Product Innovation in Live, Virtual Events at the Wall Street Journal, Pinterest and Discord

May 14, 2021

I do wonder as things re-open in certain parts of the world whether people longing for human contact will flock to live events and virtual events start to wane in popularity, but full openness and travel will take time so I am sure that virtual events will still play a role. And with growing awareness about the environmental impact of travel, I think some events will remain virtual. This is all to say that platforms and publishers are working to fine-tune their virtual event strategy including the Wall Street Journal, Pinterest and even Discord.

Plus, Substack has bought a community management team, and media trainer and Adam Tinworth looks at what that might mean. Reach's Chief Audience Officer David Higgerson talks about what is driving their 32% increase in page views. Newsletters play an important role.

WSJ's Virtual Event Growth 'Too Good' to Let Go

One of the Wall Street Journal’s newer projects is the Live Journalism team; a group of journalists who build agendas and source guests for the publisher’s events. They operate with a start-up mentality inside the well-oiled machine of the Journal’s newsroom. The Live Journalism team, like events professionals all around the world, had to swiftly …

Kim Last, The Wall Street Journal’s Editor of Live Journalism and Special Content says: "My colleagues are really thinking deeply about the networking experience in all of this. We’re finding ways for people to find connections if they happen to have an interest in a shared area, or shared industry."

Substack Buys Community Management Team

The VC-backed newsletter firm has acquired community management consultants People & Company

My friend and incredible digital consultant and trainer Adam Tinworth looks at Substack adding community management expertise to its business. "Why, you might reasonably ask, does a newsletter platform care about community management? Simple: one great way to retain subscribers is make them feel part of a community."

The Three Keys to Reach's Digital Audience Growth

Reach plc, the largest commercial national and regional news publisher in the UK, has one of the biggest monthly multi-platform audiences in the UK and over 6 million registered customers. Like most publishers, the company’s online portfolio (70+ news websites) saw a spike in traffic following the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. However, the …

"David Higgerson, Chief Audience Officer at Reach, puts the growth down to a renewed focus on data, CRM and newsletters." Newsletter readers visit their sites 30% more than the average reader.

Knight to Support AI Projects for News Biz

A new, $3 million Knight initiative will help local news organizations harness the power of artificial intelligence to drive success.…

"Knight Foundation has long supported the acceleration of digital transformations and the smart application of technology in the news industry. At many national news organizations, AI is beginning to drive success on the operations side and in the newsroom — from enabling the use of data to increase subscriptions and serve more relevant content, to automating certain kinds of news production to reduce costs."

Apple Podcast Subscriber Service Remakes Podcast Ecosystem

Creators will now have the option to require a payment for audiences to access their content on Apple’s platform Back in 2005, an ebullient Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs announced the integration of podcasting into Version 4.9 of its desktop iTunes software, calling podcasting “TiVo for radio.” Sixteen years later, during its April 20, 2021, “Spring Loaded” …

"For the first time, Apple will also be storing audio files on its servers, making it a first-party podcast host, and likely stealing some business from the remaining independent third-party podcast-hosting providers that also offer premium podcast services, such as Libsyn and Blubrry."

Discord Launches Live Audio Event Discovery

If you’re new to Discord, you might be thrown off by the lack of an endless feed peppered with ads. On Discord, all of the action happens in interest-specific servers, and the company wants to make it easier for anyone to stumble across and plunge into those communities. The company launched Stage Channels, its own […]

"The company launched Stage Channels, its own Clubhouse-like voice event rooms, in late March. With those building blocks in place, in June Discord will start surfacing events (think open mic nights, book clubs, etc.) through a new portal called Stage Discovery, adding a way for anybody to connect with the cool communities in the process."

Pinterest to Get Into the Virtual Event Business

Pinterest is expanding into live events. The company is planning to host a three-day virtual event that will feature livestreamed sessions from top creators, including big names like Jonathan Van Ness and Rebecca Minkoff, among others. The virtual event will run inside the Pinterest app from May 24th through May 25th, and will serve as […]

TechCrunch puts it down to the rise of the creator economy and the "pandemic-fueled demand for virtual events".