'Pay or we'll take it away': an indie newsletter's last chance saloon

Michael MacLeod (above) founder of the Edinburgh and Minute newsletters

Credit: Andrew Paterson

An independent local newsletter has been saved from the scrap pile simply by asking local people to support it.

Michael MacLeod, founder of the Edinburgh and London Minute Substack newsletters, told his readers on 22 June that he was considering closing the London edition.

Why? The early starts, a proven model in Edinburgh, and the fact that not enough people were paying to keep the London title running. Though more than 1,000 people were paying for the Minute newsletters, most were paying for the one north of the Scottish border.

"Would you do something every morning between 5 am and 7 am for £0?" he wrote in a subscriber-exclusive post. "Maybe I'm mad but I love doing this and just hoped a few more folks would find it useful and help ensure it continues."

He put a poll out to his subscribers: 41 per cent asked for sponsors to cover the costs, 31 per cent were prepared to pay, 11 per cent wanted him to bring the price down from £5 a month, and 6 per cent were not prepared to pay anything.

The "other" options were helpful but did not offer any major revelations, as they were either already in place (reader tips), not aligned with its mission (business subscriptions) or unlikely to happen (government grants and support from public bodies).

Screenshot via London Minute

Troubling findings for someone opposed to putting in paywalls or ads - MacLeod has, in fact, turned down lucrative sponsorship opportunities in the past.

The response? More than 200 people stepped up and paid to support the title in just a week. That's enough to keep it alive for now.

MacLeod told Journalism.co.uk that in a world of constant calls to click, follow, like and subscribe, readers need just one, simple ask: please consider paying, or this will stop.

"Having received the free daily London newsletter for a year, it turned out some readers had taken it for granted, which is totally fair enough," says MacLeod.

"I wanted to remind them that a human got up and did it every day at 5 am. I didn’t expect as many as 200+ to step up and put their money up front to support it in less than a week.

"The response helps keep the lights on, the coffee flowing, and has filled my sails with a renewed sense of purpose. I literally know the newsletter’s value now and have a stronger belief in 'pay if you want' model.

"I’d also recommend that other publishers invite readers to tell them why they subscribe. Listening to people’s reasons for paying, their reading habits and connections to your work can be more informative than some behaviour data."

• Listen: Michael MacLeod, founder of The Edinburgh and London Minute, on growing a curated, community newsletter

The glaring missed opportunity

200 sign-ups might not sound like jaw-dropping news. But it is made all the more interesting in the context of new research from the Public Interest News Foundation, which runs an annual survey on the profile of independent news organisations and has started to survey the habits of independent news audiences, too.

Among the findings, newsletters are in an era of explosive growth among indie publications. Owing to their ease of creation, distribution and consumption in particular - plus the fact that most people have an email address - newsletters have doubled in subscribers in the last 12 months.

More astounding is that the survey was filled out by respondents with a 92 per cent approval rate of their local independent title. These are some of the most loyal and engaged audiences. And yet, more than a quarter (27 per cent) did not know that paying for news was an option.

Joe Mitchell, director of PINF, speaking on the Journalism.co.uk podcast, agreed that this points to a major messaging or marketing flaw amongst independent news titles: they don't communicate their need to be supported properly. In other words, they are missing a huge opportunity by being too modest.

"There's a big clue there that every newsletter should have an ask in it: can you support this?" Mitchell says. He recommends communicating subscriber milestones: can we get to the next 100 or the next 1000 subscribers?

"All of these techniques should be in use much more and if you look at the US, where they have managed to drive more revenue into their local news system, they're not shy about asking for money and support."

The gold standard for executing this well was seen last year with the independent news title The Bristol Cable. It managed to raise £60,000 in membership revenue through a very visible and intentional membership campaign, which included taking swipes at Rupert Murdoch on local billboards

• Listen: How to smash a crowdfunding target, with Eliz Mizon, former strategy lead at Bristol Cable

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