Why a Membership Model? – Part IV

With the implosion of the digital ad model — which I have described at length — publishers hoped partnerships with Facebook might rescue quality journalism.

The Verge reports it hasn’t worked out:

But across a wide swath of major publishers, results have been uniformly weak. “The revenue in no way backed up the amount of time that was being spent on it,” says Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next. DCN is a trade group that represents many large publishers, including NBC, The New York Times, Conde Nast, ESPN, Slate, Business Insider, and Vox Media.

At the end of last year, DCN surveyed its members on the financial performance of content published to third-party platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Google’s AMP project. It found that not one publisher reported earning more money through Instant Articles than they did through their own properties. “We make less money on Instant Articles than we do on mobile web, which is probably everyone’s experience,” said Bill Carey, director of audience development at Slate. And while Facebook reported that publishers using Instant Articles saw readers consuming 25 percent more content, most DCN members had seen no such increase.

The membership model works much better. If you’re a regular reader, please consider it. In addition to supporting a site you love, you’ll also get exclusive analysis, new features and no advertising.

Join today for $5 a month or $50 for the year.