“You're part of this community – it's more than just a subscription and we need your help. We don't know everything and there are experts amongst you. Be a part of Daily Maverick, share your expertise.”
This is the idea that came into the Daily Maverick team's head in 2019. One that led to a huge internal database of contactable ‘Insiders' (Daily Maverick members) who are experts in every industry and discipline possible.
I spoke to Francesca Beighton, Head of Growth and Julia Harris, Head of Reader Revenue, to hear more about this unique strategy.
A simple survey in the onboarding journey, thousands of responses
Via a 3-step survey in the email onboarding series, Daily Maverick asked Insiders for their name, email address, phone number, job and other areas of expertise, their ‘superpower' as it became known internally.
Unlike most data collection, the questions were framed as benefiting members rather than the publication. By sharing these details, an Insider could be contacted by the Daily Maverick team to participate in their journalism, provide expertise on a certain topic or even be invited to join a panel session at one of their events.
It's a way of making a member feel like they're directly supporting journalism, building that all-important sense of belonging whilst also providing a searchable database that's indispensable to editorial teams, giving them an edge in having access to such a wide variety of experts who are ready to help at any moment.
Ballet experts, sports people, professors…
Doctors, engineers, accountants, tourism operators, CEOs,
Economists, teachers, game farm owners, marketers, business strategists.
Leading consultants to the government during the Covid vaccine trials… providing the perfect opportunity for a “Ask the experts” webinar during lockdown, which had an incredible audience of 2,500 Insiders.
Getting editorial on board
In retrospect, one area they hope to improve when re-integrating this “superpower” survey into their Insider welcome series is to better market the value of this strategy internally, particularly with editorial teams.
Ultimately, editorial teams are the ones who will be able to get the most value from this database to be able to easily include expert points-of-view in their work whilst also making an Insider feel a part of Daily Maverick's journalism. The Covid vaccine webinar is a great example of this.
Another example was during an investigation into the operator of state-owned roads where the company who won a bid for a key piece of infrastructure was found to be more than R400-million in debt. A Daily Maverick Insider was interviewed on the story:
The Times & Sunday Times' editorial team does something similar, calling out to readers to share their story.
“Reader-led articles give a direct voice to our readers, but it also improves our journalism! The piece on the right below came from a call-out at the bottom of an article that got an amazing response from people telling us about how they beat their diagnoses. We ran it as a story and it really humanized the journalism. The other piece came from the simple idea of asking why people were running the London marathon. It pulled very touching stories together, and you could see in the comments section how positive the reaction was. These reader-led articles often bring yet more valued conversation within the community.”
> Developing community beyond commenting, with The Telegraph and The Times
Whilst The Guardian includes these callouts in a drop-down insert inside of an article.
And an example from outside of the classic news media – this medical community connects professionals with other professionals based on their expertise and what they hope to learn from the community.
Creating a sense of belonging
According to Fran and the team, every newsroom should be looking for this sense of belonging, the feeling of being proud to be “a Daily Maverick reader”. And this “superpower” strategy, where community members are put at the centre of journalism, will help achieve exactly this, ensuring Insiders are a part of Daily Maverick.
Ultimately, the community adds value to the journalism which builds the community… It's an ecosystem that's essential for a thriving reader revenue model in today's digital media market.
