Key Executives Mega Conference: Paid Content

University of Missouri

Missouri School of Journalism

Paid ContentKey Executives Mega-Conference

Matt Sokoloff, Reynolds Fellow@MattSokoloff



Paid Content Paid Content for Local for Local

NewsNews

Building a Building a Paid Content Paid Content

ProductProduct

Marketing Marketing Your ProductYour Product



•In 2012 nearly half of all newspapers surveyed charge users for content.

Paid Content Model Adoption

Source: 2012 Daily Newspaper Publishers Annual Index, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism

Institute



•Early estimates show that more than half of the nations dailies require users to pay for content as of today

Tipping Point for Paid Content



Smaller Papers Lead the Way

Source: 2012 Daily Newspaper Publishers Annual Index, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute



Most NP Groups Adopt Paid Models



Setting the Meter




No Revenue Impact

•Page Views down but sometimes recover

•Loss usually just remnant inventory

•Shifting sold inventory may have been required

•Subscriptions easily make up any difference

•No ones reported net revenue loss



Success?

•Immediate revenue needs

•Small percentage of active online users are now subscribers (print)

•Necessary but not sufficient

•A digital paid content model doesn’t mean you have a digital product




NewsNews


ProductProduct




Build a Digital Product

•Solve a problem and/or provide a real benefit for your users

•Need to sell more than “All Access”

•Designate and remind users that your content is unique

•Your newsroom isn’t representative

•Traffic doesn’t mean users will pay for it



What’s behind the wall?•About 70% of surveyed sites are

charging for breaking news or wire stories

•Better off putting less behind the wall but setting the meter lower

•Less than 15% charge for tablet or mobile products

•People are more used to paying for tablet and mobile products




Change from Page Views to Quality

•You may have lots of people on your site but they might be the wrong people

•Goals in the newsroom need to change

•Build franchises and sub-brands that you can monetize



Paid Content MatrixC

om

mod

ity

Pre

miu

m

Low HighInterest

Un

iqu

en

ess

Breaking News

Event Listings

Watchdog

Photo Galleries

Obits

Community News

WeatherTV Listings

Columnist B

Columnist A

Classifieds

Local In Depth Coverage Local

Sports

Wire Stories



Examples



SiriusXM



SiriusXM•Paywall at zero

•Free Trials to get you hooked

•Premium/Exclusive content

•Commodity content with a benefit

•Tiered Pricing

•Aggressive marketing

•Understand the lifetime value of a subscriber



Hulu+

•Show/Brand specific

•Other sites offer recent shows for free

•Hulu+

•Entire season

•All Devices

•Original Programing



Hulu+C

om

mod

ity

Pre

miu

m

Low HighInterest

Un

iqu

en

ess

All Episodes

HD

OriginalPrograming

Recent Episodes

Devices



Consumer Reports



Consumer ReportsC

om

mod

ity

Pre

miu

m

Low HighInterest

Un

iqu

en

ess

Expert ReviewsConsumer

News

Ratings Guides



Subscription Based Sites

•ESPN Insider

•Netflix

•eHarmony

•WeightWatchers

•DailyBurn




NewsNews


ProductProduct




Tiered Approach — Chicago Tribune

• Non-subscriber - Commodity content

• DigitalLITE (free registration) - Metered premium content

• DigitalPlus (paid) - Access to all premium content, apps, achieves, e-books, events

• Built a funnel to paid subscriber

• Capturing e-mail on prospects



E-Commerce Funnel

Purchase

Awareness

Consideration

Intent

Branding/Prospecting



Awareness• Drive to landing page

• On site messaging

• Icons for exclusive content

• Designating paid users in comments

• Promote content behind the Pay Wall

• Paid online ads (monitor CPA)



Consideration• Drive to checkout

• Expressed interest...convince them to purchase

• Landing page MUST match how they got there

• Ad creative

• Content type

• Online Display Re-marketing



Landing Page Optimization

•Tease content

•Benefits clearly explained

•Signup ATF

•No navigation

•A/B test and track everything



Intent• Drive to purchase

• Make it easy

• Capture e-mail asap

• Test & Track cart abandonment

• Re-marketing and e-mail follow up

• Lowest CPA

• Remind them what they are getting

• Only as good as the weakest link



Smart Prospecting

•Drive new users to your site who will eventually subscribe

•Market to lookalike purchasers

•Find users who don’t regularly visit

•Track everything

•Determine the best entry point



Metrics to track

•Lifetime Value of a Subscriber (LTV) — Crucial number to determine how much money you can spend acquiring members

•Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — Ensure that CPA stays below LTV.



Metrics Cont.•Conversion Rate

•Overall, landing page, traffic source, marketing campaign, demographic

•Useful for

•Setting newsroom and marketing goals

•Understanding what content to put behind the wall



Invest in Technology, People & Ideas

• Technology — Build, buy or partner to test, track and manage the relationship with your customers

• People — Invest in people internally and externally who are focused on growing your digital subscription products

• Ideas — The fourth most serious threat to newspapers according to publishers is lack of resources to develop new products (only after declining ad revenue, circulation, print readership)



RJI’s Efforts

•Marketing Case Studies

•Paid Content Best Practices and Guides

•Paid Content Research and Database

•RJIOnline.org



Matt [email protected]

@MattSokoloff

Key Executives Mega Conference: Paid Content

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Transcript of Key Executives Mega Conference: Paid Content