Thread by @jayrosen_nyu

Most of you know me as a press critic. But I have other lives as a professor at NYU. I teach grad students about innovation in journalism. I study the digital transformation of the press. And I run projects that agitate for change.

This thread is about those latter lives. 1/

I have a new post up at my blog, PressThink. "Notes on membership." pressthink.org/2020/09/notes-… It explains what I have learned about membership and the search for a sustainable path in journalism after three years as director of the research project I founded, @membershippzzle. 2/

Today's a big day in the life of @membershippzzle. We launched The Membership Guide, based on three years of study. Here's an introduction to what the Guide is and does. membershippuzzle.org/articles-overv… It's not a research report, but a practical tool for doing membership at your site. 3/

"Journalism needs solutions to its trust and revenue problems. Membership is one of them." membershipguide.org That's how we introduce the Membership Guide. It puts into usable form everything we have learned at @membershippzzle and @lenfestinst about how membership works 4/

In my 34 years of publishing things as a professor of journalism, The Membership guide is probably the most useful thing I have done. We had a team of researchers, designers and developers working on it for sixth months. They’re the ones who made it. membershipguide.org 5/

These are case studies from around the world. They tell of how different journalism sites are making membership work:

* How Zetland turned its members into powerful ambassadors

* How Daily Maverick implemented a pay-what-you-can model

and 32 others. membershipguide.org/case-studies 6/

"Locate your strongest supporters, and learn how to appeal to them for support." That's my definition of membership.

"When you can’t receive the product unless you pay your share of the costs for producing it, that’s subscription."

From my new post: pressthink.org/2020/09/notes-… 7/