Without room to cut prices, publishers extended Cyber Monday subs promotional periods PLUS Apple News growth slows

December 06, 2022

I'm just about to release a report at Pugpig about the state of mobile publishing so like any big deadline, that has most of my attention so apologies for a very late newsletter coming out today.

The folks at Toolkits have an interesting piece about changes that publishers seem to be making to their promotional deals. From what they see, publishers either don't want to or aren't willing to cut prices anymore so instead, the specials they were pushing during Cyber Monday were about extending the promotional period. Interesting.

There were a series of stories that show the differences in media businesses and channels. Bloomberg is still powering through with a 20% increase in revenue and a 25% rise in ad revenue. In this increasingly challenging environment, that's just wild.

But then there are the linear, cable news channels - Sky and CNN, which are going through major transitions. Sky is looking to a post-broadcast future, and CNN is shutting down its Headline News Service, which was mostly watched in airports. What role does a rolling news channel have in a world of on-demand news?

PLUS Social Media Today looks at the Chinese super-app WeChat. This is what Musk is alluding to when he talks about transforming Twitter into a super-app. But have his antics shortened his runway so that he has no hope of achieving these aspirations?

With little room left for discounting, publishers attempted to entice new subscribers with extended promotional periods instead.

I hate to skip right to the payoff, but it's a good one. "At some point, heavily discounted long-term promotional offers cease being a smart conversion strategy and begin to look more like a house of cards, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty. The question is where that line lies, and how confident publishers are in their ability to identify it."

Bloomberg Media CEO M. Scott Havens sent out the following on Thursday: Greetings all. Although a bit delayed, I am happy to report that through the end of the third quarter in 2022, Bloomberg Media increased its year-to-date total revenue by 20% year over year, highlighted by a 25% increase in total advertising revenue – […]

The standout thing about these results is how Bloomberg is growing revenue not just through subscriptions but through advertising. It really highlights the differences between volume publishers and subscription-driven publishers serving high-end niches.

The growth of Apple News+ appears to be slowing, new circulation figures obtained by Press Gazette suggest.

Torrid, double-digit growth usually ends at some point for most platforms and so it has for publishers (on aggregate) on Apple News+. It's still driving some significant numbers though.

Changes in Cable News on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Exclusive: departure of John Ryley, who has been in charge of Sky News since 2006, expected to be announced on Monday

I have had a hypothesis that eventually cable news channels would be replaced with on-demand video because it is rare that you have to be live so what do you do the rest of the time? Fill air? Why? And if you don't have to do that, then it opens up a lot of other opportunities.

Mediagazer presents the day's must-read media news on a single page.

...and data point number two about cable news. Headline news is an app these days not a linear TV channel.

Fallen Crypto Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried could convert investment in Semafor into minority holding

The now and future (?) super-app

Social Media Today

As I wrote above, this is the kind of super-app that Musk is referring to for his aspirations for Twitter. WeChat, Grab and other Asian apps are already there. Facebook had aspirations of achieving this, but it seems to have fallen short of those lofty ambitions.

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, journalists have even more of a love-hate relationship with the platform.

Advertisers booking at least $500,000 in incremental spending would be matched, up to a $1 million cap

Cuts at CNN and Gannett

From person-to-person coaching and intensive hands-on seminars to interactive online courses and media reporting, Poynter helps journalists sharpen skills and elevate storytelling throughout their careers.

From an operational standpoint, one could argue that Gannett eliminating its Digital Optimisation Teams (DOT) makes some amount of sense in that they are trying to protect reporting resources. But that work will now fall back onto reporters and an already thin editorial management staff.