Five on Friday: Membership Drive, Streaming Video and SEO Tips

Featuring INDYWeek, Acorn TV, Walmart, Jet.com and Google Chrome 76

In this weeks Five on Friday, we hear the heartwarming success story of INDYWeek’s membership drive which yielded $40,000 in its first five weeks. Also, we share streaming video subscription services you may never have heard of, Walmart explains its shift in strategy with Jet.com, we give you five SEO tips to try today, and The Next Web explains why publishers with paywalls are not going to like Google’s Chrome 76 browser.

For-Profit News Site INDYWeek Raises $40,000 in Membership Drive 

The Triangle’s INDYWeek is trying a new tack to raise money for its journalism – a membership program with an annual fundraising goal of $100,000. In early May, INDYWeek launched the INDY Press Club and encouraged readers to help them fund watchdog journalism, arts and culture news, event coverage and more through a voluntary membership program. In the first five weeks of the program, over 370 readers had made donations at KeepItINDY.com totaling close to $40,000, an impressive start by anyone’s standards.

For the first 36 years of its existence, INDYWeek has been free without paywalls or subscriptions. The newspaper, with current print circulation of 25,000, has sustained itself on advertising. But like so many other local news organizations, this revenue source has waned in spite of growing readership. Thus the need for a membership campaign: “Keep It Free. Keep It INDY. Join the INDY Press Club.”

In a June 11 column, editor Jeffrey C. Billman shared his gratitude to readers for their generous support.

“I love that I get to see our journalism make a difference. I love knowing that the work we do matters. Most of all, I love that it matters to you,” Billman said. “The five weeks since we launched the INDY Press Club have blown me away. Your overwhelming response has reaffirmed my belief that there’s no better place to practice journalism than here in the Triangle—and no better readers anywhere than you.”

Members can make a one-time donation of any amount or recurring payments in amounts and intervals selected by the donation. Though donors have to provide their names and contact information, they can choose to be publicly listed as members of the INDY Press Club or anonymous.

Here’s the pitch:

[Editor’s note: The Triangle area of North Carolina includes Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh.] 

As news organizations try to find the balance between business needs and editorial ones, organizations like INDYWeek are increasingly turning to readers to help support their work through membership programs. This one is off to a good start. If its success continues, it could serve as an example to other independently-owned media organizations looking toward creative solutions.

5 Streaming Video Subscriptions You Probably Have Never Heard Of

Once upon a time, Netflix was the only option for streaming video subscription services. Today, there are countless options available, some you have heard of (e.g., Hulu, CBS All Access, WWE Network), and many you haven’t. In a recent article, Consumer Reports shared a list of streaming video subscription services for you to consider. Here are five that are new to us that sound interesting to try:

Acorn TV: Available for $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, subscribers will get access to hundreds of the best British mysteries, dramas, and comedies, along with programs from Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Spain. Programs include Midsomer Murders, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Doc Martin, Delicious and Penelope Keith’s Village of the Year. The service is available on Roku, Apple TV, Android, iPhone, iPad, web and other compatible devices.

The Criterion Channel: Filling the hole left by FilmStruck when it closed up shop in November 208, the Criterion Channel offers subscribers a streaming library of 1,000+ “classic and contemporary films, plus a constantly refreshed selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films from major studios and dozens of independent distributors.” The Criterion Channel costs $10.99 a month or $99.99 a year, after a 14-day free trial.

Fubo TV: Available for $54.99, this subscription streaming video service was created for sports fans. Subscribers get live channels, including sports channels like NBA TV, the NFL Network and the Olympic Channel, as well as on-demand programming, 30 hours of cloud DVR storage, three-day replay for games. Viewing is available on a variety of devices including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, iPad and iPhone, Android Mobile and Android TV, and other compatible devices.

Philo: For $20 a month, following a seven-day free trial, subscribers get 58 channels, including A&E, AMC, BBC America, Cheddar, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, History, Lifetime, MTV, MTV Live, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Travel Channel, VH1 and Viceland. Three users can access a Philo subscription at the same time, and the service comes with a cloud DVR which lets subscribers save an unlimited number of shows for 30 days. Subscribers can view Philo via Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, web, iOS, Android TV and Android Chrome.

T-Mobile TVision Home: Available in limited markets for $90 a month, TVision has more than 154 channels including ABC, Fox, HGTV, CNBC, USA, Animal Planet, Freeform, Cheddar News, Disney and many more. In addition to live channels, the streaming subscription service offers more than 35,000 on-demand shows and movies and 400 hours of DVR recording time. Add-on packages are available.

Google’s Chrome 76 Browser Could Be Bad News for Publishers with Paywalls 

The Next Web reports that Google’s Chrome 76 browser, currently in beta and set to be released en masse on July 30, has a surprise for publishers with paywalls. Right now, publishers can block users who are browsing privately or in incognito mode to bypass paywalls and article limits from reading articles on their websites. 

A change in the new browser will make it impossible for publishers’ websites to identify a reader who is in incognito mode. Publishers may eventually find a workaround, but for now, they are likely to experience some paywall leakage. 

It is not clear why Google is making this change, but it will certainly not help it forge strong relationships with publishers.

Walmart Further Absorbs Jet into Its eCommerce Division

Two years after acquiring Jet.com, Walmart is making big changes to its relationship with Jet. In addition to more closely integrating the Walmart and Jet teams, Jet president Simon Belsham will be stepping down in August. Jet will be managed by Kieran Shanahan, who will also oversee the Food, Consumables and Health and Wellness categories for Walmart eCommerce.

“This natural progression of integrating an acquisition, allows us to fully leverage Walmart’s assets for Jet and leverage Jet’s talent for Walmart,” said Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S. in a June 12 blog post.

“Jet continues to be a very valuable brand to us, and it is playing a specific role in helping Walmart reach urban customers. The focus has largely been on NY so far, and we’re looking at other cities where we might bring together Jet’s expertise and the scale and operating model of Walmart. More to come on that,” Lore added.

5 SEO Tips to Boost Your Site’s Search Ranking

With Google changing its SEO algorithm as often as 500 times a year, getting a website noticed is critical, and to get noticed, you need to show up on the first page of search engine results. With all of Google’s changes, how can you ensure that your site will rank high to generate leads, improve conversions and boost sales? OptinMonster offers some great tips in “24 Expert SEO Tips & Advice to Boost Your Traffic in 2019” by Jacinda Santora. Here are five we like:

1. Include video as part of your marketing strategy, especially for site visitors who prefer watching video to reading text. Videos are helpful for SEO and good user engagement, says Shilpa Shah, co-founder of Hummingbird Web Solutions. To optimize them, update the title and description of older videos; ensure that you are using top quality video, graphics and images; and integrate videos into other pages of your content.
2. Create evergreen content. Timely, relevant is important, but evergreen important that doesn’t change is SEO gold. Steve Rayson, founder of BuzzSumo, said to use long-form content and use latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords that are related to your topic. Google uses this information to help determine the quality of content and relevance to search terms.
3. Improve the user experience by engaging website visitors. Provide a website that is easy to read with plenty of whitespace, headings and subheadings, chunky text, relevant links and LSI keywords. A multimedia approach with a mix of text, video, infographics, photos and other graphics also engages users.
4. Optimize for mobile-first indexing. Google now looks at the mobile version of your site as the primary site, so make your site is fully responsive.
5. Focus on content above-the-fold. This refers to the visuals, information and navigation that a site visitor can see without scrolling. It needs to be appealing to draw the visitor in.

Get the other 19 tips from OptinMonster.com.

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider’s Senior Staff Writer, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, and reports.  

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