I want to use this column as a different form of communication with our readers, subscribers and advertisers. The end of a year is an opportunity to take stock. Bear with mine.
I’ve held a number of challenging jobs at a number of challenging times – running CTV News on 9/11, hosting lots of live CBC Newsworld shows in the earlier Gulf War, helping to start the National Post with the odds stacked against us, even running for Vancouver mayor against all likelihood. But if my situation is anything like yours, we can find consensus about the coronavirus as unlike anything we’ve confronted. Even after four decades in journalism, even after BIV had built its business over three decades, most everything felt like sweating through an internship at a startup in a mercurial market. My bosses chose quite the year to make me publisher, but like a lot of you, I actually like my job more than I did pre-pandemic.
We had to learn vast amounts of science and struggle with vast amounts of economics. We turned the words pivot and resilience into clichés. Those of us on the fence about it decided we could proceed with swearing about the circumstances.
Our relationships swivelled.
There were plenty of clients who feared for their plights and had to change their plans with us. We didn’t hold anyone to earlier commitments because we didn’t feel it was fair in this environment. The context of our lives and livelihoods had been altered, so best-laid plans became waylaid plans. It came at a significant cost to us, just as the grand disruption did for many others.
There were also clients who feared for our plight and either stayed with their arrangements or surfaced with offers of help. We were particularly grateful, for instance, when we could (ahem) pivot most of our 30-plus in-person events into a combination of video podcasts and print and digital advertising. It meant that, with people at home, they had a regular supply of expert business content. We had been podcasting for years, but those podcasts took on new importance in the pandemic in offering insights and gauges on how our economy fared.
We had to recognize that, for some, we would lose and might never regain business. We also expect some will try to forge their own audience relationships and either move out of advertising or choose other vehicles to market themselves. Our natural bias is to note, with evidence, that we are the best way to reach decision-makers each day in this market. What we do isn’t done by others, nor is our audience reached by others, and I can only hope that in time that will become more obvious.
Which leads into another obvious area that has become much more of an imperative in the months and years ahead if we are to get not just through the pandemic but also through the next number of decades. Our trusted and valued journalism cannot sustain, much less develop, if it is consumed freely online.
We are unusual as a business journalism organization, in that all but a very slight amount of our journalism (our weekly lists) eventually finds its way on to our website as free content. We don’t ask for funds or, for that matter, even information about you in order to provide it. This isn’t the case almost anywhere else in business journalism.
Having been around this free-versus-paid debate in journalism for about a quarter-century now, it bears reminding that decisions to reach the widest audience without any kind of barrier were made with the expectation that advertising revenue would support the model. In many cases, it can quite well; in ours, not so well.
Without burdening you with details, our print and digital publications each provide different platforms and attract different audiences. We wouldn’t want to lose either, and we know you wouldn’t. While we need to change this to bring more subscription revenue into BIV, it would also be unfair to try to migrate only what we have been giving freely into a for-payment model. So, at year’s end, a bit of a heads-up: Before long we’ll be bringing forward a combination of gated and limited online access (you’ll be asked to register), an introductory subscription offer, and a loyalty program that will offer you additional benefits with businesses in our market. We’re at work on it now. Many of you provided direct support to us during this time, and you aren’t forgotten – you’ll be getting a break on the new initiative.
Our aim out of this is to improve our service to the community, uncover stories that matter to our audience, and we will best do this with your support.
Stay well and safe. Let’s not have this happen again, right? •
Kirk LaPointe is publisher and editor-in-chief of BIV and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media
