which turn an activity traditionally done alone into a collective moment, reflects our need for community. Riding this trend, some media outlets are now inviting their subscribers to become full-fledged members by joining clubs. By choosing to subscribe to these offers, which vary in cost, you can join a community and enjoy benefits like discounts on certain products or exclusive access to content.
This strategy can strengthen or build trust with readers who feel included in the project. According to the latest Reuters Institute report, 65% of respondents say that fair representation in a media outlet is a trust factor. Including citizens in the editorial and/or decision-making process allows them to be active participants and to be directly represented in these institutions.
Beyond involving the community in projects within the media outlet, clubs can sometimes offer more surprising perks, often in the form of services related to their themes. The American travel publication Prior chooses to offer its services to its members. For $2,750 per year, the magazine's team creates personalized itineraries for your trips and gives you access to their address lists.
Some specialized media prefer to offer their members the opportunity to attend conferences related to their field. Philosophie magazine regularly hosts meetings with a philosopher that subscribers can attend in person or remotely. The American media outlet Puck, focused on power dynamics in the United States, enables each quarter its members to discuss with experts from the sectors of power covered by the editorial team.
Join the editorial project
Beyond exclusive perks, these clubs often aim to involve readers in the editorial project. Vert, an online media outlet covering ecology, launched in June 2023 an offer that allows regular donors to enjoy "happy hour" moments with the team to discuss the future of the media together.
For three years, the magazine Chut !, which specializes in digital issues, has been inviting its readers to join an "editorial" club for €170 per year. Its members receive four issues per year and have access to the online version, but more importantly, they can participate in four writing workshops per year.
During these two-hour meetings, participants work together to develop a collaborative op-ed that will be published in the next issue of the magazine. The editorial team previously identified a topic idea and sent it to members. The creation of this club notably enabled some loyal readers to get involved. "The members of this club are people who were already quite close to us and who found it quite natural to commit, analyzes Sophie Comte, co-founder of the magazine, they have already participated in campaigns and write to us."
In March, the Chut! team decided to launch a new membership club to mark the release of their issue on women's place in the digital space. "It's a richer club", explains Sophie Comte. For €490 per year, members participate in editorial conferences for the collaborative platform as well as four in-person events. They also have access to a Discord channel that acts as a "network" where members, like the editorial team, can share resources and knowledge. Among the roughly twenty members, many work in the digital sector.
Some companies can also join the various clubs offered by the magazine. By specializing in a specific field, clubs can target experts and companies more directly. The "club of good ancestors" of Usbek et Rica, a publication focused on the future, offers its members the opportunity to participate quarterly in discussions with the media team, to publish opinion pieces, and to benefit from ten subscriptions for their colleagues as well as invitations to all of the magazine's events. All of these benefits come at a cost: €12,500 (excl. VAT) per year.
Have a say in major decisions
If members can be involved in the editorial process, they can also have decision-making power. "The Green Club", made up of donors, was for example surveyed by the editorial team when it was considering the relevance of a partnership with Konbini. 80% of its members had approved this choice, allowing the editorial team to implement it with the support of its community. The media thus takes the pulse before making major decisions and avoids going down the wrong path.
Across the Channel, the Bristol Cable, an independent local media outlet, allows its subscribers, from £1 per month, to vote at their annual general assembly since 2014. Readers have a say on major operational decisions such as "should we apply for a grant from Google?".
During their fundraising campaign last summer, other membership options were offered to subscribers giving them additional benefits. For £5 per month, the newspaper is delivered to your home, and for £10 members also receive discounts on events organized by the newspaper.
Finally, Patron members, who give £1,000 per year or more, receive exclusive content: an annual impact report on work funded by their contribution, a selection of limited-edition merch created by local artists, and a fully back-dated archive of the Bristol Cable in print. The newspaper, which aims to be entirely funded by its members, is currently funded 35% by membership and has 2,600 subscribers including 15 Patron members.
Carrying your values
Building a concrete connection with their community of readers allows these media outlets to reinforce the values that define their identity. For many independent media outlets, transparency and a commitment to more accessible journalism are the drivers of their editorial line. These clubs are a way to embody these values concretely. "They allow us to convey our messages in ways other than through a magazine – even though that's already very good – but to go even further in our commitments, in what we advocate for, and we can do this through events," says Sophie Comte.
These media outlets are also creating new models that people want to invest in, ones that are more inclusive and further removed from Big Tech. "From my experience, most people genuinely love Cable, but rather than being part of the 'Cable community', they simply want to support something they see as a good idea and get benefits from it," explains Eliz Mizon, strategy lead at Bristol Cable.
Club offerings also allow independent media outlets to justify higher subscription prices without sacrificing profits. « It's still more profitable, for an independent media company, to sell clubs rather than subscriptions or individual magazines », admits Sophie Comte.
This member logic can also become a perk during fundraising and encourage donors to give more. The first Chut ! club was created during a donation campaign on KissKissBankBank. The various subscription offers are also perks of the current annual membership campaign of the Bristol Cable which aims to raise its revenues to £175,000 per year.
By being highly engaged at the media level, members also become good spokespersons to promote it. "They are Chut! ambassadors who talk about us, introduce us, and share content on their networks, says Sophie Comte, so it grows the community, these are investments we don't have to make elsewhere by buying ads on Meta for example. " Like the "gift articles" feature, clubs result from organic strategies that don't depend on social media communication. They therefore suffer less from the drop in traffic from these platforms.
To go further:
- The latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute.
- Why do we see so few independent press titles in our libraries and media centers? Interview with Sébastien Marchalot, founder of Bibliopresse.
- Expanding a community as an independent media outlet is challenging. Without spending significant logistical and financial resources, partnerships and recommendations between media outlets make it possible to reach new communities, often more engaged ones. Learning from the experience of Voxe and Vert media.
