[The Herald]

On 4/21/2020 at 9:06 PM, Hawkster said:

But how many "clicks" are they going to get with that idiotic paywall?    Sure aren't getting anything from me.

If that's the case, then so be it. I fully understand everyone has a limited amount of money and has to pick and choose what to spend it on. It is our job to make the Herald and coverage of UND sports worth spending money on.

However, the paywall isn't idiotic. We tried giving away our product for free (perhaps that was idiotic?). So did every other newspaper. It didn't work. For anyone. If we stayed the course, we would eventually be gone. That is quite clear to me. Will the paywall work? I can't honestly sit here and tell you all what the result will be, because I don't know. This is a new-ish venture for our company. Time will tell. But what I can sit here and tell you is that not going to a paywall was not going to work. That much is known.

[The Herald]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:09 AM, SiouxForever said:

I just want @schlossmangfh to continue to provide amazing content and continue to get creative like he mentioned brainstorming ideas with Tom Miller. 
 

@schlossman Now that the hockey season is over, would love to read some creative UND hockey content if you have some unique stories from the year to share if Berry and team allows/approves. See latest piece on Shane Pinto the other day on “The Athletic.” That was a fun read.

Brad not tossing stones at your employer, click-bait articles and opinion articles isn’t going to please the mass crowd and will not cut it in 2020 onward. I read UND hockey and football content and browse the business section for new businesses and restaurants in the FM area ONLY. I’d pay to read your content, I think most SS users on this site would and are happy to support all that you do. Kudos, to Tom Miller on the UND football content too.

People will be pay for quality content even with another subscription to everyones many subscription service already. In addition, with all the noise and little time to “consume” things, I’ll still make time to digest UND hockey and football articles.

Cliche saying, content is king, however if content is king, context is God. 

 

 

 

You are 100 percent right that people aren't going to pay substandard content. That's one of the things that excites me about the paywall and new business model. It is no longer predicated on just getting people to click. It is more important to produce content that people are willing to pay for. I didn't get into journalism to write click-baity headlines and call it a day. I got into it to produce the stories behind the headlines. That's what's fun for me. Our evolving business model puts the onus on me, Tom, and every other Herald reporter, to make your subscription worth it. I can promise it's something I don't take lightly. I want people, at the end of the year, to think to themselves that they used their subscription quite a bit and that it was one of the best purchases they made.

Tom and I will continue brainstorming ideas every offseason. I know that resulted in a different style of football fall camp coverage, which I thought was second to none this past year -- having a nice daily rundown that made me feel like I was at every practice alongside a daily feature (also, you have to appreciate that the UND football staff lets us watch fall camp. Might be one of the only D-I schools in the country to do so). Throughout the season, I thought his great coverage continued and I'm really enjoying his new daily Valley to Summit updates. Not surprised at all he won North Dakota sportswriter of the year award. He earned it. It was his best year to date. And I know he wants 2020 to be better than 2019. For me, I'll keep trying to look for that edge in hockey, too. I've always felt that with its huge and passionate fan base, it should be covered as well as an NHL team. If not, I'm not doing my job. In brainstorming ideas, I know we really like hearing from readers on things they like, don't like, want more of, less of. We do track analytics closely, but hearing directly from people is invaluable.

You're right, Hailey's story on Pinto was excellent. I'll try to keep digging up stories this offseason. I have one idea, if I'm able to get one big piece to the puzzle, is going to be a fun one. Thanks for the feedback.

[The Herald]

On 4/24/2020 at 12:55 PM, SiouxForever said:

@schlossmangfh ^^^ Here’s a great idea. 

Thanks for passing it along. I know other newspapers have done it. I will definitely run that up the food chain.

Appreciate the emails I have gotten from others with ideas, comments and suggestions, too! Have had some really good feedback about things we can try to tackle this summer and get in line by the time sports get started back up again.

[The Herald]

Hello everyone. I'll check back throughout the weekend and would be happy to try to answer any questions or clear anything up that I can.

I think 'Walsh Hall' said it above.... the old model is now antiquated. I am a big fan of the printed product and have multiple newspapers delivered to my place, but online is undeniably a better product. You get news throughout the day, instead of once. You always have it with you (your phone) all the time instead of having to carry around a physical newspaper if you want to access it, you can get videos (highlights) embedded in stories, you can get news alerts, you don't get ink on your hands... people have found it to be better, so more are gravitating that way. There are some parallels to music industry. A lot of us loved records and CDs, but digital music is a better product and music industry needed to adapt (and the music industry learned that allowing people to get it free on Napster wasn't going to work).

The Herald and virtually every other newspaper in the country attempted to give the product away for free online and support it with ads. I don't know of a single newspaper that found this feasible. Companies are going to Facebook, Twitter and Google for targeted ads. They can do that at very good prices. And classifieds, which once used to be a great source of revenue, are not anymore as people are finding places online to post classifieds for free. Newspapers cannot make enough with strictly online ad revenue to support the operation. Everyone has found that giving away our product for free is an unsustainable business model. Perhaps, we were all pretty foolish to think that business model would work in the first place. As a writer, I would love to give away our product for free and allow everyone to read it. However, it is very clear that continuing down that path is not going to work. If we do, we become Blockbuster. There's no doubt about that. The numbers are very plainly telling that to us (and everyone else).

The changing of the business model is not only necessary, but there are some exciting elements to it, IMO. Strictly ad-driven online revenue means your business is based on clicks. It probably encourages the more click-bait type stuff, the viral stuff. A subscriber-based system puts the onus on really good work. People aren't going to subscribe if they're getting click-baited into weak stories or for viral videos. It's up to us journalists to provide content to make the subscription worth it. Even though subscriptions are a pretty good deal (less than 30 cents a day), it is our challenge and responsibility to make sure it's worth it. I know our sports staff is up for that challenge.

A lot of misinformation has been going around, so I figured I would drop by and offer to clear up whatever I can. If you have any questions, let me know. If you have any comments, suggestions, criticisms, let me know. What things do you like and dislike? What do you want to see more of and less of? I'll try to check back this weekend. You can always email me, too, at bschlossman@gfherald.com. Every summer, Tom Miller and I brainstorm and try to come up with ideas on how we can change and innovate our coverage of UND sports. While we have a lot of analytics online that allow us to see what people are reading and how long they're spending on them, it is invaluable to hear straight from readers. Thanks!