Understanding and improving subscriber loyalty metrics, the reach of local news, and when's the best time to post on social media - all in this week's Content Aware.
Tests of loyalty
We know in publishing the need to understand subscriber metrics is vital. Industry strategy guru Thomas Baekdal has written a guide to reinforce the basics as well as give some additional hard-won insight.
https://baekdal.com/newsletter/lifetime-values-are-critical-to-subscription-success
Corbidge comments... on local news
As titan of local news Sir Ray Tindle leave us (see below, Local hero), Rob is reminded again by some excellent UK Press Gazette research into just how powerful - and far-reaching - local news can be.
https://www.gpp.io/news/when-local-is-just-too-good-to-keep-to-yourself-adsRW9g3AGGV
Goodbye crawl world!
Google is testing IndexNow and Bing is already onboard - this what it is, and an overview of how it can help you get more timely searches of your pages.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-will-be-testing-indexnow/426602/
Festival season
Now that real in-person events are becoming slightly more like a normal thing again than just a memory, make sure to get the UK's Professional Publishers Association Festival in your diary for May 19th. Meet, greet, learn, socialise.
https://ppafestival.co.uk/2022/en/page/home
Timing not whining
Posting content on social media is an art in itself. Are you a Wednesday morning or Sunday afternoon person?
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
Remembering a true local hero
Sir Ray Tindle was one of the great figures of British local newspapers. His recipe for success means his legacy lives on.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-61153651
Scrape with the law
Those odd sites that use public LinkedIn data? They can carry on doing it. Some researchers are happy, but plenty of others are not.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court/
Maximus Axios
Axios burst onto the media scene with its breathless style and highspeed run at the publishing business. But now its founders are promoting something more laid back.
https://www.axios.com/transcendental-meditation-mental-health-wellness-73218367-769c-4158-a258-35263936324f.html
Repeat showing
We all strive to keep our writing lively. Perhaps on occasion we jockey, juggle, and scramble too hard (nay!), as the good-natured Twitter account SecondMentions
points out. The New Yorker reconnoiters.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-twitter-account-that-collects-awkward-amusing-writing
Antisocial media piece
The big think piece doing the rounds in the US this week is a study on the impact of social media on society - not a new subject, but a much better than usual take on its complexity and unintended consequences.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
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