How and why to conduct experiments to optimise your subscription offer page PLUS @damianradcliffe explains why you need a proper YouTube strategy

August 26, 2022

David Tvrdon of The Fix looks at how major media companies have fine tuned their subscription offerings, and my friend Damian Radcliffe looks at the YouTube efforts of media companies, explaining why they need an intentional strategy when using Google’s video platform.

It’s a good round up of product led companies and thinking using data and experiments to build habits and grow revenue.

Take a look at how NYT, WSJ, Bild, FT, The Guardian and Le Monde’s subscription offer pages evolved over the decade.

David Tvrdon looks at the subscription pages of major media companies, and he shows how they have adopted the same methods as technology companies to test various approaches to maximise their subscription efforts.

You probably have a presence on YouTube, but do you have a specific strategy for the platform? If you don’t, then it's time to address that.

Damian Radcliffe is right. YouTube has a huge audience, and yes, it reaches younger audiences. And he is right to highlight a quote from Nic Newman, the lead researcher for the Reuters Institute of Journalism digital media report, that most publishers have undervalued YouTube when it comes to their approach at reaching audiences. Some of this comes down to the fact that a lot of publishers think in terms of words, and YouTube is video focused.

The reality is that many approaches to YouTube and other highly trafficked sites isn’t very strategic. It isn’t like the purposeful product experiments that David highlights but rather just to have.a presence there.

Zephr will bring its dynamic paywall technology to the subscriptions company.

The question that this raises is whether we’ll see consolidation in the subscription technology space as economic times become challenging in the coming year.

“This is all done in the vein of increasing distribution of our content to more people,” CEO Mike McCaffrey said.

Distribution of content alone isn’t sufficient to build a business.

If cost-cutting is necessary, new thinking is required

Dick Togel is right. “…very little of that expense cutting is likely to be creative, to truly re-think aspects of print newspapers as their secular decline continues. Like most everyone else, I prefer growing revenues to cutting expenses as the best route out of difficulty.”

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

A good overview of how the industry has changed through the eyes of executives and analysts.

"Douglas McCabe, chief executive of Enders Analysis, told Press Gazette: 'It’s an industry that during [the past ten to 15 years] has literally changed its definition.'

'You would struggle to find a large publisher that would even describe itself as being in an industry called ‘magazines’. These businesses now think of themselves as passion businesses, hobby businesses or audience businesses.'

Podcasts are a great way to listen to and learn about the topics you love in a deeper, more nuanced way, and now they’re coming to Twitter.

Twitter announces that podcasts are coming to Spaces.

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

“It is now working hard to create habits and keep as many of those subscribers as possible with a drive towards innovation and being ‘product-led’.” And they see podcasts are part of their effort to build habits and revenue.