Revenue that comes directly from your audience in the form of subscriptions, memberships, donations, events and more is crucial for the long-term sustainability of many news organizations — especially those serving local communities.

The American Press Institute studies and experiments with viable business models based on consumer revenue, including by working directly with a diverse group of publishers to exchange insights and try new tactics based on advanced uses of data. As the news industry moves away from advertising-centric business models and toward consumer revenue, API is helping publishers navigate that shift.

Try these API resources to generate consumer revenue:

• Contact Gwen Vargo, API’s director of reader revenue, for help developing or refining your reader revenue-based model.
• Find out what news publishers are doing to retain subscribers, and get help assessing your own subscriber retention efforts.
• Explore our Reader Revenue Toolkit, a collection of practical guides on topics ranging from subscription registration forms to email marketing campaigns.
• Read our report on what it takes to shift a news organization to reader revenue.
• Check out our audience research on why subscribers choose to pay for news.
• See how much U.S. newspapers charge for digital subscriptions.
• Check out our “consumer revenue” section on Better News, a repository of curated tips and case studies addressing common newsroom challenges.
• Learn how our Metrics for News analytics software can give you insights into what drives readers to start paying for your journalism.