Interesting study of the relation between topics covered and conversion to paid subscriptions in a traditional local U.S. newspaper. Billions of records were analyzed (presumably by machine) and the result is: sports and crime drive page views, but hard news and health drive subscriptions. But: "If a newsroom wants to optimize for digital subscriptions... it should lean into hard news. But no matter how hard it leans, the underlying numbers remain dangerously unstable." By 'unstable' they mean 'bad'. So people will pay for hard news, but a subscription wall is unsustainable. I wish they had looked at more alternative models.
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