Can newsrooms think like retailers? Why journalism’s future might include a storefront

The key with all of this is to take a retail merchandiser’s perspective, thinking about which products make sense, how they should be priced, how they fit together, and what’s unique about them. If the business is big enough, why not hire a merchandiser from the retail industry to serve as the store's GM? They have the expertise that isn’t native to publishers.”

E&P columnist Imtiaz Patel is a media executive who has led growth, digital innovation and revenue strategy across major news organizations.

Can publishers become retailers? Before you dismiss this as a fanciful or idiotic idea, let me explain why I am even qualified to ask and answer this question. I’ve had two careers — three if I include the years in banking pre-graduate school. After graduate school, I worked exclusively in retail, initially as a management consultant and later as chief strategy officer for a specialty retailer. I then pivoted to media when I joined Dow Jones.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve gone back and forth between both industries. I believe the retail experience is the root of my success in media. Retail gave me an inherent understanding of consumer behavior. I took that into my career in media.

I think we should be designing news sites with a retail mindset, focusing more on reader flow and how readers navigate the site — akin to a consumer walking through a store. But that’s another story. It’s this retail connection that led me to the idea of creating WSJwine. To this day, it is the most successful wine club in the industry.

There’s a history of publishers selling merchandise with storefronts on their sites, with The New York Times probably the most successful. Most of what we see in the industry is sales of branded merchandise, archives of photographs, diaries, etc. Nothing too exciting. Let’s face it, if we are struggling for subscribers, will we really sell much branded merchandise?

In this sea of minimal sales and sameness, Block Club Chicago did something unique. They turned a viral story about a missing alligator into an overnight $100K sale. Not only that, they presold the t-shirts and sourced them, funding it with zero inventory risk. This was about seizing the moment. $100K for a small publication could fund one reporter for a whole year.

The success of WSJwine and Block Club Chicago points to two core concepts for publishers considering creating a scalable, profitable business. First, the store and its merchandise must be aligned with the publisher’s brand; otherwise, it could be just anyone selling it. You bring nothing to the table. In the case of WSJwine, we spent a lot of time developing brand attributes tied to the WSJ brand: trust, curation and discovery. WSJwine stood for the same things as WSJ in the consumer’s mind. We made sure they saw this connection.

Second, it was also about bringing the printed word to life for readers. In WSJ, we wrote about wine. Readers sought our expertise in navigating the complex world of wine. If we didn’t have a well-regarded wine column, WSJwine would not have been as successful. Many tried to emulate us, but without that connection, they failed. And in the case of Block Club Chicago, they literally turned a story into a visual and sold it as merchandise.

Before I left The Baltimore Banner, I was seriously contemplating an e-commerce business. The plan was to do the usual things, like framed stories and selling archives of our photography. (We had some amazing photographers on staff.) We were also going to try to emulate Block Club Chicago. I wanted to turn stories into merchandise. We were experimenting with visual storytelling, so we had the talent in-house, but that alone wouldn’t be enough for us. My goal was to reach 5%-10% of revenue from merchandise sales. To accomplish that, I wanted to go beyond this.

As a publication, we were unashamedly about Baltimore and everything Baltimore stands for. That local connection allowed us to think of our store as a celebration of everything Baltimore, promoting what’s unique and special about the city and its local artists and crafts.

The key with all of this is to take a retail merchandiser’s perspective, thinking about which products make sense, how they should be priced, how they fit together, and what’s unique about them. If the business is big enough, why not hire a merchandiser from the retail industry to serve as the store's GM? They have the expertise that isn’t native to publishers.

While merchandise is one part of the story, the audience is the second part. The key question here is: Would consumers even think to come to a news site to buy gifts or merchandise? Why? They probably just expect you to have branded goods. Think about this: How many people who wanted to buy something to commemorate Caitlin Clark’s professional debut went to the Indy Star, the in-market publication for her WNBA team, versus going to Amazon? And while we had record sales of story covers, it pales in comparison to the potential. The answer is obvious: If you want a scalable retail business, go where the customers are — Amazon. Create a storefront on Amazon. The LA Times has done it, but what do they sell? Branded goods.

To have a meaningful business, it’s about bringing the two components together — the right merchandise (at the right price) to the right place. Sounds just like a retailer.

The key takeaways:

• Retail can be a significant source of revenue for publishers.
• Connect the merchandise to your brand, and that doesn’t mean logo stuff.
• Think like a retail merchandiser; think of this as a real business and manage it as such.
• Go where the customers are.

Imtiaz Patel is a media executive who has led growth, digital innovation and revenue strategy across major news organizations. As chief consumer officer at Gannett, he oversaw consumer revenue and marketing for USA TODAY and 200+ local publications. As CEO of The Baltimore Banner, he built a digital-first newsroom from scratch, reaching 60K subscribers and $10M in year-one revenue. He previously held leadership roles at Dow Jones and has advised publishers like The Philadelphia Inquirer. Based in New York, Imtiaz is passionate about the arts, food and Liverpool FC. He can be reached at imtiazp99@gmail.com.