Revenue Development Program FAQ

What is the revenue development program?

This is not another lab, bootcamp or accelerator. The Revenue Development Program (RDP) helps you optimize Newspack tools to meet your business goals.

It includes several key components:

• An audit to assess your current standing on the path to a thriving business model
• Coaching to identify your top business priorities and provide guidance on how to achieve them
• Assistance configuring Newspack to support your business objectives
• Guidance for identifying and tracking key metrics to measure impact and maintain momentum
• Peer learning opportunities to collaborate and overcome challenges together

The RDP offers four specialized tracks to act as powerful launchpads for your success, each focusing on a key revenue stream:

• Newsletters Track: This track dives deep into building and monetizing a loyal and engaged email audience. It covers subscriber growth, crafting compelling newsletters that convert readers, and exploring strategies for integrating advertising and sponsorships within your newsletters.
• Reader Revenue Track: This track focuses on strategies for generating direct revenue from your readers. It explores various reader revenue models, like memberships, subscriptions, and paywalls, and teaches you how to implement them effectively.
• Advertising/Sponsorships Track: This track equips you to attract and manage advertising and sponsorship opportunities. You’ll learn how to craft winning sales pitches, develop targeted advertising packages, and maximize your ad revenue potential.
• Access Control Track: This track focuses on aligning your content access strategy with your business goals. It covers how to use paywalls, registration walls, metering, group access, and gate management intentionally, and teaches you how to optimize conversion pathways from reader to supporter using Newspack’s built-in tools.

The best track for you depends on your individual situation and business case. We will assess this during the program application process where you can also indicate your preference. Our goal is to match you with the track that will have the most significant impact on your revenue growth.

Regardless of which track you’re in, we kick things off with an intensive six-week sprint teaching you how to leverage Newspack for maximum audience and revenue growth. You’ll also build a valuable network by connecting with other publishers facing similar challenges. You can share ideas and keep supporting each other even after the sprint concludes. Finally, we’ll ensure you stay on track for a year after your start date with quarterly check-ins. 

How will this program help you?

The RDP provides the tools and education needed to gain a deeper understanding of effective revenue and audience development strategies crucial for your organization’s long-term sustainability. Here’s what you’ll get:

• Actionable insights: Learn proven strategies, good practices, and real-world examples from industry experts.
• Hands-on guidance and training: Learn how to use Newspack tools to grow newsletter subscribers and streamline your newsletter production.
• Personalized coaching: In one-on-one sessions, our experts help you develop and implement strategies specifically for your business needs, and show you how to get the most out of Newspack. You’ll walk away with a custom setup that’s optimized to drive results long term.
• Free access to the Newspack Data Dashboard: Track the impact of your newsletter optimization strategies and see how your success is growing.
• Powerful planning and tracking tools: Gain access to the Scorecard and Goal Getter — resources to help you establish a baseline for your current performance, track your progress over time, and plan your initiatives effectively for maximum impact.
• Peer-to-peer support: Join a community of publishers on the same journey. Gain valuable insights, share challenges, and celebrate wins together.
• Continuous improvement: Develop a roadmap for ongoing improvements and check in with our team throughout the year to keep you on track.

What sets our program apart?

Focus on actionable takeaways and outcomes: We go beyond theory. Our program dives deep into optimizing your use of Newspack tools and features. Together, we identify growth opportunities and develop a customized plan with actionable steps you can implement immediately. This isn’t a generic workshop; it’s tailored to your unique needs and goals.

Expert coaching and support: You’re not alone. Our team of coaches and Newspack specialists work closely with you throughout the program and provide ongoing support to ensure you achieve measurable results.

Where does funding for the program come from?

With financial backing from the Knight Foundation, the Lenfest Institute created the Local News Infrastructure Fund to support technology services that help local news organizations engage their audiences and develop digital revenue streams. Newspack received $5 million from the fund, which will subsidize the initial costs for news organizations switching to Newspack and consulting for use of revenue and audience growth tools. This funding enables Newspack to offer the RDP to participants for free.

Is the program open to all Newspack publishers?

The program is currently restricted to US-based publishers (a condition of the grant) but otherwise most Newspack publishers are eligible.

Are there prerequisites or qualifications required to join?

For publishers applying to the program, we consider a few criteria to ensure the best fit and learning experience. These criteria may evolve over time to accommodate a wider range of publishers.

You may be a good candidate for the newsletters track if you:

• Produce and send at least one newsletter
• Have a low number of newsletter subscribers, low signup conversion rates, and few active prompts
• Use Newspack Newsletters or are interested in using the tool
• Use Mailchimp or Active Campaign as your Email Service Provider (ESP)

You may be a good candidate for the reader revenue track if you:

• Generate reader revenue through donations, subscriptions, or membership fees 
• Have a low number of financial contributors, low reader revenue conversion rates, and few active prompts
• Use Newspack as your reader revenue platform

You may be a good candidate for the advertising track if you:

• Sell ads or sponsorships, or are planning to start
• Use Google Ad Manager (GAM) or Broadstreet as your ad platform
• Want to improve ad performance, optimize pricing, or streamline your ad operations

What’s required in terms of time and engagement?

Time commitment: About five hours per week to engage in hands-on learning and implementation, including a two-hour weekly group programming session and individual sessions tailored to your organization’s needs.

Open-mindedness and collaborative spirit: We’re seeking participants who are ready to actively engage and contribute to the program’s success. 

How will success be measured?

After assessing your goals, data, and current configurations, we’ll work together to create a business plan aimed at achieving significant growth in your track, whether it’s expanding your newsletter list, boosting reader revenue, or increasing advertising/sponsorship income. We’ll set key metrics and targets based on your current performance and industry benchmarks. We will track progress on these throughout the six week sprint, as well as quarterly after the sprint ends for the remainder of the year. 

What happens after the six-week sprint ends?

At the end of the six-week sprint, you’ll have a website finely tuned to match a business strategy aimed at driving growth in your specific track area. The strategies and configurations implemented during the sprint will continue to yield benefits in the weeks and months ahead. We’ll make sure you can implement more of what you’ve learned by creating a plan to make further improvements, test hypotheses, and run experiments to accelerate growth.