News media can capitalize on their trusted, reliable brands to make valuable recommendations and suggestions, and offer practical advice, that will help their audiences to make decisions about a variety of aspects of their lives. Evergreen content was also identified by Kantar Media in its research for the Reuters Institute as a type of content that consumers were more likely to pay for. Service content is also ‘evergreen’ content that can be marketed again and again, with particular potential for success on social media and other third party distributors. It is a format that can and has been monetized successfully by creating a new revenue stream: e-commerce, since sites often can get a percentage of sales from affiliate links out to products that they recommend.

One of the top reasons news media are taking an interest in service journalism is its revenue-generating potential. However, in recent years, publishers who traditionally focus on news have begun to explore and invest in service journalism, using their expertise to be useful to readers in their everyday lives, while hopefully bringing in some extra revenue. Service journalism is not new indeed, it has been a signature value proposition for many magazines for decades. It identifies and reports on a specific need of its audience, and then offers solutions, which will often involve directing readers to a good or service that can fulfill this need. Service journalism tends to address the needs of the audience as consumers rather than as citizens, providing advice and recommendations that will help them in their day-to-day lives.

New york times wirecutter moves paywall