How Quartz is using membership to fund journalism

Aisha Majid of The Press Gazette writes about how Quartz is using a membership model to fund its journalism.

Majid writes, “While on the face of it Quartz’s membership programme might more closely resemble a subscription (the content is behind a paywall), Frick says that the publication’s relationship with readers is more than just transactional.

“‘The relationship that Quartz had with readers – especially email readers – made it feel like there just was a bit more of a bond there. The way that Quartz emails had been written made it feel like there was a more personal relationship.’

“That personal relationship says Frick really came to bear last year: the announcement that the publisher’s CEO was buying out the company from Japanese owner Uzabase led to Quartz’s best day for new conversions.

“‘That really unlocked something that we had been thinking about before but that we were really able to live into as an independent company which is that we were focused on a different approach to business,’ says Frick. ‘The mission statement of ‘make business better’ was to connect for our members that feeling that yes, they are subscribing to journalism and to us but also that they’re given purpose by the work we do.'”

Read more here.