Three examples of creator partnerships that led to conversion wins for local news organizations. Leidy Celeste (from left) in a TikTok on Dodge City, Kan., for Planeta Venus; Shawn Singh takes Instagram viewers behind the scenes of a restaurant review for the Houston Chronicle; and Michelle Reed and Simon Washee promote a three-day cultural event in the Tulsa area for Crosswinds News.

 

Building audience and deepening community engagement are often the goals of newsroom-creator partnerships.

However, most audience strategies are designed to foster relationships that will eventually lead to paid subscriptions, memberships or donations, so many news organizations also set secondary conversion goals for these collaborations.

Although we caution against relying solely on financial conversion metrics for success, setting a secondary goal can be beneficial — especially when you’ve defined, or redefined, conversion for a creator-newsroom collaboration.

In the American Press Institute’s 2025 Influencer Learning Cohort, the 16 participating news organizations agreed that conversion involved acquiring audience via the collaboration, but there was variation across the cohort in how far down the funnel “counted” as a conversion.

Some defined a successful conversion as any interaction with the post — such as a like, comment or share — while others sought increased followers on-platform. Still others were hoping to move people off-platform to visit a story on their site, sign up for a newsletter or become a paying member or subscriber. And some defined any and all of those as a win:

“A successful audience conversion is when a Creator’s follower/fan sees your collaborative content, then opts into seeing more of your content directly (a follow on social platform, signing up for newsletter, paying subscriber, etc.).” – Cohort participant

Finally, a few organizations touched on relationship-building as a factor in conversion. One said the influencer’s audience members should become part of their community after the partnership had run its course. Another said any small action on-platform “signals building the groundwork for trust later,” and a third noted the ultimate conversion goal is “trust in our journalism.”

In the three examples below, we’ll look at collaborations that lead to increasing on-platform followers and off-platform conversions — newsletter subscriptions, paid subscriptions and attendance at in-person gatherings.

Planeta Venus’ cross-generational engagement project gains followers

The collaboration

Planeta Venus created a true community engagement project to better understand the information needs of its bilingual audiences across Kansas — but that didn’t mean they didn’t also have some conversion goals. Planeta Venus connected with four Kansas teens and trained them on journalism ethics and the goals of the project. They then guided the participants through the process of interviewing at least three community members and creating videos, providing mentorship and resources along the way. You can see the results on YouTube:

The results

👀 Views: About 100,000 across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook

➕ Followers: YouTube channel increased from 69 subscribers to close to 5,000 subscribers (+7,000%); Instagram account also saw a boost in followers

⭐️ Highlights: Comments on videos mention the importance of hearing directly from youth voices; participants from smaller towns reported feeling empowered to share perspectives that are rarely represented in statewide media

The fine print

🗓️Timeline: Applications opened to youth creators on June 25; creators were selected the first week of July, the virtual orientation was in mid-July and all videos were published in the first week of August

💵 Cost: $500/video, plus $1,000 on paid boosts, with the majority going to YouTube, some to Meta Business (Facebook and Instagram) and a small boost on TikTok

Houston Chronicle food collab leads to newsletter signups and paid subscribers

The collaboration

In Texas, the Houston Chronicle partnered with local food influencer Shawn Singh, who took viewers along to one of the top restaurants in a Houston suburb, gave a peek behind the scenes of a restaurant review with critic Bao Ong and promoted a food tour giveaway. The relationship started when Singh was one of several food creators to be invited to a launch for the Chronicle’s annual Top 100 Restaurants guide, and they found they have good mission alignment.

The results

👀 Views: About 137,000 total views (15–30% above average)

➕ Followers: Saw a spike of new followers the day the third video posted (because it was a collab post by the creator, the Chronicle didn’t have access to direct follower counts from the reel)

✉️ Signups: 20 food newsletter signups (+150% average weekly signups)

💳 Subscriptions: 6 paid subscriptions

⭐️ Highlights: Sparked curiosity/trust, communicated via DMs, comments on videos and people wanting to buy tickets for the food tour, which was a free giveaway for winners, and eventually became a paid service

The fine print

🗓️Timeline: It took a couple of weeks to hammer out the contract due to schedules, and then the three videos posted every 2 weeks, from mid-July to mid-August

💵 Cost: $1K/video + meal expenses

Crosswinds News’ artist collaboration gathers community and gets big views

The collaboration

Oklahoma’s Verified News Network, which has since rebranded as Crosswinds News, partnered with two Indigenous creators — Michelle Reed (Ojibwe) and Simon Washee (Cheyenne and Arapaho) — to promote and appear at a three-day cultural event in the Tulsa area. Posting the Instagram Reels as collabs before, during and after the event meant they appeared on both the creators’ and news organization’s accounts, leading to views well above the News’ average. They also shared videos on TikTok, including this promo from Reed and Washee.

The results

👀 Views:  About 15,000 across three Instagram Reels (20,000% above average of 21 views per Reel); about 3,500 views across three TikTok videos (1,650% above average of 200 views per video)

➕ Followers: 26 new followers on Instagram; 22 new followers on TikTok

✉️ Signups: 17 new email subscribers

💳 Donations: 5 people donated $5 each

🤝 In-person: About 130 community members attended the events

⭐️ Highlights: Crosswinds News received positive feedback, including appreciation and others wishing they could attend; Reed continues to post about and share the organization’s work

The fine print

🗓️Timeline: Discussions with Reed and Washee for the June 22-24 event began in April; videos were posted in May and June before and after the event

💵 Cost: The collaborative videos and social posts were included in the $500/day fee paid to Reed and Washee for hosting the classes at the event

More on conversion campaigns: Project C’s Back Indie Media subscriber drive

If you are interested in exploring collaborations like these for your news organization, please contact us to learn how we can assist. If you are interested in partnering or financially supporting an information ecosystem or community you care about through newsroom-creator partnerships, we would love to discuss offering this learning cohort as a private contract.

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