WAN-IFRA: How segmentation and 'mini-publishing' strategies are helping publishers grow digital subscriptions PLUS Do you know who created your NFT?

January 25, 2022

I thought I hit send on this yesterday, but it would appear that I didn't. We regret the error.

As publishers shifted emphasis on their revenue mix from being heavily (if not overly) dependent on advertising, reader revenue has become a key pillar of sustainability. And today's stories show the shifts in strategy and the marketplace itself. WAN-IFRA shows how publishers are looking how to bettter serve audience niches and how to entice those segments into becoming paying customers.

Subscription powerhouse Piano is partnering with data firm Snowflake as publishers look to better use data to optimise their strategies.

And one revenue experiment that publishers are exploring are NFTs - non-fungible tokens. The FT reports that while the tokens might be non-fungible scammers looking to cash in on the trend are uploading any ole digital asset to NFT trading platforms, even if they don't own the rights to them. The FT has been running quite a lot of sceptical crypto coverage recently. It's easy to do when risky crypto assets collapse, as they have been doing since November. For media, this means that they should be positioning themselves as a trusted source of NFTs and be selective about the marketplaces they use or even come together to establish their own NFT marketplaces.

Speaking of investments, there is money flowing into media investments again. Bloomberg reports that venture capital investment flowed into media space last year at twice the rate than any previous year.

Also, Google is facing opposition to phase out third-party cookies even as publishers prepare for a post-cookie world.

WAN-IFRA has published a new report sharing insights from newsrooms working on creating robust digital businesses. The report, “Understanding your audiences in a deeper way,” is based on learnings from the second round of the Table Stakes Europe (TSE) program. It shares practical tips and strategies used by participating publishers to understand their readers better …

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

The strategy is to build a narrow audience of passionate followers and then go broad.

Or as MediaGazer summarises: "PitchBook: VCs invested $1.4B in US and European publishing startups in 2021, more than twice the investment of any previous year"

From a Big Tech crackdown to the rebirth of local news, 16 future-minded thinkers predict where journalism will be in 15 years.

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News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

This week's Media Briefing looks at why some publishers would prefer to completely reset the online ad market amid the third-party cookie's demise.

The rich niche: Publishing is thriving so long as you cater to the affluent The last few years has demonstrated that there are “riches in niches” (yes…it doesn’t rhyme in British English, but moving on…!) Generalised scale plays have largely struggled to effectively monetise audiences, while those that have gone narrow and deep are doing …

Law Council and defamation experts warn government’s bill offers little protection and could deprive victims of redress