Subscription Site Insider Blog » Traditional media online

49% of Surveyed US Newspaper Publishers Think Their Content’s Maybe Not Worth Paying For Online

Anne Holland — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:23:53 +0000

Newsasaur Alan Mutter has gotten his hands on new American Press Institute data showing that 49% of 118 surveyed US newspaper publishers aren’t sure their readers would pay for their content online. Having spent much of the past seven years as a heavy business traveler in the US, I’ve probably read half these guys’ newspapers at one time or another, and yeah, I agree with them.

I don’t care about the politics in the nearest big city to my home. I don’t need generic people-features written at a 6th grade level. What else have you got to offer me?

The average US citizen moves home – often fairly dramatically — seven times in their life. Their local community, let alone the big city their suburban home is nearest, isn’t that interesting to them. They didn’t go to high school with the mayor, and their cousin’s company isn’t up for that big county road resurfacing gig. Their kids may not go to the public schools, heck they may not leave home at all. If they’re passionate about a local sports team, in all likelihood they get the coverage directly from a sports-specialist publisher.

In fact, their passions — and when we pay for content, we pay for passion and/or extreme convenience — are as likely to be shared with disparate friends, family, colleagues and fellow enthusiasts dispersed all across America, not in their local region. We don’t live local lives emotionally anymore.

As the voice of the local, how can newspapers survive as paid content? My suggestion — split yourself into niches. For example, I’d pay for a crime watch emailed police blotter by zip code. In a big fat heartbeat. And we all know the obits sell. Not to mention, the handpicked Best Yardsales for each weekend — especially if I can sign up by neighborhood. And, if you can send me a screensaver-worthy photo of my own kid at the soccer game, I’d pay.

I know none of this stuff is classic newspaper journalism. It’s content the intern could put out with a little help from your tech department. And, yes I do wish there were more outlets for the glory of news journalism too — maybe a “shocking consumer rip-offs” or “biggest political stupidity” site that gathers best-of stories from across the entire USA? But, subscribe to a general info newspaper for my area? I think not.

Magazine Publishers Say Paid Content & Blog Ads Generate Profit Margins Above 30%

Anne Holland — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:31:14 +0000

According to stats from a Folio’s 2009 e-Media Survey, paid content is the 4th largest electronic media revenue stream for magazines which is not impressive, but the profit margins are. Turns out 50% of respondents said paid content had profit margins of more than 30%. So, it’s worth their while pushing the paid content envelope a bit further, wouldn’t you say?

The only other online revenue source that scored even higher, was blog sponsorships, with 56% of magazine execs saying these had profit margins of more than 30%. Think I’ll call up my friend Henry Copeland at BlogAds, a great network that sells ads across loads of third party blogs, and see if he wants to get a beer to celebrate!

Print Subscription Marketers Seeing ~35% Conversions on Trials Marketed Online

Anne Holland — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:16:18 +0000

In a discussion over at LinkedIn’s Circulation Network Group, a networking group of mainly print publication circulation marketers, the question came up, “What are your conversion rates for trial issues marketed online?” Print newspapers, newsletters and magazines all now fairly routinely offer a trial print subscription online. However, most don’t require a credit card number for a trial — instead they rely on heavy follow-up marketing to close the deal and “convert” the trial to a paid subscriber.

The circulation execs in question cited ranges between 13-35% for this type of conversion, often dependent on how much marketing follow-up they invested in. Most said they used a combination of telemarketing and direct postal mail to get the conversion.

Worth noting, very, very few subscription sites (aside from high ticket b2b content) use any offline marketing to encourage conversions from trials to regular subscribers. Most just depend on email and hope for return site visits. Perhaps they should be a bit more proactive?