It’s called status look it up

The fact that the local news site Bklyner is holding a subscription drive to keep the lights on for 2018 comes as no surprise these days, but two things caught my eye on this: first, a tiered subscription option (you can pay $2 or $5/month, or $60 for the full year), and second, the way they literally list the names of all current subscribers — which of course, you can get added to if you throw your hat in, too.

The list of names a small touch and probably a ton of actual work to keep updated, but as soon as I signed up, it made me feel like an educated & conscientious citizen as fuck. Which got me thinking about how supporting journalism (especially local) (and especially in 2017) has become a status symbol that many people are eager to flaunt — and you as a media brand should help them do so.

Capitalizing on this shouldn’t just be a game played by New Yorker totes and NPR bags — something as simple as ~calling subscribers by their name~ like Bklyner or the NYT’s dedicated Insta account for surfacing all of our self-important “I read the print newspaper” grams does the trick as well.

A N Y W A Y, this is all just a reminder that that reader relaysh is a two-way street. They’ll give you money & eyeballs if you make them educated & feel smart — now help them humble-brag about that commitment just a little more. Take cues from luxury brands, who literally make a business from letting people associate closely with their name in a public way, as well as nonprofits (think museums with wings named after donors) while you're at it!

(p.s. No Deez Interview today bc we’ve got a special one in the works for Monday! Stay tuned!)

Like Deez Links? Forward to your status subscription.