Frontier Myanmar: membership
In 2019, Splice helped Frontier Myanmar create a membership program.
The problem to solve: We needed to diversify the business away from an ad-driven model to safeguard Frontier’s editorial independence.
In November 2018, Splice co-wrote an application to Google News Initiative to raise funding for this project. Frontier was granted $100,000 to execute the plan, with Splice as consultants.
— Alan Soon & Rishad Patel
Frontier 2.0:
A shift to a membership model
The background
Under the civilian government that took power in 2016, the political climate in Myanmar has deteriorated. This affects the ability of media outlets to cover topics central to the democratic transition, while limiting the voices of marginalised communities.
At the same time, Myanmar’s media industry is going through significant economic upheaval. Unable to rely on advertising revenue or high circulations, organisations including Frontier are struggling to survive. This affects their ability to resist external pressure from the government, commercial partners and readers, and maintain editorial independence.
Frontier is a rare source of quality, responsible journalism in a highly polarised market. As its revenue sources are squeezed, its core readers including diplomats, journalists, NGOs, academics, and businesses risk losing a vital source of reliable information. This would threaten their work and, more broadly, Myanmar’s transition to democracy.
The problem to be solved
We approached Frontier with a plan to diversify the business from an ad-driven model by adding membership components as a safeguard for editorial independence.
We expect that by putting the audience first through an approach-based on solving problems specific to them, and building engagement through events, Frontier could rely less on state-linked advertisers, and on Facebook as a driver of discovery and consumption.
Ultimately, if this pivot is successful, memberships will enable Frontier to keep its reporting accessible and free. We, like many of Frontier’s readers, believe that this is vital at this important stage of media development in Myanmar.
We also plan to extend the learnings from this project to other news organisations trying to carve a new path forward. We will create case studies and toolkits that will provide a sustainable model for other news organisations to follow.
In November 2018, Splice co-wrote an application to Google News Initiative to raise funding for this project. Frontier was granted $100,000 to execute the plan, with Splice as consultants.
In Q1 2020, after a year of testing and iterations, Frontier’s membership platform was running with its first products. Revenue generated so far from memberships has already surpassed that of advertising — a timely pivot just weeks ahead of Covid-19. More product launches under the memberships umbrella are planned in the year ahead.
Project overview, products, and objectives
The project involves creating new products and a re-branding of Frontier as a membership-based news organization. Splice repositioned Frontier with the statement:
“We are building a community based on independent journalism in Myanmar. Join us.”
User personas
Our target users are diplomats, journalists, NGOs, academics, and businesses. The assumptions were based on the idea that
they are Frontier’s core readers,
they speak English, Frontier’s main language of publication, and
they all champion political change in Myanmar.
New products launched
SEPTEMBER 2019
Frontier Media Monitor, a daily round-up of the front-page headlines in Myanmar-language newspapers and online media, with translations of a selection of the top stories,
Frontier Daily Briefing, featuring everything you need to know about current affairs in Myanmar
OCTOBER 2019
Media monitoring service translating and analysing the major stories of the day as reported in Myanmar-language publications
Monthly networking opportunities to connect members (so far, two of these meetings have happened, and are currently suspended due to Covid-19)
FEBRUARY 2020
Membership platform to sell memberships to existing and new users who want to support the Frontier stated mission to build a community to support independent journalism in Myanmar.
New products launching in Q3 2020
Newswire service or newsletter covering parliamentary proceedings, roundups, agendas
Website redesign to
enable better discovery, readership, navigation, and presentation of Frontier’s original reporting,
sell Frontier memberships and subscriptions, and
build a platform to distribute new media products as they launch
New products planned over the next year
Occasional guest newsletters explaining timely, specific issues, and questions from members
Talks, discussions, and workshops on policy issues in collaboration with financial, legal institutions, business chambers, NGOs (Paid, sponsored, free for members)
Closed-door meetings with newsmakers
Discounts or free tickets to Frontier or partner events
Datasets and reports providing quantitative insights into the economy, eg. changes in the transportation or construction industries
Next steps
The Frontier membership platform is up and running, and revenue generated from memberships has already surpassed that of advertising.
In the 3 months from February to April 2020, Frontier’s membership revenue was $51,575. This compares with the $40,000 booked as advertising revenue for Q4 2019.
As of September 2020, the program has
over 356 individual members
5 large institutional members (total 60 members) paying $7,500
19 small institutional members (total 73 members) paying $13,140
551 total membership headcount
4,420 total membership community
Future plans for this program could include
Launching and testing more media products as new opportunities, markets, and user needs emerge
Roadmapping current user lifetime value
Introducing a user referral and rewards program
Building out a diversified product offering that could include consulting, event, and studio services.
What we have learned
At Splice, this project taught us many lessons, tested many assumptions, and undid many myths. Here are a few examples.
Journalists should have a seat at the business table. When journalists are able to understand how and why a business works, they are able to make better decisions about their workflow, newsroom, and bottom line. The Frontier editorial leadership went through a real transformation on this front.
Newsrooms that focus on the users of their products are better newsrooms. Keeping the user at the heart of everything you produce, from newsgathering, content processing, publication, distribution, amplification, testing, feedback, and iteration, makes for a more responsive, customer-oriented mindset. The Frontier staff — from almost every department — has begun to make the shift to this mindset, a profound change from when we started.
Test assumptions with your users. Then test again. When we first went into the Frontier newsroom, we knew the user personas that made up the core Frontier audience: diplomats, NGOs, journalists, businesspeople, and academics. We had all kinds of plans for the brand-new membership platform we were going to launch; it included exciting, edgy media products and member benefits, like Slack channels and conference calls.
But the people in the focus groups we ran all vetoed these — ”not another conference call!” — and said “Frontier is known for its investigative reporting. We want more of that. What about having a drink together every week or so where we hear Frontier journos talk about what happened behind the scenes of their reporting?” An idea was born: Frontier Fridays, an informal, paid event where the staff and readers would have a drink together after a presentation by a few Frontier journalists would make a presentation on how they did a particular story, followed by a discussion. The Frontier memberships team has assiduously tested products with their audiences over and over again, from pricing and newsletter voice to length, design, detailing, and frequency. This is paying off.Finding the right website developer is hard. This took a long time, but not for the reasons we thought. Price, skills, and tech matter, but finding a front-end developer with the right sensibility, work ethic, and workflow fit proved to be the biggest challenge. We’re extremely happy with our decisions so far.
Splice also plans to extend the lessons from this project to other news organisations trying to carve a new path forward, given the current frailties of the news media business in an advertising-driven, Facebook-centric market, the lack of user-centricity and product thinking, and the inevitable toll of Covid-19.
We are in the process of creating communities, case studies, and toolkits that will provide a replicable, scalable, and sustainable model for other news organisations to follow.
