Misunderstanding the power of opinion writing

Impenetrable paywalls, monetization tools, investing in communities instead of scale and 20 active calls.

Welcome!

This week on the Media Finance Monitor:

• Opinion was one of the best selling journalism products. Let’s see if we can break it.

• If you have a paywall, the less you show, the more likely readers are to subscribe

• People don’t care about your scale, they care about your community

• Monetization tools and strategies from Eastern Europe

• 20 active calls (4 new)

Misunderstanding the power of opinion writing

During my research at RISJ, I analyzed which editorial products drove the most conversions. Unsurprisingly, Opinion performed exceptionally well—so well, in fact, that some editors grew uneasy about its dominance. One editor, who ran a highly successful subscription program, put it bluntly:

“A strong opinion piece may be driving lots of conversions, but focusing more and more on those instead of nuanced and unbiased reporting goes against our mission…