Want to make your journalism more memberful? Practical tips on how to involve supporters in your work

In late 2019, the Membership Puzzle Project reported on newsrooms around the world that are working in dramatically different ways from their peers. They have memberful routines that incorporate community members’ knowledge and produce recognizable, revenue-generating impact for their news organizations. An example of a memberful way of working is maintaining a database of members and their expertise that is routinely tapped to provide technical proofreading of articles and investigations: it might take time, but it also adds value. That value includes the added “stickiness” of the member who is consulted about things that member knows a lot about.

In this session you’ll learn about the associated workflows, staffing, technology, and effects of these methods from Miriam Wells, impact editor The Bureau of Investigative Journalism; Dr. Julie Posetti, global director of research for the International Center for Journalists; and Nabeelah Shabbir, conversation editor at The Correspondent. This conversation will be moderated by Emily Goligoski, former research director at the Membership Puzzle Project, who now leads audience research at The Atlantic. We will discuss key practices in each of these phases:

Planning stages (for example audience listening)

Research and reporting (co-reporting, offering reporting tips or source assistance)

Editing and fact-checking (proofreading a draft)

Post-publication (helping distribute a work of journalism to the people who really need it)