Mather Report with David Clinch

I have been busy this week at Mather putting the pieces in place for our expanded Strategic Consultancy service. If you work in a media organization of any size that could benefit from expert consultancy to help plan or launch any subscription or consumer revenue service, let me know. Our team has all the content and data science expertise that you will need to understand what your addressable audience is, what products and content you should develop and what your revenue strategy should be.

Always?let me know on Twitter?if you spot any #MediaRevenue stories I may have missed. If you have any questions or comments about these updates,?please get in touch.??

Here is this week's curated selection of #MediaRevenue news:

CNN takes a $100 million step into streaming

"CNN Plus will stream as many as a dozen brand-new live shows each day and archive them for re-watching on demand. It also has a starting library of more than a thousand hours of CNN shows and original films, including travel-food shows hosted by Stanley Tucci and the late Anthony Bourdain. And subscribers will get perks such as the ability to ask experts questions."

CNN+’s Programming Chief on What to Expect from the Streaming Service’s Debut

"...we are a streaming platform and we are leaning into what streaming does best, which is giving our subscribers the choice"

CNN+ Review

"CNN+ brings you everything you enjoy about the expansive news channel, from evergreen documentaries to live broadcasts, in a successful new streaming format."

TV Insider Is Capitalizing on the Fractured Bedlam of Streaming

"If, in the last few years, you have found yourself searching the internet for information about which streaming service was carrying what shows at which time, you are not alone––and TVInsider wants to help."

Introducing the Experiments and Personalization Team

"with a focus on engaging our subscribers and getting them to come back to us more frequently. These experiments will include things like targeting readers based on location or reading history or testing new kinds of content packages."

ESPN Leverages New March Madness Branding to Grow Women’s Basketball Audience

"This is the first year the NCAA women’s tournament can use the iconic name. The company announced the first MegaCast presentation of the NCAA Women’s Final Four, with programming across ESPN, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network & ESPN+."

The Daily Wire says it's pouring $100 million into kids entertainment

"The move, executives say, is in response to Disney's positioning on Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill, known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Disney has begun to?speak out?about the bill in response to backlash that it didn't proactively denounce it initially."

Channel 4 News reaches record social media audience with Ukraine war

"On Monday, the Channel 4 News Youtube account passed two million subscribers. It has also added around 200,000 new Facebook followers since the war began, tripled its Tiktok audience and added thousands of subscribers to its Snapchat series. The brand now has a total social following of about 5.3m."

Unprecedented reader interest in Ukraine as publishers shift to covering longer war

"dip in interest has impacted news outlets, with some altering the ways they cover the conflict."

Morning Brew tops 4 million newsletter subscribers

"Morning Brew’s primary newsletter has surpassed 4 million subscribers after hitting 3 million just eight months ago. Morning Brew generated about $50 million in revenue in 2021, during what’s been a boom time for newsletters."

FT launches 99p per month smartphone edition aimed at its 26m social media followers

"It will be free for the first month after launch and then cost 99p per month for the following six months – rising to ￡4.99 a month thereafter."

Chasing paper: How the rising price of newsprint threatens the industry

"Publishers are open about the calculus they use to justify their print operations: It is a simple matter of price elasticity. As print grows more expensive to produce, publishers raise their prices — to consumers, advertisers or both — to keep it profitable. When the price grows so high that consumer demand dips, publishers will stop printing."

Growing reader revenue in 2022

"Lee Enterprises, Inc. (which owns TownNews) leveraged its IQ Audience+ and saw a 26% growth in digital subscription revenue. In a quarterly earnings statement, Lee Enterprises Chief Executive Officer (CEO) reported a 17% growth in overall digital revenues, totaling $55 million in their fiscal first quarter (ending on Dec. 26, 2021)."?

TIME builds a subscription machine to move into the future

"“When we launched digital subscriptions, we had no registration on the site, and we had basically not a huge audience,” she said. “So, we really had to build out a model that was actually going to drive audience for us.” To do that, the U.S. magazine launched a two/five model, which means that when a person gets to their third article, they have to register. Then, when they hit their fifth article, they’re asked to pay."

CBS NEWS AND THE WEATHER CHANNEL ANNOUNCE EXPANSIVE CONTENT AND TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP

"This collaboration brings together two powerhouse brands to deliver audiences innovative weather reporting, trusted severe weather coverage, and investigative reporting on the environment."