The Arizona Republic has found success killing “zombie” readers. How can other newsrooms do the same?
Half of The Arizona Republic’s cancellations each month came from digital subscribers who never visited the site. This is how we turned them into loyalists: • Zombies aren’t coming to you. Find them on their preferred platforms, like Instagram or Reddit. Optimize your writing for those platforms.
• Zombies aren’t brainless. Clickbait is never an option. Be strategic about topic, headlines, photos, writing style and even beats. Meaningful promotion is paramount. The most successful zombie-killing stories have strong news elements combined with a unique local spin, a strong human element, or a format that grabbed readers’ attention quickly.
• Be honest with yourself. You, like everyone else, have a zombie problem. How are you dealing with it?
John Adams is senior director of digital storytelling and strategy at The Arizona Republic. Alia Beard Rau is the senior news editor at the Salem Statesman Journal and a former news editor with The Arizona Republic. To learn more about killing “zombies,” visit bit.ly/3dxon6d.