BINJ Celebrates Year Two with New Revenue Source on Medium

The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) has tried a host of revenue sources to fund its operations to do quality reporting on social

Subscription News: BINJ Celebrates Year Two with New Revenue Source on Medium

Source: BINJ

The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), now in its second year, has found a new revenue source on the publishing platform Medium. Earlier this year Medium added a suite of monetization tools for publishers, and BINJ is among the first small publishers to try them, said Nieman Lab’s Laura Hazard Owen.

BINJ was launched this time last year by Chris Faraone, a news editor and the author of four books. The mission of the news organization is to produce bold reporting on social justice issues and innovation in the greater Boston area. BINJ works with a variety of writers, photographers, data scientists and others and, it supports independent publications in a variety of roles. To date, BINJ has published 15 long-form features and 100 columns in four main categories (Apparent Horizon, Broken Records, Kill Shot and Free Radical).

“We like to cover the big stories that aren’t being covered,” Faraone told Neiman Lab.

To support that work, BINJ has turned to Medium as one of its early adopters of its new monetization tools. Last month Faraone made a pitch to readers to help sustain their operations with a small subscription fee.

For $3 a month, BINJ offers sustaining members:

–          First access to Throwback BINJ which connects headlines from the last 350 years of Boston media with current headlines;

–          Early content from upcoming issues of the Boston Bubble, a premium print publication focused on innovation in Massachusetts;

–          Exclusive columns and early access to expanded Medium versions of features; and

–          Invitations to special members-only events.

“We know even $3/month adds up and we will put donations to good work. In weighing the decision to back us, please consider that supporting indie media is like supporting all your favorite causes at once. All donations are tax-deductible and take just seconds to process,” said BINJ on Medium.

Subscription News: BINJ Celebrates Year Two with New Revenue Source on Medium

Source: BINJ

This new model is consistent with BINJ’s original plan at launch in June 2015, though at that time, funding was provided for The Boston Bubble:

“The old school nonprofit media model asks, ‘What can subscribers do for us?’ We have asked readers for their input, and researched the contemporary media/publishing landscape, and consumers will pay for collectibles, artistic kitsch, and tangible takeaways. With this growing trend considered, BINJ will produce a premium palm-sized quarterly on tech and innovation, The Boston Bubble, that is distributed with various perks at different donor levels.”

In his interview with Nieman Lab, Faraone said they chose Medium as their platform because Medium’s free hosting and publisher features “enabled me to do projects I just wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.” In other words, he could focus on the work itself and not on websites or publishing technology.

How’s it going so far? Faraone revealed the results in a June 29 blog post on Medium. In the first two weeks of the experiment, BINJ had picked up 23 subscribers for a total of $143 a month. The average monthly donation per person is $6.

Subscription News: BINJ Celebrates Year Two with New Revenue Source on Medium

Source: BINJ

“We anticipate that number to grow substantially over the coming weeks and months, but already it’s enough to get us excited. That’s more than $1,700 a year. For a grassroots incubator that dropped 20 features and 100-plus columns – plus organized several events in the communities we cover – in year one with the first $70,000 we raised, that’s money we can make a real impact with. And it grows into thousands every month that we can rely on…you do the math.

BINJ is still working out the kinks, including how to promote the new subscription program, but Faraone is optimistic.

“We believe that success with these memberships will be achieved over the long term, with a lot of hard work, and we are fully committed to making that happen,” Faraone said.

Prior to implementing subscriptions, BINJ was funded through a variety of sources, including selling merchandise, hosting events, crowdfunding and applying for foundation grants and other funds.

“We’re trying anything and everything to keep our operation grinding, which is why we were so thrilled when Medium came along,” said Faraone.

Insider Take:

Nonprofit journalism is truly a labor of love. Founders, creators and producers of nonprofit journalism have to be willing to forego sustainable revenue and a steady paycheck in exchange for focusing on quality work that’s important and necessary for the greater good. BINJ is a good example of a fledgling organization that’s tried a variety of revenue sources, and it has finally decided to try the membership model.

This is an exciting opportunity for BINJ. Presuming the quality of the work remains the same, the key to BINJ’s success with the membership model will be the marketing and promotion of the new program followed by customer retention. It is hard to juggle all of those functions at once – writing, editing, reporting, business management, subscription and membership management – but it can be done with the right team and business plan in place.

We hope this opportunity that Medium has created for publishers of all sizes is successful, particularly for early adopters like BINJ who are banking on its success. This publishing platform is a great place for publishers to focus on their work, leaving the technology side to others. If BINJ makes this work, they can serve as a positive example for other publishers to follow.

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