FTM’s Jan-Willem Sanders on how to use newsletters to grow a significant subscriber base

The Loop is a Journalism Value Project podcast, brought to you by Reference, a self-organized network of 26 European independent news outlets, hosted by Arena for Journalism.We are interviewing the members of this network about key challenges for them, ranging from funding and business models, to community engagement and organizational structures, as we explore what success and sustainability looks like for European independent media today.On today’s episode, we talk to Jan-Willem Sanders, the publisher of Follow the Money, an investigative news outlet based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. FTM is mainly funded by its readers, and focuses on long-term, deep-dive investigations with impact that make change. It publishes stories about the political and financial decision makers and also investigates hidden forces such as lobby groups.In this interview, we talk about the business model of Follow the Money: how it combines its newsletter, a paywall and an app to convert its readers into subscribers. How does it keep its readers engaged with story pitches, and how do they prevent churn? We will also explore topics such as pricing, and how did they design their on-boarding process?Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.