Nieman Lab.
Predictions for
Journalism, 2024.
As we witness the collapse of Twitter/X and seek new platforms to build audience, more media companies next year will have to think creatively about inventing new ways to fill the void and engage readers. We all know that many of the most enduring news organizations are built on establishing deep niche audiences, not relying on massive open social networks.
We’re experimenting with this at Stat, an eight-year-old enterprise of more than 100 people that covers health and medicine. This summer, we soft-launched a networking app that is intended to engage our most loyal paying subscribers. The idea is to build a community of readers who engage not only with our content but with one another. It also allows us to provide a forum for discussion outside the comments section on stories, which often devolve into repositories for inappropriate tirades or bots. (Like many outlets, we’ve dispensed with traditional comments altogether.) A walled garden allows us to cultivate conversation among readers acting in good faith, instead of a free-for-all.
We’re calling our platform Stat+ Connect, and we’re offering it as a free service to our subscribers — a sophisticated, engaged audience of readers and networkers who are steeped in health and the life sciences. It’s part LinkedIn, part Twitter, part Facebook, and part something entirely new. So far, we have more than 1,100 active users and hope we can entice tens of thousands of our subscribers to eventually participate.
This new product plays off our journalism. It’s an online meeting place for subscribers to engage in discussion with one another and with Stat journalists; participate in regular chat groups and community-centric online events; take online courses (like how to write and pitch an opinion essay for Stat); register for community programs; and even find job postings. It’s also an opportunity to promote and engage attendees and panelists for our events around the country. It’s also not a Stat fan site (though we hope our users are fans!).
We haven’t identified any news organization that does anything quite like this. I don’t know if that’s a cautionary note or because people haven’t tried. But I expect more outlets will be trying this sort of thing in the coming year as referral traffic from the big platforms continues to drop. If it works, it will help us build an even more loyal Stat audience.
It may not catch on. But it feels good to engage in new ways to cultivate our audience instead of just standing still.
Rick Berke is the co-founder and executive editor of Stat.
As we witness the collapse of Twitter/X and seek new platforms to build audience, more media companies next year will have to think creatively about inventing new ways to fill the void and engage readers. We all know that many of the most enduring news organizations are built on establishing deep niche audiences, not relying on massive open social networks.
We’re experimenting with this at Stat, an eight-year-old enterprise of more than 100 people that covers health and medicine. This summer, we soft-launched a networking app that is intended to engage our most loyal paying subscribers. The idea is to build a community of readers who engage not only with our content but with one another. It also allows us to provide a forum for discussion outside the comments section on stories, which often devolve into repositories for inappropriate tirades or bots. (Like many outlets, we’ve dispensed with traditional comments altogether.) A walled garden allows us to cultivate conversation among readers acting in good faith, instead of a free-for-all.
We’re calling our platform Stat+ Connect, and we’re offering it as a free service to our subscribers — a sophisticated, engaged audience of readers and networkers who are steeped in health and the life sciences. It’s part LinkedIn, part Twitter, part Facebook, and part something entirely new. So far, we have more than 1,100 active users and hope we can entice tens of thousands of our subscribers to eventually participate.
This new product plays off our journalism. It’s an online meeting place for subscribers to engage in discussion with one another and with Stat journalists; participate in regular chat groups and community-centric online events; take online courses (like how to write and pitch an opinion essay for Stat); register for community programs; and even find job postings. It’s also an opportunity to promote and engage attendees and panelists for our events around the country. It’s also not a Stat fan site (though we hope our users are fans!).
We haven’t identified any news organization that does anything quite like this. I don’t know if that’s a cautionary note or because people haven’t tried. But I expect more outlets will be trying this sort of thing in the coming year as referral traffic from the big platforms continues to drop. If it works, it will help us build an even more loyal Stat audience.
It may not catch on. But it feels good to engage in new ways to cultivate our audience instead of just standing still.
Rick Berke is the co-founder and executive editor of Stat.
