It’s no secret that many publishers struggle to find a sustainable business model that will help them generate sufficient revenue and stay afloat. Banner ads and clickbait techniques have become a thing of the past, and the financial burden is not getting any lighter. Luckily,...
Digital publishing 101: Anything that delays access to content increases the chances of readers leaving the site. Now that more and more publishers are erecting paywalls to drive reader revenues, making content access smooth is critical for converting registered users and retaining subscribers. Publishers are...
Reuters’ Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2019 report predicts that subscription and membership are going to be the key priorities for the news industry going forward. More than 50% of the executives surveyed for the report said they would be focusing on subscription...
The Economist are known for being one of the most forward-thinking publishing brands when it comes to data and audience monetisation. Their paywall is well over twenty years old, and has seen numerous evolutions during that time. The Economist’s Head of Insight and Data Science,...
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has released a new report today on trends in adoption of paywalls by news organizations. The report, Pay Models for Online News in the US and Europe: 2019 Update, examines the offerings of over 200 leading news...
Building a habit takes time. In the way that these stats live in our collective, though often inaccurate, hive mind, there’s some stat that says it takes 21 days to build a habit. Jeremy Dean, the author of Making Habits, Breaking Habits, shows that depending on...
As more publishers put up paywalls and ask readers to subscribe, they are also staring at the possibility of countering “subscription fatigue.” The recurring monthly payments—a lifeline for publishers—can be a drain on their audiences’ finances if they have to subscribe to every other site...
In November 2018, we co-hosted an Insider event with FIPP in Argentina and Chile about the role and value of digital editions. Given the Latin American venue, I decided to use a local coming-of-age tradition - a quinceañero - the 15th birthday milestone when a girl transitions...
(Part Four, ideas 41-50: Content) This is the fourth and final part in a series, examining how different ways in which publishers are seeking to “make media pay.” In previous months we’ve explored Paywalls and Subscriptions (Part One, ideas 1-12), Advertising and Ad-Free opportunities (Part...
We know that more and more publishers are focusing on reader revenue strategies this year (52% of news executives state subscriptions will be their main revenue focus in 2019). That means paywall strategies are often being rethought, from The New York Times ending the Incognito loophole with its paywall or Neue Zürcher Zeitung...
A Swiss digital news publisher has found their conversion rate of registered users to paying subscribers has increased by five times since they have altered their approach from building paywalls to creating "dynamic pay gates". Since early 2015 the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), a Swiss German-language...
January 4, 2019 marked the two-year anniversary for when everyone briefly thought that Twitter co-founder and Medium CEO Ev Williams had lost his marbles. Early that morning in 2017, a third of Medium’s staff had been let go. A few hours later, Williams posted an...
It does not come as a surprise that most digital publishers look to the New York Times for subscription strategy advice: On February 6th, The “failing” New York Times posted digital revenue of $709 million for 2018, based largely on its 3.4 million digital subscriptions. It also...
Learning from the magazine market sectors that pay, why we should hold off judgement on the 50% Apple subscription deal, and more... It’s too early to judge if this Apple is rotten The latest scandal in the fraught platform-publisher relationship is this week’s revelation that...
...But we also have to have the opportunity. The Pool had everything a digital media outlet could possibly want: a clearly-defined mission, a brilliant site and a dedicated audience. So why wasn’t reader revenue at the top of their list? Late last week, The Pool,...
How Le Monde achieved a 46% increase in subscriptions, why spend more on engagement than acquisition, and more... Wooing readers should be a full-time focus Pageviews and dwell time may be easy metrics to measure, but what do they actually tell you about your relationship...
As we begin the new year in earnest, we look back at six of the top lessons from Nieman Lab’s annual list of journalism predictions. Pivot to reader revenue “With reader revenue what matters is not the volume of clicks but the number of readers who...
It’s no secret: In the coming year, readers will run up against more memberships, more pleas for donations, and more paywalls. In short, more opportunities for money to escape their wallets to bolster media outlets they have previously accessed free of charge. Companies like Buzzfeed and Quartz have recently...
As we enter a new year, it’s a great time to stop and take stock of the key trends which shaped the publishing sector over the past year. The next 12 months are likely to see a lot of continuity in terms of technology and...
A paywall – the method of restricting access to content via paid subscriptions – seems to be a trendy thing among publishers today. The New York Times has one.Bloomberg has one.Wired recently launched theirs. Even Medium has a paywall. Paid subscriptions are nothing new – people have subscribed to printed newspapers and...
