Jeff Sonderman

Deputy Executive Director and Executive Vice President

Jeff Sonderman is the deputy executive director of the American Press Institute, helping to lead its use of research, tools, events, and strategic insights to advance and sustain journalism.

He is a leader in helping modern journalism thrive through the right blend of technology, audience engagement, data-driven content strategy, integrated business models, and transformative leadership. He has worked as a writer, editor, manager, coach, trainer, speaker, and consultant with diverse types of news publishers across the country.

He is the architect and developer of API’s Metrics for News analytics software that reinvents how publishers use data to inform content strategy. He also edits API’s Need to Know newsletter, a uniquely designed resource for spreading fresh, useful insights across the industry, and designed API’s Strategy Studies research format for in-depth strategic guidance. And he consults with publishers on a range of issues related to content strategy, organizational transformation, audience development, newsroom structure and workflows, product management, and much more.

He has taught digital journalism at Georgetown University. Before joining the American Press Institute in 2013, he was the digital media fellow of The Poynter Institute. His earlier journalism background includes digital news — helping to launch TBD.com, a local digital news startup in Washington, D.C. — and various roles in newspapers, as an award-winning reporter, online editor and metro editor of The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa.

He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism and resides in Falls Church, Va., with his wife and daughter.

Email Jeff at jeff.sonderman@pressinstitute.org or follow him @jeffsonderman.

By Jeff Sonderman and Gwen Vargo

What news publishers do to retain subscribers

As the future of the news focuses more on reader revenue as its economic model, retention of subscribers and members is becoming more critical. It is one thing to get users to subscribe, particularly with discounted introductory offers. It becomes essential to keep those consumers. To continue growing net revenue, publishers need help to evaluate […]
By Jeff Sonderman and Gwen Vargo

31 effective subscriber-retention ideas to steal

We asked news publishers to answer, in their own words, these two questions: Is there anything you have changed or implemented recently that made a measurable improvement in subscriber retention? What is the single most effective thing you are doing to help with retention? The responses were varied of course, but on the whole they […]
By Jeff Sonderman and Gwen Vargo

What publishers do, and don’t do, about retention

We asked publishers whether or not they currently follow 38 different tactics that each may help with customer/subscriber retention in different ways. We found some of the best practices are employed more widely than others. Almost all publishers said they encourage their newest subscribers to sign up for email newsletters. They also use analytics to […]
By Jeff Sonderman and Gwen Vargo

9 subscriber retention strategies

We asked news publishers to tell us how much potential value they thought different retention strategies could have. This was independent of whether the publisher was doing these things or doing them well. The results show what aspects of subscriber retention are considered most important. This allowed us to identify gaps — or areas that […]
By Jeff Sonderman

We’re working with news orgs on journalism’s biggest challenges in 2018 — you can get involved

All told, our team at the American Press Institute worked with journalists and leaders at nearly 100 local news organizations this year in our mission to help them become more audience-centered and innovative organizations. Those partners included newspapers and digital startups, public radio stations and local TV stations — organizations large and small. We helped […]
By Joshua M. Scacco, Lauren Potts, Lauren Hearit, Jeff Sonderman, and Natalie Jomini Stroud

General election news coverage: What engages audiences down the ballot

  Summary As Election Day approaches, more people seek news and information about politics. To understand the habits of news audiences in the run-up to the election, we analyzed what was being covered in reporting about down-ballot, non-presidential races for U.S. Congress, governor, and local offices in the lead-up to the 2016 general election. The […]
By Joshua M. Scacco, Lauren Hearit, Lauren Potts, Jeff Sonderman, and Natalie Jomini Stroud

Strategy coverage, such as fundraising and horserace references, appears in over half of articles

When covering an election, journalists choose a mix of two basic types of reporting — “voter guide” pieces that examine the issue positions and values of the candidates, and “strategy” pieces that analyze campaign tactics and who’s ahead in the race. Observers often say that the voter guide approach is the higher journalistic purpose, while […]
By Joshua M. Scacco, Lauren Hearit, Lauren Potts, Jeff Sonderman, and Natalie Jomini Stroud

Public safety, education, and social issues are most mentioned topics; user engagement consistent across these topics

Another critical, though sometimes less prominent part of election news reporting, is the amount of coverage devoted to issues. Issue coverage is important in that it can influence which issues people consider to be important, a pattern known as agenda setting. Although news outlets historically have an important agenda-setting influence in American campaigns, the amount […]
By Joshua M. Scacco, Lauren Hearit, Lauren Potts, Jeff Sonderman, and Natalie Jomini Stroud

How geography, headlines and fact-checking affect campaign coverage engagement

State and local campaign coverage sees greater time on page than federal race coverage Each story was classified based on whether it focused on a federal race (U.S. Senate or House) or a state-based race, including both statewide (e.g. attorney general) and local (e.g. mayoral) contests. Articles referencing state-related campaigns had a higher average time […]
By Joshua M. Scacco, Lauren Hearit, Lauren Potts, Jeff Sonderman, and Natalie Jomini Stroud

Methodology

We examined 428 newspaper stories from the websites of eight local newspapers across six states (California, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington). Only news articles focusing on 2016 non-presidential election campaigns, including federal (U.S. Senate, U.S. House), statewide (e.g. gubernatorial, Attorney General, Supreme Court, etc.), and local races (e.g. mayor, council, supervisors, school board, etc.), […]