It’s no secret that publishers are in a weird place right now with local advertisers closing their doors, and the increased reliance on freelance journalists. Journalists are starting to create their own independent income evidenced by Substack’s rapid growth. Large numbers of the population are willing to pay a single journalist $5 per month to read their content, but publishers can’t (and aren’t) pivoting fast enough to reader revenue. There is a lesson here. There is an underused value that a human can bring to your brand. It’s time for publishers to humanize their editors.

Are we still making resolutions? Or are we going into 2021 with low expectations and our fingers crossed? Personal resolutions aside, I think we can all agree there is nothing wrong or superstitious with setting some business goals this year ... especially with all that we learned in 2020. From pivoting to virtual events and changing up content directions to the loss of newsstands/in person purchases, and more, so much more, 2020 has certainly helped shape this year's digital direction.

The TFD team rounded up some good goals to reach for this year so you can jump back on the content train, crush engagement and continue to grow an audience that loves to love you.

Publishers, let’s talk about the social network you’re not focused on right now and should be–Twitter.

Yes, it’s true, Twitter doesn’t have the built in traffic faucet like Facebook — only 22% of U.S. adults use it. But, the Americans that are on Twitter make up publisher's target demographic(s): high income earners, educated, and the hard to reach/convert millennials. In fact, 77% of Americans who earn more than $75,000 per year are on Twitter, users are 3x more likely to be younger than 50 than older, and 42% of adult U.S. Twitter users have at least a bachelor’s degree. (Pew Research & Omnicore)

Facebook was in the news a few times this past week. A junior data scientist’s farewell email to her Facebook colleagues was published by Buzzfeed, celebrities boycotted Facebook and Instagram for an entire day to protest hate speech, and the premiere of the Netflix documentary, ‘The Social Dilemma’ … to name a few. Each share a common thread and serves as a compilation of common themes that are bubbling in our society.