottles, and was threatened by rioting activists."
Memberships flooded in. Since then, we've always grabbed the opportunity created by a great story to solicit memberships. That's what people want to support, much more than abstract notions of filling a news desert, in my experience. We also do three campaigns a year (spring, early fall, end of year) as well as monthly "timely topicals."
Between Berkeleyside and Oaklandside we have nearly 8,000 members now and last year that generated $960,000 (just the small-dollar donors).