2019-03-19 - NUVO selected to join the Membership Puzzle Project's Membership 101 series

After NUVO's transition earlier in the month from a biweekly print newspaper to an online-only membership-driven, nonprofit news organization, we were selected to join the Membership Puzzle Project's Membership 101 program. In my capacity as News Editor, I applied for this program and participated in five weekly group webinars from March 19 to April 26, 2019.

Here is way the program was described Emily Goligoski, MPP research director:

The series will go in detail on principles for launching and elevating a membership program, including: Initial membership planning and strategy; conducting user research and ensuring your membership reflects your core users’ needs; determining who in your existing newsroom could become a part of your membership efforts; and finding ways to engage members knowledge, time, and connections.

Here is the March 13, 2019 announcement by Ariel Zirulnick, MPP fund director, of the news organizations selected to participate in this project:

We invited Membership in News Fund applicants in the early stages of building a membership program to participate in this series. Our goal in building this training alongside the Membership in News Fund is to make the foundational knowledge of membership more widely available, while focusing the Membership in News Fund on experiments that push the boundaries of what audience engagement and membership in news can look like. The fund is available only to news organizations based in 17 target countries, while Membership 101 has no geographic limitations. We’ll make the materials publicly available.

The following 20 news organizations are part of this first iteration, led by our research director Emily Goligoski and researcher Gonzalo del Peon: Coopérative de journalisme indépendant/Pamplemousse.ca in Canada; Soy Arepita and ArmandoInfo in Venezuela; GK in Ecuador; Interferencia in Chile; Fumaça in Portugal; Third Ear in Denmark; Disclose and Rue89 in France; Beehype in Poland; Wausau Pilot & Review, Life and Thyme, Sludge, EdSurge, and NUVO in the U.S.; Daraj, covering the Arab world; Himal Southasian covering South Asia; Chicas Poderosas and Agencia Presentes covering Latin America; and Global Voices, working globally.

Here is the scheduled itinerary for each session:

• Week 1 (March 19): Intros, overview, and membership principles
• Week 2 (March 26): Value proposition, prototyping, and testing
• Week 3 (April 2): Participation, co-design, and IRL engagement
• Week 4 (April 9): Audience segmentation and audience funnel
• Week 5 (April 16): Further iterating on your work and other items you want to cover