How to build a news organization optimized for trust
The Membership Puzzle Project is a collaboration between the Dutch journalism platform De Correspondent and New York University.
Its aim is to gather knowledge about the most important question for the future of high quality, public-service journalism: How do we build a sustainable news organization that restores trust in journalism and moves readers to become paying members of an online community?
Figuring out a sustainable path for public service journalism
How can readers contribute their knowledge and financial support to the journalism platform of the future? That is the central question De Correspondent and New York University want to address with the Membership Puzzle Project.
The Membership Puzzle Project is founded by NYU professor Jay Rosen’s Studio 20 program and De Correspondent
Studio 20 is a digital-first Master of Arts program at New York University with a focus on innovation, project-based learning, and adapting journalism to the technology we use today. De Correspondent is an ad-free and member-funded journalism platform in the Netherlands that set a world record in crowdfunding in 2013 and currently has over 60,000 paying members.
Membership in news is experiencing unprecedented popularity, yet our industry is still searching for the best way to measure the success of membership programs. What we do know is that members’ loyalty is critical to long-term success. We surveyed available benchmarks for membership and looked at best practices for measuring loyalty metrics in real time, in news and beyond.