Are monthly subscribers worthless? And how to eradicate involuntary churn
Welcome back to your weekly briefing on how publishers are building sustainable businesses.
A quick programming note: We're hosting an exclusive virtual forum on how to eradicate involuntary subscriber churn on Wednesday, July 10 at noon ET. Register now to learn how The Information is approaching this challenge and explore how publishers can recover significant revenue from failed payments.
Are monthly subscribers worthless?
Monthly subscriptions may be largely worthless for many publishers, FT Strategies argued last week. The subscription consultancy published an analysis of one of its client's data and suggested that offering short-term subscriptions at aggressive discounts is not an effective way to maximize revenue in many instances. Publishers optimizing for revenue instead of simple subscriber volume would be better off pushing audiences to longer terms instead, it said.
The analysis sparked conversation among publishers. Some observers said the churn data in the case study seemed extreme compared with other benchmarks published by organizations such as INMA and technology vendors such as Piano.
But regardless of whether or not the data in the FT’s study reflects the experiences of publishers more broadly, it highlights mounting questions about sampling strategies for publishers’ subscription products as the distribution landscape continues to shift around them.
As their subscription businesses mature – and as consumer expectations and the broader digital media landscape shift rapidly alongside – publishers are increasingly leveraging third-party platforms more deliberately to drive sampling while locking access to content on their properties more tightly, and at higher price points.
Google urges publishers to diversify distribution beyond search
Publishers have attempted to diversify their traffic sources in recent years as it’s become clear that relying on single platforms risks derailing their businesses if (or when) the priorities and needs of those platforms change. Now, Google itself is urging publishers to diversify their distribution efforts beyond search if they want it to send traffic to their properties.
Google has been stepping up its efforts to prioritize content in search results from sites that genuine human audiences find valuable, and those sites typically attract attention from a range of channels besides search, according to the company’s Search Liaison Danny Sullivan. Publishers hoping to attract traffic from Google might therefore benefit from focusing a smaller portion of their attention on it, he said.
How to eradicate involuntary churn
Publishers are losing millions in revenue every month because of failed subscription payments.
Learn how The Information is approaching this challenge and explore how publishers can recover significant revenue during an exclusive virtual forum we're hosting in partnership Butter Payments on Wednesday, July 10 at noon ET.
Google returns AI summaries for a quarter of news-related searches
AI-written summaries were returned for nearly a quarter of news-related Google search queries in mid-May in the U.S., Press Gazette observed. It remains unclear if AI responses in search results are driving users to click through to third-party sites less frequently, but publishers remain concerned they could drastically reduce the volume of search traffic Google sends to their properties.?
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News-reader startup Particle is teaming up with publishers to seek out a new business model for the AI era, where AI summaries of news don’t have to mean lost revenues. The company says it’s bringing its first publishing partners into the mix to help it guide its next steps, and has also closed on $10.9 million in Series A funding that includes investment from Axel Springer.?
News publishers lean further into games to boost subscriber retention
As interest in general news dwindles, news publishers and platforms continue to look to games and puzzles to retain subscribers.?
Learn why you're losing subscription revenue
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