Publisher Monetization Briefing: June 24
Welcome back to your weekly briefing on how publishers are building sustainable digital businesses.
A quick programming note:?Learn how The Information is combating involuntary subscriber churn and how publishers can recover significant revenue from failed payments.?We're hosting an exclusive virtual forum on eradicating involuntary churn on Wednesday, July 10 at noon ET. Register now.
Over half of consumers are willing to pay for news
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published its annual Digital News Report last week, which reinforced many of the familiar challenges currently facing news publishers' businesses. Among them: Interest in the news is declining and avoidance of news is increasing, “platform resets” are reshaping how news content is distributed and discovered, and a portion of consumers say they’re unwilling to pay for access to news content.
Headlines around the report centered largely around the last finding, noting that the majority (57%) of non-subscribers surveyed for the report across 20 markets said they would not consider paying anything for online news. “Only a minority of consumers are willing to pay,” the report stated.?
But placed in a different light, the findings from the survey tell a more encouraging story about publishers’ audience revenue prospects. For one, 17% of respondents said they already pay to access news, up from 10% in 2014. And 43% of respondents who don’t currently pay for news said they would be willing to.?
Taken together the data therefore suggest that 53% of overall respondents are willing to pay for access to news in some capacity, and imply that there’s ample room for growth for publishers that can figure out ways to attract and convert those audiences. This is also self-reported data, of course. What consumers say and what consumers do are very different things, and not wanting to pay for something doesn’t mean they won’t.
Publishers’ businesses continue to face significant ongoing challenges, and shortcomings in terms of product-market fit will make operating sustainably increasingly difficult for many publishers in the years ahead. However, it’s clear that the news publishers most likely to survive – and hopefully, thrive – are those that can focus their attention deliberately on the opportunities they do have rather than focusing on those they don’t.
The real question facing publishers is not whether or not consumers are willing to pay for content, but what type of content consumers are willing to pay for. That might mean smaller newsrooms, greater reliance on artificial intelligence and automation, and very different editorial strategies, but the notion that “only a minority of consumers are willing to pay” for news remains relatively unfounded.
We discussed the Digital News Report in more detail on this week’s episode of The Toolkits Show.?
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.
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.
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The most difficult media moment ever
According to Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, the media needs to “do more with less… confidently and quickly throw out ideas that no longer work; jump on new ideas and technologies to do things better, faster and more efficiently; and listen closer to what readers want or need” in order to survive. ?
AI companies are ignoring robots.txt and scraping publishers’ content anyway
Multiple artificial intelligence companies are ignoring publishers’ requests to opt out of having their content scraped, content licensing startup TollBit has told publishers. The report comes amid a public dispute between AI search startup Perplexity and media outlet Forbes involving the same web standard and a broader debate between tech and media firms over the value of content in the age of generative AI. ?
Is the news industry ready for another pivot to video?
People?say they’re consuming more news content posted natively to platforms, and are increasingly turning to “news influencers” on platforms such as TikTok or YouTube to get their news rather than typical news organizations. Publishers hoping to stay relevant to younger audiences may need to step up their activity on those platforms. ?
Advertising leaders sound the alarm on the state of news
Advertisers are increasingly avoiding news content over concerns about brand safety, and it’s having a significant impact on publishers’ ability to operate sustainably.? ?
Content that evokes fear also evokes subscription cancellations
Subscribers to the German publication Bild are more likely to cancel immediately if they signed up on content that evoked fear compared with content related to more “hopeful” topics and themes. ?
The Daily Mail has developed 20 long-form shows for YouTube
The Mail’s new Global Video Studio is developing about 20 shows, including “Price of Fame”, which looks at how expensive it is to live the life of a celebrity, and “Your Body on Sport”, which looks in-depth at the physiological and medical issues facing professional athletes. ?
Zuora acquires Sub(x) to offer AI-powered subscriber intelligence
Subscription software company Zuora is acquiring Sub(x), an AI solution for media companies. The acquisition will allow Zuora to turn its paywall offering into an AI-powered paywall solution to garner better insights into subscriber behavior, the companies said. ?
More from Toolkits
Google urges publishers to diversify distribution beyond search: One of the best ways to be successful in Google search is to think beyond it, according to the company’s search liaison.
Publishers double down on subscriptions as broader challenges mount: Many believe robust subscription revenue is becoming increasingly important for maintaining viable businesses as the media landscape shifts quickly around them.
A pivotal year for news publishers: As challenges to their business models mount, 2024 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year for news publishers.
‘Lifting all boats’: Publishers explore total revenue optimization: Publishers are thinking carefully about how monetization opportunities should be prioritized to extract as much revenue as possible from their audiences.
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