Stavanger Aftenblad – What we have learned so far Digital Winners, 7 November 2013

Lars Helle,

Editor-in-Chief, Stavanger Aftenblad

twitter: @lahelle

Jonny’s last days

• video (duration:29 min.)

downloading record

• Daypass purchases: All-time-high

day 1. Also many purchases the

following days

• 90% converted to digital users

100 days previously

Stavanger Aftenblad launches «The new Aftenblad»,

a freemium model for paid, digital content

The big question

• What make people pay for digital stories?

• How does the sales funnel work?

The answer is even bigger

• But we know there is not necessarily a link between traffic and sale. Click-winners are not necessarily sales-winners.

• Theory:

-- good, classic journalism

-- for regional papers: local, enriched news with a twist

-- lists (richest in town, evaluation of soccer players, most expensive houses, most powerful in oil business aso.).

-- News for use

Key learning: Great traffic

≠

Great sale

«The new Aftenblad»

• Same circulation

as in 2012

• No decrease in

digital traffic

• 75 % migration

between the

subscribers at the

end of the year

Our hairy goals: Status:

• Circulation: Well…

• Traffic: YES!!!

• Migration: On track

Circulation development

Before launch: - 4,1 %

After launch: - 3,2 %

Status migration and digital sale

67% Migrert

33% Ikke-migrert

• Top daily passes: • Jonny’s last weeks

• Not a subscriber? Get full access

• Finish line, Nordsjørittet (bikerace)

• Top subscribtion: • Not a subscriber? Get full access

• Why you should cover your tits on the beach

• Route 44 – A digital story about the everyday

life along the region’s most important

highway

Experience: A digital user

does not enter our new

universe the first time she reaches

the landing site for purchasing a

subscribtion

Paid Main rule: Everything

produced in-house

Examples: Regional and local

news

Politics, culture

Familiy pages

Op-ed’s/editorials

Feature stories

Background stories

Videos

Not paid Oil/energy

House and living

Jobs/education

Blogs

Traffic

Weather

100 % Sport

Crime, news from the

court, etc.

Live

Press conferences

Stories with potential for

national attention

Case-to-case-

decision Stories with

national potential

Commentaries

Series

Paid stories shared on

social media to be

hashtagged #ABO

Digital first-

strategy

Our publication strategy – was it too liberal?

Default: Not paid

Publication Strategy 1.0 – Evaluation

11

Plus

Minus

Soft launch winter 2013, full launch May 13th, the day we introduched our universe for paid, digital content

• Strong digital traffic

• Better digital attitude in the newsroom

• Editorial flow improved

• Better digital knowledge

• Journalists more aware of paid/free

content

• Openness: SoMe, Chat on front page, etc.

• More experiments/more live

• Speed on migration too slow

• Technical problems (slow downloading,

problems with log-in, mobile version)

• Publication strategy – too open?

•Publication rhytm: Still paper orientated

• Still dependant on purchase-solution in media

houses we co-operate with (Sports, News for

use)

• The environments for feature-stories not good

enough

Page traffic – a challenge

We developed a new tool to follow open/closed stories on the front page

Chat and Social Media Positive responses from users, high

percentage of response from editorial

staff.

=> Hire a full-time SoMe-specialist?

Chat on front page

and new structure on

social media

launched May 13th.

The road ahead. The new Aftenblad 2.0

Background

KONSEKVENSER

Alt 1: Moderate adjustment

Alt 2: Tightening of publication strategy

More paid content on front page (+/- 50 %)

• Parts of common news stories will be paid content

Sections like Energy Job/education, House and living will be transferred to the paying universe.

No exceptions for commentaries/op-eds.

Only traffic, weather, «common crime» remains unpaid

More paid stories from the local sport arenas

Follow moves by co-operating media houses

Goals for The new Aftenblad:

1) Digital growth

2) More paying subscribers

Solid growth on mobile devices and tablets. PC: decreasing slowly compared with same period last year (May-June-July)

Around 65 % migration..

Consequenses

• Decrease in pc-reading

• Fewer open sections

• Continued growth in

tablet- and mobile reading

(but slower)

• Higher migration. More

paying subscribers

• Tougher to get traffic

from SoMe

Consequenses

• Marginal or no pc-

growth

• Still strong growth on

tablets and mobile

• We will reach the goal

of 75 % migration

• Slow rate of new

subscribers

Default:

Paid content

The coming year

The new Aftenblad 2.0

• Less liberal publication strategy

• More digital strength on copy editing (mobile devices)

• New subscribtion packages

• Focus on technical support

• Focus on customer information

• More and better analyses (sales funnel, big data, publication strategy)

• Increase the migration. Stimulate readers to use all devices and to read

the e-paper

• More video

• More cooperation between the internal departments

• Experimentation, experimentation, experimentation

Mobile platforms vs. web – Week 34 – Mon-Fri

0

1 000

2 000

3 000

4 000

5 000

6 000

7 000

8 000

9 000

10 000

07-0

8

06-0

7

08-0

9

05-0

6

04-0

5

21-2

2

22-2

3

23-0

0

03-0

4

02-0

3

00-0

1

01-0

2

09-1

0

10-1

1

11-1

2

12-1

3

13-1

4

14-1

5

15-1

6

16-1

7

17-1

8

18-1

9

19-2

0

20-2

1

Desktop

Mobil + Leserbrett

Mobile

plattformer

størst

Mobile platforms vs. web – Week 34 – Sat-Sun

Mobile

plattformer

størst

0

1 000

2 000

3 000

4 000

5 000

6 000

7 000

8 000

9 000

10 000

06-0

7

07-0

8

00-0

1

01-0

2

02-0

3

03-0

4

04-0

5

05-0

6

08-0

9

09-1

0

10-1

1

11-1

2

12-1

3

13-1

4

14-1

5

15-1

6

16-1

7

17-1

8

18-1

9

19-2

0

20-2

1

21-2

2

22-2

3

23-0

0

Desktop - Lørdag - Søndag

Mobil + Leserbrett - Lørdag-Søndag

Digital Sunday edition

More Web-TV

More good journalism

The best strategy in the universe of paid, digital content