One year of free NowMetrix for new, independent journalism projects

The website is live, the first stories are published, and people are finally reading the work the team has spent so long preparing. For a new journalism project, that is a big moment. It is also when the work really begins.

Researching, writing, publishing, sending the newsletter, answering questions and fixing a technical problem in between. In a small team, many of those jobs fall to the same people. And every extra bill has to fit the budget.

We want to make that start a little easier. That is why NowMetrix is free for the first year. In the second year, you pay just 50% of the regular price. The offer is for newly launched, independent journalism projects funded entirely by their readers, with no major publishing group behind them.

See which stories people are reading right now

Early on, there are plenty of questions about a new publication. Which articles are people reading right now? Where are visitors coming from? Is traffic to a story still growing, or has it started to settle down? And which topics are attracting more attention than the team expected?

For example, a small newsroom publishes a thoroughly researched local story in the morning. At first, little happens. By the afternoon, the number of active readers has risen noticeably. The team wants to know which sources those visitors are coming from and whether the traffic is holding up. Perhaps the article deserves a more prominent spot on the homepage. Perhaps it needs an update because something has changed since the morning.

With NowMetrix, the newsroom can see which articles are being read and where readers are coming from, live. Even with little time to spare, the team can get a clear picture of what is happening on its website.

That live view helps the team understand the attention its work is receiving and respond during the working day. The newsroom still decides which stories deserve a closer look. A small project may have very good reasons to keep pursuing a subject, even if it reaches only a few people at first.

Privacy is part of that approach: NowMetrix uses no tracking cookies and records all readers anonymously. Analytics data is hosted in the EU, and backups stay there too. You can find out more on our Trust & Data Protection page.

For projects backed by their readers

It might be a new local publication, an investigative project or a title covering a subject that gets too little space elsewhere. The ideas can vary widely. What connects these projects is their readers: they want this journalism to exist and help make it possible through their contributions.

Those are the teams our support is for: newly launched, independent of any major publishing group and entirely funded by their own readers. That might be through subscriptions, memberships or reader contributions.

We believe these projects deserve a good start. With NowMetrix, we can offer something practical: a tool for everyday editorial work that costs nothing in the first year and considerably less in the second.

Tell us about your project

If you are getting started and this sounds like your team, email us at info@nowmetrix.com. Tell us a little about your plans, who you are producing journalism for and how you are funded. If your website is already live, include the link too.

We look forward to hearing about your project.