Medill Spiegel Research Center

Our research teams at Northwestern have come up with a fascinating new tool to analyze local news engagement- check it out!

Medill Launches Groundbreaking Subscriber Engagement Tool Northwestern University has launched the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, a tool that allows local news organizations to see what content encourages subscribers to stick around and lets publishers benchmark their performance against outlets in comparable markets.

The Medill Local News Initiative is launching a three-part series featuring student videos that explore new approaches to local news in the Midwest.
https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2021/06/21/student-videos-1/index.html

How Creative Thinkers Are Reinventing Local News in the Midwest An Ohio news outlet that’s owned by the readers it serves. A start-up newsletter for Iowa’s Black residents. A student-reported website bringing information to a “news desert” in Kansas. And a digital-only Ohio newsroom modeling “solutions journalism.”

How to respond to a bad review? Our research on the impact of is cited!

https://www.pacific54.com/blog/how-to-respond-to-a-bad-review/

Medill Spiegel Research Center

How to Respond to a Bad Review Responding to reviews can be a challenge. Read our blog to find out how to respond to a bad review from unhappy customers.

How local news outlets shifted to virtual events...a story from the Medill Local News Initiative.

https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2021/05/04/events-in-the-pandemic/index.html

New Northwestern University Medill School Medill Spiegel Research Center research shows that 49% of digital to are "zombies" who very rarely visit the site.

Nearly Half of Digital Subscribers Are ‘Zombies,’ Medill Analysis Finds Nearly half of local news outlets’ digital subscribers are “zombie” readers who visit the website less than once a month, according to a data analysis in 45 markets by Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center.

‘You Need a Culture That Thrives in Chaos’ In an interview with the Medill Local News Initiative, Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK’s new chief Mayur Gupta discusses the news chain’s emphasis on , the need to operate amid , and the value of bringing in experts with non-journalistic backgrounds.

Gannett’s Gupta: ‘You Need a Culture That Thrives in Chaos’ Mayur Gupta, a former executive with Spotify and Freshly, joined the Gannett USA Today Network in September as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. He holds this crucial role at a key time for Gannett, which merged with GateHouse in November 2019 to form the nation’s largest newspaper chain.

America’s Newspapers has announced a strategic partnership with Medill and Mather Economics on a new benchmarking project for its members. The Medill Subscriber Engagement Index offers members the opportunity to develop game-changing, data-driven reader revenue and engagement trends at their fingertips.

America's Newspapers partners with Medill and Mather on Subscriber Engagement Index project America’s Newspapers has announced a strategic partnership with Medill and Mather Economics on a new benchmarking project for its members. The Medill Subscriber Engagement Index offers members the opportunity to develop game-changing, data-driven reader revenue and engagement trends at their finge...

The likelihood that a consumer will buy a product that has five reviews is 270% higher than the likelihood they will buy a product with zero reviews, according to a 2017 report by Northwestern University's Spiegel Research Center.

So, it's no surprise that scammers are sending unordered items to create tracking numbers that enable the creation of a fake review!

https://abc11.com/society/got-a-package-you-didnt-order-it-could-be-a-scam/9937597/

Got a package you didn't order? It could be a scam We all need to be concerned about the scams affecting reviews we rely on when buying products.

We had NO idea that there was a publication called BedTimes, "The Business Journal for the Sleep Products Industry" but there is and it recently featured Medill Spiegel Research Center findings that "...more than 90% of people read reviews before making a purchase decision, particularly for big-ticket items."!

Consider this the next time you are buying a .

Consumers Give Online Reviews 3 Stars » BedTimes Magazine Mattress buyers are less reliant on such reviews than...

Here's a new Medill Local News Initiative story about the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America. It was written by Medill grad Hannah Farrow.

The digital-only rural news source faces a unique challenge: how to unify a variety of rural readers without pigeonholing them into one category, all while growing readership and seeking policy change.

Daily Yonder Seeks to Cover Rural America Without Stereotyping It Farms, factories, vacation towns — rural can mean a variety of things. And in the midst of a pandemic, during presidential elections and as people live their daily lives, the Daily Yonder aims to cover it all.

Great addition to our Northwestern University Medill School Medill Local News Initiative and Medill Spiegel Research Center

‘News Deserts’ Expert Penny Abernathy Joins Medill as Visiting Professor Penny Abernathy, whose groundbreaking research has shown the growth of the nation’s “news deserts,” will become a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

The pandemic and other major news events have helped boost digital subscriptions dramatically at local news outlets in 2020, with a new industry analysis putting the overall increase at about 50% in a year’s time. What will 2021 look like?

Local News Outlets Boost Digital Subscriptions by About 50% in a Year The pandemic and other major news events have helped boost digital subscriptions dramatically at local news outlets in 2020, with a new industry analysis putting the overall increase at about 50% in a year’s time.