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Membership 101
Membership 101
1. Is membership for me?
2. Making the case
3. Setting objectives
4. Designing your program
5. Integrating membership
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Membership 101

This five-part course is designed for newsrooms who are considering launching a membership program, or who already have one but want to make sure they have the fundamentals in place.
Led by Ariel Zirulnick of the
Membership Puzzle Project
⁠
, Membership 101 is a mix of practical advice and guest speakers on the cutting edge of membership globally. The program is produced by RevLab at The Texas Tribune in partnership with the
Lenfest News Philanthropy Network
⁠
.

What’s in this course?

This entry-level program helps newsrooms develop membership programs tailored to their mission, audience and resources. This course is intended for news publishers that have no membership program but are considering applying staff and/or financial resources to building one.
Participants will leave this five-week program with the following outcomes:
An understanding of whether they’re ready to launch a membership program
An understanding of how to find out what their audience members want in a membership program
A framework for identifying their membership value proposition
An understanding of how to design and implement memberful routines
A framework for designing a resonant membership program
An understanding of the tech, staff, and costs associated with maintaining a membership program

The five sessions in this course are:

⁠
Is membership right for me?
⁠
⁠
⁠
Making the case for membership to your potential member
⁠
⁠
⁠
Setting objectives and developing memberful routines
⁠
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⁠
Designing your membership program
⁠
⁠
⁠
Integrating membership into your organization
⁠
⁠

🎶 Course Playlist

The
“Memberful Routines”
⁠
Spotify playlist was created for this course. Enjoy!

About this program

This free course was developed and produced by:
Membership Puzzle Project
The
Membership Puzzle Project
⁠
is a global public research project studying how to optimize news organizations for trust through membership. Led by New York University Professor Jay Rosen, it began at NYU in 2017 and is now housed at the
Media Development Investment Fund.
⁠
The Lenfest News Philanthropy Network
The Lenfest News Philanthropy Network is a community of practice designed to support and build capacity for fundraising and development professionals in journalism.
The Lenfest Institute
⁠
is a non-profit organization whose sole mission is to develop and support sustainable business models for great local journalism.
RevLab at The Texas Tribune
Revenue Lab is a training and research center that helps newsrooms expand their revenue-generating capacities. Funded in part by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project, RevLab leverages lessons from The Texas Tribune’s revenue playbook, along with best practices from other innovative nonprofit and for-profit news organizations, to offer free courses and consulting.
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