April 26, 2024
In five languages (English, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian) and two U.S. printing, “Newsonomics: Twelve Trends That Will Shape the News You Get” is the first Ken Doctor book. Sign up here for notice of the new Newsonomics Readers.
Inevitably, many consumers will buy subscriptions through Apple. That’s a good thing - and a lead list for newspaper companies. Let Apple sign up new subscribers, happily providing the 30% commission. Even if the publisher doesn't get much customer data (about 50% are withholding it, given the ...
Read MoreWe’re into an era when we can no longer play ignorant. We can decry the “content mill” methodologies of the Demand Medias, Examiners, and AOLs, but unless traditional news people understand — and apply as they see fit, working with their own long-standing news principles — data-driven knowledge ...
Read MoreIs part of the plan a backdoor Sunday paper/digital access new bundle? Three of the people I talked with on the day of the announcement had begun to run the subscribe-to-Sunday, get-free-digital access numbers in their head. At a $4-a-week introductory rate, that’s $208 a year. Which gets you ...
Read MoreIt’s a high price, a gamble, and a big hedge — see Test 5 below — against print subscribers migrating too quickly to the tablet. Since it is not charging print subs, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get non-print people to pay a minimum of $195 a year for something that was free, and it ...
Read MoreHow big will the Morning News payoff be? Let's look at the emerging one percent rule here. If the Morning News were to get -- after some period of time -- one percent of its 4-5 million monthly uniques to sign up for a digital-only subscription, and stick, that would be worth $9 million a year. ...
Read MoreConventional Wisdom #1) Readers won't pay for non-business content. Yes, we know that readers will pay for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, and that Consumer Reports, which helps us save money, counts more digital subs than anyone else. While some smaller dailies have begun to ...
Read MoreLet's consider the new Associated Press-lead push for an industry-wide "rights consortium." While its daily newspapers try to stand taller on the two legs of digital ad and reader revenue, the business that could emerge from this new company is about syndication. In that sense, it could be a ...
Read MoreThe idea, then, in Boston, is to rebuild, over time, that strong two-legged business. In short, this is two-headed strategy: retention and switch.
Read MoreNegotiation is helped greatly by competition. Ironically, Google, the first big web middleman to drive the newspaper industry nuts, may prove useful here as its Android-powered tablets (Samsung, Dell and more) take on the iPad. Can Google strike a 10% deal with the newspapers, setting a ...
Read MoreIsn't Apple wanting 30% of fees for apps a little like [Sony CEO] "Howard Stringer demanding 30% of the revenue produced by TV shows running on Sony TV sets"? That's how a friend put it to me when we talked today. It's a confusing world, no doubt, but still Apple is fundamentally a ...
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