Playing the Long Game

“Subscriptions is a long game. Investing in content takes money. And investing in data takes years.”

That is a quote from a recent closed-door roundtable session involving a number of European news publishers, organised by Readly.

A recurring theme running throughout the discussion was the importance of data. And that there are no silver bullets, quick fixes or cheap options - it’s a long and expensive game. Many significant publishers have underestimated the time and investment required to carve a position in the current market.

Overshadowing everything at the moment are the ongoing discussions with the main social platforms about paying for content. While getting them to pay at all is a major step forward, the sums of money on offer from the platforms simply aren’t big enough to make a major dent in newspaper finances.

The forum was wide in its scope; we covered -

The pandemic - it’s been good for the industry in helping to boost news consumption by consumers but has altered internal working practices in ways that are both positive and negative. Last year’s pandemic panic, which saw publishers give away far too much in cheap, short-term offers.

This year’s retention challenge - holding on to last year’s gains.

The practicalities of “making it all happen” - a number of companies are still operating in internal silos which are slowing down developments.

While everyone knows the critical importance of data – it drives everything including content creation, marketing and customer service – there are some serious challenges in “making it all happen”. Having the right organisational structure to manage the rapid influx of new skills and talent is the first issue, which few people have resolved fully yet, especially in the more commercial departments.

Then, there is the commitment to creating and maintaining a robust tech platform. And whether to buy-in or build in-house. Nowhere is this more critical than with the analysis of data. Having the right infrastructure in place is a necessity when it comes to sorting out which are the metrics that matter and knowing how to utilise them to drive positive change.

What became very clear from the discussion is how data is allowing us to dive deeper and deeper into the reader’s whole lifestyle – their interests and values and the way they think. Yet that level of detail creates its own problems. 

Each reader is an individual and increasingly wants to be treated like one – that means AI in every aspect of content creation, marketing and customer service to deliver a real 121 relationship. The volume of data is also producing data overload in many publishing companies. And few companies have actually got the tech stacks in place to make it all happen at the moment anyway.  

So, despite the hectic speed of the world we’re living and working in, some things are actually taking longer and costing more to put in place than many imagined. Yet some publishers are getting there, but only with bold marketing, strategic investment and quick execution. And a big dollop of data!

There is a more detailed summary of the key discussion points from the first Readly Roundtable, which took place on 15 April 2021 and which focused on Newspapers. Representatives from Axel Springer (Germany), Der Standard (Austria), The Telegraph (UK) and the UK press attended. The session was facilitated by Jim Bilton, Managing Director of Wessenden Marketing. For the full summary, click here