CNN gets it half right

On paywalls.

On Tuesday, CNN did the inevitable: It announced that it would begin to institute a paywall for its content.

This is a BIG deal. CNN is the most-trafficked news site in the world. It is a massive brand. And even it is admitting that the current business model for news does not work — unless and until people realize they need to pay for content.

That is a fact — one that major mainstream media outlets have been slow to acknowledge/realize but a fact nonetheless. The creation of content — reporting, analysis etc. — is not free. And, therefore, the consumption of it can’t be either.

Unless they can convince people — at scale — to pay for their journalism, the future of mainstream media outlets like CNN is one of managed decline. They will continue to shrink — in terms of staff and their ability to cover the world. And the people who remain will be paid less.

That is an inevitability. And the CNN execs knows that. Hence the paywall!

Speaking of paying for content — I hope you decide to support me in my efforts to become a solo content creator. You can do it here!

What I can tell CNN, from hard-won experience, is that getting people to pay for your content is a lot more challenging than it looks.

I’ve written before that the media made a mistake way back in the early days of the Internet when we didn’t charge people — even a small fee — for accessing our content online.

We had a logical argument to make: You pay to get the newspaper and all its content delivered to your door so you also need to pay if you want to consume all that great content on your phone or your computer.

We didn’t make it. And, by the time we realized our mistake, it was too late. People had become habituated to reading content online for free. Convincing them to pay for what they had always gotten for free was made infinitely more difficult.

A new study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford paints the challenges before CNN — and all of us in media! — in stark relief. The entire report is worth paging through but a few charts jumped out at me.

First, here’s how many people pay for online news in countries around the world:

Just one in five Americans, over the last year, paid for any sort of online news. Not great! (Of course, at least we aren’t the United Kingdom where less than 1 in 10 people paid for news over the last year!)

Then there’s this trend line chart that shows people paying for news rose steadily between 2014 and 2021 but has leveled off since:

And finally, and most damningly, is this chart on how many people who consider themselves to be “very” or “extremely” interested in the news pay to consume it:

It’s that last chart that outlines the problem — and, maybe, the solution. Two thirds of people in the U.S. who follow news very closely aren’t paying for any content right now.

The work — for little fish like me and big fish like CNN — is to convince those people why they should give us a little bit of their hard-earned money in order to allow us to continue creating the content they want/need.

And THAT is where I think CNN hasn’t totally figured it out just yet. As in: What, specifically, do people get for becoming paid subscribers?

Here’s the official CNN line via digital head Alex MacCallum:

In addition to unlimited access to CNN.com’s articles, subscribers will receive benefits like exclusive election features, original documentaries, a curated daily selection of our most distinctive journalism, and fewer digital ads.

Which, ok? I mean that sounds decent? I don’t know what those “exclusive election features” are exactly nor do I know what docs I would only be able to watch with a CNN subscription.

Here’s the issue as I see it for CNN: They made a big bet, digitally speaking, on breaking news over personalities. This happened a few years back — and corresponded with their decision to get rid of people like me and Brian Stelter, both of whom were more voice-y than much of the typical CNN digital content. (CNN has since re-hired Brian, which is smart!)

The problem with breaking news as your brand is that it’s very hard to monetize. For all the problems of X — and there are many! — it is still the place where news gets broken. And you don’t have to pay for it. (Yet!)

So, why then would I pay to read breaking news — even if CNN has it first everyone else will have it in minutes — if I can get it free somewhere else?

Joshua Benton, writing at NiemanLab, put this well:

Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if CNN’s paywall turns out to be a real struggle. Not a flop on the CNN+ scale, to be clear; the lower cost structure ensures management can give this strategy a lot more than 23 days. But can the network convince millions that its digital journalism is valuable enough — and, more importantly, distinctive enough — to justify a monthly charge amid a sea of free content? With its roots in TV news, maybe CNN doesn’t see elite newspapers like Times, Post, or Journal as its true competitive set in digital. But even so, what will keep CNN.com readers from straying to NBCNews.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, FoxNews.com, or MSNBC.com, all of which remain free? Figuring out that stickiness will be a challenge — and I wish them luck.

To my mind, CNN has to lean into its personalities — and analysis more. Brian, obviously, can do that. Harry Enten too. And, obviously, they can leverage on-air personalities — Jake Tapper, Kaitlan Collins etc. — in this endeavor.

But, the key to ALL of this — whether it’s CNN or me or any content creator asking people to pay for what they are doing — is uniqueness. Distinctiveness. Something that people can’t just get anywhere.

For me, it’s, well, me — and my approach to news. I am going to be in your inbox a few times a day with written and video content that aims to make you smarter about what’s happening in politics. I won’t pull punches. I won’t tell you what you want to hear. And I will always come armed with data to make my points.

It’s also my personal journey — from mainstream media pundit to independent content creator. And my experiences as a dad and a husband. As someone who tears up at TV commercials. And who loves pro wrestling (yes, I know it’s fake).

That’s my unique offering.

It’s a hell of a lot easier as a lone writer/talker to explain the value proposition for potential investors (and by that I mean paid subscribers) than it is for a media titan like CNN.

I am just me. And if I decide, say, that I want to do 15-minute Zoom calls with anyone who becomes a paid subscriber — which I did! — then I can do it. I don’t need to run it up a whole lot of flag poles.

The key in ALL of this distinctiveness. What do you do — or who do you have working for you — that people can’t get anywhere else? What is your unique, uh, thing? Figure that out — and then try to own it.

I don’t get the sense CNN is there yet. Which is ok! They have a lot of smart people working very hard on, I assume, developing their distinctive offering. I am rooting for them.

If you want to support me and what I am building her, it’s $6 a month or $60 for the year. Thank you in advance for your backing.