‘Focus(ing) on readers who pay’ with tightening the paywall PLUS discussing build versus buy for publishers

September 06, 2022

If there is one change of mind that I have had, it is the view about digital subscriptions. I have seen too many news groups fail in their race for scale and an advertising supported business. And in doing so, they have ended up losing focus on their core audiences to cover stories that while they might drive traffic, they do so at the cost of their customer base (out of ariel traffic for instance) and eventually their product suffers. Particularly for local news groups, scale-based businesses send the wrong signals to the business and lead them to optimise their products in often self-destructive ways.

On the flip side, those businesses that built subscription-based products focus on signals that align with their core customer interests and ultimately rely on signals that align with their business and editorial goals. With this alignment, their products grow stronger and their businesses more resilient. WAN-IFRA has a CEO panel discussion that highlights this.

We also have a survey about young people’s news consumption from the AP, a build vs buy discussion from the Press Gazette and a career journey that points a path for someone who wants to get into data visualisation.

2022-08-30. CEOs of three top publications came together to discuss COVID’s impact on business, the transition from print to digital, and the revenue tussle between media companies and big tech.

COVID accelerated digital trends for media companies. I often heard in the first waves of the pandemic that business leaders were seeing behaviours at a scale they didn’t expect for another decade. WAN-IFRA gathered three CEOs to talk about these changes, and the idea that tightening up a paywall allowed one CEO and his company to focus on paying readers is something that I have heard time and again over the past decade. And for many publishers, it has allowed them to focus on exclusive content instead of commodity content that might drive a bump in traffic but not conversion.

Young people are following the news but aren't too happy with what they're seeing, according to a new poll.

The AP and the American Press Institute conducted a poll about news consumption patterns of 16-40 year olds - Gen Z to Millennials. They found that 79% consumed news daily, and a quarter say that they pay for a news product. Some 90% say that misinformation is a problem, with 60% saying that it's a major problem. Only 32% say that they actually enjoy following news.

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.

Even when I wasn't working for a SaaS app and website platform, I had an opinion about the buy vs. build choice (only a handful of companies really have the resources to build their own tech solutions). This is a good overview of the various considerations for media companies making the choice.

My career path in data visualization might best be described as meandering.

Amanda Makulec writes about her 'meandering' path to a career in data visualisation.

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.

"...Pink News has seen a total revenue growth of 300% year-on-year every year since joining Discover and that he has been pleased with Snapchat’s advertising monetisation potential which has seen 'continual growth'."

Members of the INMA Advertising Initiative Advisory Council shared their thoughts on first-party data and how their media companies are taking control of their own data destiny.

The intersection of advertising and subscription data has become important for publishers, and they also stressed transparency as audiences seek privacy.