Digital Subscriptions Best Practices

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Digital SubscriptionsBest Practices

Tim ThomasSVP, Business Development

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Industry Challenge

NAA says print ad revenue declined by almost 50% in past 4 years

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Industry Response• Cut expenses

RIFsFewer pages

No promotionCentralize

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Industry Response• Cut expenses• Change printing and delivery

Print others

Outsource

Get out of the mail

Deliver others

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Industry Response• Cut expenses• Change printing and delivery• Raise print prices

Single copy

Home delivery

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Industry Response• Cut expenses• Change printing and delivery• Raise print prices• More digital ads and services

MobileImpressions

Tablet

Directory

Ad mail

Video pre-roll

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Industry Response• Cut expenses• Change printing and delivery• Raise print prices• More digital ads and services• Launch digital subscriptions

Press+Registration

Hardwall

Intercept

Meter

Conversion

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What do you have to believe?

• We have unique, relevant content . . .

• . . . That some people are willing to pay for

• We have more page views than advertisers can buy

• Digital subscriptions and digital advertising can co-exist

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Baltimore’s Best

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The Product

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Use a metered approach

• 8% of users generate 80% of your traffic• 80% of users view 1-5 page views per month• “Drive-bys” aren’t interrupted• Heavy users are the most likely to pay

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Don’t be afraid to go low

• Launched at 15 page views/30 days• Lowered to 10 page views after 9 months• Going to 5 page views this year• Intercept rate: 1.5% of users see the

“Stop” box

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Meter most of your content

• Exempt home page, section fronts, classifieds, obits• Meter staff stories, photos, video pages, breaking news, wire

stories, talk boards• When in doubt, meter it• Let the market decide which content is “premium”

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Place (Distribution)

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Stop the leakage

• Apps• Mobile WAP• RSS feeds• Content alliances• E-edition

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• Desktop site• Apps – iPhone, iPad, Droid phone• HTML5 site• Loyalty site• E-Edition

Package “All Digital Access”

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Pricing

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Use trial pricing

• Reduces consumer perception of “ commitment risk”• Automatically rolls to regular rate• Gets credit card number• Gets email address• Gets physical address for better “match” to print subs• High retention rate

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Charge print subscribers for digital(but at a much lower rate)

• Establishes value right away• Digital has more content than print• Digital is real time• Conversion rate is about the same as registration• Keep the charge on the statement reasonable (<$20)

Print Subs Digital Only

4-week trial 99 cents 99 cents

Weekly rate 99 cents $3.99

Charged to credit card 10 weeks 4 weeks

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“All” new print starts to include digital• Introductory rate increased through most channels• % increase allocated to digital circulation revenue• Direct mail/FSI allows print-only start

New weekly rates Weekend 4-day

Print-only 99 cents $1.99

w/Digital Access $1.99 $2.99

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Decide rules and process for comp accounts

• Exempt meter within your IP range• Remote access for news, sports, photo• Ad reps• Agencies• Large advertisers• Content partners• Other papers in your corporation• Execs• Bloggers

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Set institutional pricing• Libraries, law firms, chambers, government, colleges• User ID/Password vs IP exclusion• Set annual rate per person• Higher per-person discounts for more people

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Promotion

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Announce ahead of time

• Publisher letter to readers• Press release• FAQs• Employees

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Anticipate reader issues “If you make me pay, I’ll just go somewhere else for my news.” “Why do I have to pay for a digital subscription? I already pay for the paper.”

• Establish FAQs and post on your site

• Arm the newsroom and CSRs with FAQs+

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Tie promotion to these issues

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Tie promotion to unique content

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Promote in all channels Email marketing Print ads, wraps and front page notes Contest on loyalty site TV spots Kiosk and door-to-door sales Direct mail and print inserts EZ-Pay postcards Subscriber bill inserts

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Anchor homepage link to splash page

Up at launch Makes it easy for

people to buy

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Pay Attention[The 5th P of Marketing]

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Watch your digital inventory to ensure ad commitments are met

Used to having unlimited inventory

Higher targeting should mean higher CPM

Tighten up the discounting Kill “value added” Watch charity and house

ads

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Results

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Page Views Down, Users Up

JunAug Oct Dec Feb Apr

JunAug Oct Dec Feb Apr

JunAug Oct Dec

Monthly Page Views

JunAug Oct Dec Feb Apr

JunAug Oct Dec Feb Apr

JunAug Oct Dec

Monthly Uniques

-18%

+12%

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Ad revenue grew

2010 2011 2012

Digital Revenue

Advertising Consumer

While adding a new revenue stream

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Almost 30K new subscribers

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So, come on in. The water is fine.