The Payoff of Paid Content
Walter B. Potter Sr. Conference
Community Newspapers: Tomorrow has arrived
Reynolds Journalism Institute
Oct. 20, 2011
Over the past
10 years, the
number of
newspapers
charging for content
online
has skyrocketed,
accelerating
in the past
three years.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11
Annual increase Cumulative total
Paid content on the upswingat U.S. daily newspapers
Source: NAA, PaidContent.org
ColumbiaTribune.com
launched paid content
on Dec. 1, 2010. Why?Why? Advertising-only model
not working
Eliminate incentive to stop buying print edition
New revenue stream
Metered model – 10 free/month $8/month online-only $1/month for print subscribers Premium: All staff-produced
local content (photos, video, news, sports, blogs, obits, etc.)
Only subscribers can comment Free: Everything else (section
fronts, wire, weather, contests, classifieds, etc.)
How does it work?
One year later: How’s it going? 3,000,000 pageviews/mo. – 3x net revenue in January 500,000 unique visitors – Non-subscribers are returning Local advertising unaffected – Non-issue for advertisers More than 8,000 paying – Online-only and bundled Opt-out is key – Transparency goes a long way Few objections from readers – Quality journalism at stake
The Tulsa World metered model
Launched April 4, 2011
Print + Digital and Digital-only subscriptions
Digital: $14.99 a month per year
$15.99 a month per 6 months
$16.99 for one month
Set website to 10 page views every 30 days
Mobile and all apps require subscription
The results so far …
One of only three major American newspapers to increase market penetration in its metro region (including print and online readership) in the last year.
The results so far …
Unique monthly visitors are upVisits to the website are upOnline advertising revenue is upCirculation revenue is up Number of “cross trainers” are upSocial media refers are up