Why paying for content is the best way to ensure quality industry coverage

Dear readers,

Recently, I’ve been catching up with a number of finance journalists in Singapore. Over beers, one of them said to me, “Journalism is a human capital business.”

It’s true. A good business journalist is an industry expert, effective networker, writer, and analyst – all rolled into one. In other words, a unicorn.

Very few people meet all of the criteria, and getting there takes years.

There’s another obstacle: attrition is high. The job is sometimes demanding and unfulfilling, and the pay can be lower relative to public relations and communications.

This is why the subscription model in business media is old news. Tech in Asia is just doing what we probably should’ve done all along.

More revenue means better pay for journalists. They stay longer and gain deeper expertise. The subscription model also makes a journalist’s work more interesting. What better way to attract subscribers than to publish scoops and analysis? And what’s more fulfilling to a journalist than producing unique stories?

More revenue also means investing in copyediting, data visualization, automated content, as well as visual and interactive elements that make content consumption even more enjoyable.

Since we went down the subscription path late last year, we’ve been making incremental progress in finding stories that people would pay for. However, we still have a long way to go.

Your support will help us get there.

Here are the subscriber exclusives we’ve published in the past week. Do check them out:

• Meet Forrest Li, Southeast Asia’s newest tech billionaire
• What it takes to be a 26-year-old partner at a major venture capital firm
• Halodoc is shaping up to be one of Indonesia’s top healthcare platforms
• DishDash, a food-delivery startup for businesses, is growing revenues at 40% a quarter
• 7x GMV growth in 1 year: How Indonesian cosmetics e-tailer Sociolla did it
• Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Southeast Asia
• Rising SE Asian startups: Instarem raises $41m, ex-Uber CEO gets involved, and more

Cheers,

Terence
Chief editor