Category results for "Revenue"

Redefining media revenue: the search for new ‘DVD sales’

October 31, 2024 Richard E. Brown, Media Revenue Consultant

One of my new favorite YouTube channels is First We Feast, specifically the show Hot Ones, where celebrities answer great interview questions as they eat progressively hotter wings. While it’s always entertaining, a recent interview with Academy Award winner Matt Damon really stuck with me because of the way it parallels what is happening with news media today.

He was asked about the macroeconomics of Hollywood, particularly how streaming has affected the subjective quality of content compared to decades ago. Damon explained how DVDs once generated huge revenue, allowing studios to take more creative risks because they could rely on profits from DVD sales after a film’s theatrical release. He shared an example from a studio executive who explained that making a movie would, in theory, cost $25 million, with another $25 million for print and advertising. Gross box office receipts are then split with theater owners, who typically keep about half. This structure means the film would need to earn around $100 million just to break even or beginning to even discuss profit.

Safe bets versus experimentation and adaptability

This hit me close to home, even though I’m in a different industry. It made me think about how the news media industry has also undergone drastic changes due to technology, shifts in audience consumption habits, and declines in traditional revenue streams like print subscriptions and classified ads. Both industries now take fewer risks in unpredictable environments, arguably leading to a drop in content quality and diversity. While exceptional work is still produced, the shift toward safer, commercially viable content is evident. Yet the evolving landscape hints at a future that demands a more integrated and adaptive approach.

Hollywood content creation, as Damon suggests, centers on box office hits that drive significant revenue in their theatrical run. In news media, revenue reliance is on digital ads, subscriptions, and paywalls.

Damon’s discussion of the economics of film made me wonder: What’s the new “DVD-sales” for the news media industry? What will create sustainable revenue beyond conventional methods? As technology advances, I believe the solution is in building new models that effectively leverage current tech and audience trends to offer long-term financial stability.

While traditional news content remains important, it’s clear that audience expectations constantly evolve. Technology unlocks new possibilities which organizations must experiment with to master. At the same time, communities and influencers are reshaping how audiences connect with news. To stay relevant, news media has to adapt to these changing consumption patterns and provide deeper engagement. It’s time for journalism to meet these evolving demands, focusing on the key areas that will define the future of news and become the industry’s new “DVD-sales.”

Diverse and individualized identity in media

As audience preferences evolve, identity and self-representation are becoming central to media consumption. People no longer want just content—they want content that reflects their values and creates a sense of belonging. Subscriptions, affiliations, and donations have become extensions of personal identity, allowing individuals to support causes, movements, or news platforms that align with who they are or aspire to be. This shift is empowering. It fosters deeper connections between the audience and the media. However, it requires representation and relatability.

Audiences increasingly seek a voice in the content they engage with. Community-led journalism and immersive experiences meet this demand by offering behind-the-scenes access, deeper insights into investigative reporting, and platforms for expressing concerns and successes within communities. These media-driven town halls—both in-person and virtual—create spaces where passion and substance shape the conversation. Historically, community-led journalism has also empowered underserved groups. It gives them ownership of their stories, fosters empathy, and reinforces a sense of identity as individuals see themselves reflected in the content.

Mission-driven partnerships

As audiences seek media that reflects their authentic selves, corporations and philanthropic organizations are aligning with news outlets that share their values to forge impact-driven partnerships that open new revenue opportunities for news media. These partnerships—particularly with philanthropic foundations, renewable energy companies, and organizations focused on health and sustainability—fund journalism with shared societal goals. Rooted in corporate social responsibility, they empower journalism to deliver objective reporting while driving meaningful social change.

By supporting investigative journalism, documentaries, and projects that resonate with consumers’ values, these partnerships enhance engagement and create a sustainable, mission-driven funding model. And companies that invest in media that align with their core values forge deeper connections with consumers who see these efforts as an extension of their own identities. This trend could shift news revenue models from short-term advertising to long-term, scalable partnerships, offering a significant and exciting opportunity for the future of news media.

Transformative role of technology

While sticking with the tried-and-true tactics may seem like the safe bet, the industry will need to reinvigorate its spirit of innovation and risk to best connect with ever-evolving audience expectations. Technology has empowered today’s audiences to be more authentic by providing quicker access to information and more immediate ways to explore their interests. Information access helps people understand themselves and the world around them with greater speed and depth.

Newsrooms can harness this shift by embracing immersive reporting through interactive experiences like AR and VR, which allows individuals to step into different perspectives, fostering empathy and engagement. These immersive technologies, from placing reporters on the front lines to using interactive learning platforms, enable audiences to connect more deeply with content, helping them refine their views and consider how they want to contribute or enact change.

The real breakthrough, however, is in AI’s role in driving personalized engagement. AI allows news organizations to deliver hyper-personalized content based on individual habits and preferences, a process once manual and time-consuming. With AI-enhanced data insights, organizations can understand their audiences at a granular level, offering timely, relevant, and highly customized content. This deeper connection with consumers anticipates their needs and creates impactful experiences, potentially transforming how news is consumed and delivered.

The road ahead for media revenue

So where is this all leading, and how does this become the new “DVD-sales” for news media? The answer lies in a transformative, identity-driven, community and tech-powered ecosystem where audiences help shape the content. This approach will foster loyalty and create scalable, sustainable revenue beyond traditional ads and subscriptions. By leveraging the combined power of community and technology, news organizations can form partnerships with purpose-aligned entities, redefining how journalism is funded and experienced.

I envision a digital platform where users actively participate, voting on story ideas or contributing content in an environment that tackles local and global issues. With AI and data-driven personalization, users can receive tailored content and news organizations can create high-demand immersive experiences like virtual town halls.

If you’re wondering how these ideas translate into reality, take a look at City Bureau in Chicago, which is already putting some of them to work. This journalism lab is reimagining local media by equipping communities to address information inequity. Their Documenters program trains and pays residents to cover local government meetings, boosting transparency and citizen involvement.

This concept upholds journalistic integrity, ensures accuracy and drives meaningful community involvement. It integrates the community into the editorial process without compromising professional standards. The approach builds authentic connections and strengthens trust, which is crucial for attracting corporate sponsorships and philanthropic partnerships. No, it does not come in a handy book-sized package like the DVD. However, this is a model that puts the audience at the center to build a sustainable model through experimentation in how the news is made, delivered, and funded.

Featured Post | Innovation | Revenue | Video

How Crooked Media leverages video for podcast audiences

September 26, 2024 T. J. Raphael – Independent Media Reporter

It’s been nearly 20 years since Apple took podcasts mainstream, but the tech giant seems to be losing its grip on audio audiences: A recent study out this summer found that YouTube is now the most used podcast platform in the U.S.

That’s left some publishers and podcast production houses scrambling to figure out a video strategy to complement their audio-only offerings. But there’s at least one player in the game that seems well prepared for the platform shift: Crooked Media.

The company, which is focused on news, politics, and liberal-leaning commentary and analysis, currently boasts more than 40 podcasts in its portfolio. And video is a big part of Crooked Media’s strategy — but they’re not just playing on YouTube. The company is also pushing video content on TikTok, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter). And even better? Crooked Media is generating revenue along the way.

The YouTube video-podcasting strategy

“We started putting streams of Pod Save America on YouTube in early 2018,” says Matt DeGroot, the company’s vice president of production.

These days, every audio-only episode of an ongoing and regularly published Crooked podcast also has a video component, which is uploaded to YouTube. For Crooked, the foray into video has been part of a deliberate plan to grow its audience.

“Really the biggest impetus there and why we’ve pushed so hard is that people who consume podcasts on a traditional platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, tend to go to those platforms knowing exactly what they’re looking for. So, there isn’t a ton of discoverability,” DeGroot says.

“Everyone uses YouTube, and YouTube — for better or for worse — knows what people want to see. YouTube will find our shows and basically serve it up to people,” he says. “And people on YouTube might be a little more curious and willing to take a chance on new content.”

Over time, Crooked has built a significant audience that is unique to the platform. It has 10 channels and playlists that are updated regularly, and the company currently claims more than 1.2 million YouTube subscribers.

When a big news event happens, Crooked can leverage its political commentary and analysis from a show like Pod Save America and tap into an audience who may already be searching YouTube for information. “If there’s a big story happening and Pod Save America is doing an episode, reacting to it or explaining the context, that’s a great opportunity for someone new to sort of stumble upon it,” DeGroot says.

For example, earlier this month, the company posted a segment from Pod Save America that featured the hosts of the show discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate performance, and global superstar Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Democratic candidate.

Those events were dominating broadcast news, digital media outlets, and social platforms. And Crooked was there, ready and waiting for curious YouTubers to find them. Their video on the subject got nearly 730,000 streams as of this writing, and is one of the top 15 most popular videos on their channel.

“We’ve really been able to harness that power and seize those moments in a way that is hard to do on a podcast platform, where, like I said, people really know what they’re looking for when they open the app,” DeGroot says. “YouTube just gives us more opportunity to find new people.”

Beyond giving people a new entry point to their content, video gives audiences a new format to access the Crooked universe. “More and more with the advent of smart TVs, we’ve been seeing a lot of people who are really consuming the YouTube product from their televisions and treating it like watching the evening news,” DeGroot says.

This is especially true for older audiences.

“My mom, bless her heart, she does not know how to use a podcast,” DeGroot says. “She doesn’t know how to find a show there. But she knows YouTube and she knows how to type in Pod Save America and get to the channel and pull up the latest episode.”

However, while video has helped build Crooked Media’s audience, the experience remains audio-centric. “We get anecdotal comments of people saying, ‘Oh, I put this on while I’m making dinner.’ They may not be watching it a hundred percent with their eyes on the screen the whole time, so it’s still somewhat of an audio experience, because they’ll have it on in the background while they’re cooking.”

Cashing in on YouTube

Because the company publishes Crooked Media’s podcast content as YouTube videos, its ad sales team has more touch points to offer potential sponsors.

“YouTube runs ads and we have that aspect of monetization. But then our sales team also does sell against that for the podcasts,” DeGroot says. “So an episode of Pod Save America, for example, the ads that appear in the podcast when you listen are also in the YouTube version.” In this way, a client gets a two-for-one. It can buy ads from one media company and get two distinct audiences.

In addition to selling to two audiences, Crooked is also leveraging video content to create exclusive offerings for advertisers. “That’s something we’ve started doing this year — having a single sponsor,” DeGroot says. “Someone like ZBiotics sponsors Hysteria’s ‘This F*cking Guy’ series. So we’ll include a 30 second ad read in the middle of the video, and maybe a short mention of the sponsor at the beginning. It’s a great way to add that additional revenue and help pay for the production costs that do naturally come with video, because it is a time consuming and work intensive thing.”

However, Crooked is looking beyond advertisers when it comes to monetizing video. The company has a paid subscription offering — called “Friends of the Pod” — which provides subscribers with ad-free podcast feeds, bonus content from Crooked hosts, and the ability to talk directly with on-air talent on Crooked’s subscriber-only Discord server.

“Friends of the Pod” also get subscriber-only YouTube shows. “One is a weekly, called, Terminally Online, and then we have a couple biweekly shows — Dan Pfeiffer’s Poller Coaster, and another election special called Inside 2024,” DeGroot says. “Those are available as both audio and video components to subscribers.”

While Crooked Media is going big on YouTube, it’s not the only social video platform the company is publishing on. “There are real opportunities in that sort of shorter form content,” DeGroot says. “We are not oblivious to the fact that a lot of people, if they see a video on YouTube even if it looks really appealing to them, if it’s 90 minutes long, they’ll say, ‘I don’t have time for that. I’m not gonna take a chance on this random video.’”

To counter this, Crooked Media will splice one of its full length episodes into shorter clips — something that’s 60 or 90 seconds long — and upload that content to TikTok, Instagram, or X. “People are willing to give that a chance,” DeGroot says. “They’ll see a video short clip and be like, ‘Oh, what are these people saying?’ And from there it draws them in and makes them curious to hear more,” which could lead them to YouTube or a podcast platform.

Pod Save America has about 14,000 followers on TikTok, but their short videos reach way more people than that. A recent post discussing a press conference that former President Donald Trump had garnered more than 100,000 views.

Crooked’s podcast host will also create what DeGroot calls “ancillary” content — behind the scenes moments that still speak to the brand’s broader tone. That might include the hosts’ live reaction to Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his recent criminal trial, or an on the ground video message from the Democratic National Convention.

“For those videos that live on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube shorts, it’s a feature that we’ve been really pushing lately and finding a lot of success with,” DeGroot says. “We’ve found that doing those types of things really helps the content spread on those platforms and bring in new people who then get excited to watch the podcasts.”

For DeGroot, the video strategy across platforms is all about creating more touch points — for audiences and advertisers.

“It’s gonna take some time to build that audience, and you really have to nurture it over time,” he says. “As long as you keep on your patterns, stay with it, and stay consistent, you will get the rewards from that.”

Advertising | Featured Post | Policy | Revenue

How Meta’s news ban reshaped Canadian media

September 12, 2024 Jessica Patterson – Independent Media Reporter

It’s been a rough year for publishers and broadcasters in Canada. In the wake of Meta’s news ban, Canadian news publishers and broadcasters have faced declines in online traffic, engagement, and revenue. As the publishers we spoke to illustrate, the ban, implemented last August in response to Canada’s Online News Act, has dramatically altered the media landscape – and not for the better.

A recent study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory underscores the profound effects of these changes on Canadian media. The report, which examined the effect of Meta’s ban on Canadian news, revealed that news outlets lost 85% of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram, leading to a total engagement decline of 43%.

“Canadian news organizations lost an enormous amount of their online viewership,” explained Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory and co-author of the study. “They’ve been heavily relying on the distribution channels of Google and part Meta to get their work out there.” The study found that Canadians consumed less news as a result of the ban, and that Canadian news outlets saw a reduction of 11 million views a day.

The report, titled Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta’s News Ban in Canada, found that approximately 30% of local news outlets in Canada are now inactive on social platforms. “Their digital presence has basically collapsed and they’re no longer connecting to the social web,” he said.

Navigating a power struggle

Meta’s news ban in Canada underscores the current struggle and challenges news media face amid the power of the platforms. Facebook began blocking Canadian news on its platform and on Instagram, in response to Canada’s Online News Act, which passed in June 2023. The legislation requires big tech companies like Meta and Google to pay media outlets for the news content they share on their platforms.

Rather than pay, Meta simply blocked Canadian news sharing on its platforms altogether. Within weeks, News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada filed an antitrust complaint against Meta accusing it of abusing its position.

However Meta claims that complying with the legislation would require them to pay for links to news content. Thus, they said they didn’t want to operate in what they considered an unfair regulatory environment.

“(The) legislation misrepresents the value news outlets receive when choosing to use our platforms. The legislation is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true,” the company said in a statement. “News outlets voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to expand their audiences and help their bottom line. In contrast, we know the people using our platforms don’t come to us for news.”

Meta argued that their platform provided significant value to Canadian news publishers by driving over 1.9 billion clicks to their content in the year leading up to April 2022. The company valued that at $230 million in “free marketing.”

Meta’s decision in Canada recalls a similar situation in Australia in 2021, where it briefly banned news on its Australian platforms in response to the threat of regulation under that country’s News Media Bargaining Code. More recently, Meta stated that it will not renew any existing deals with Australian news outlets, nor those in France and Germany. In other words, it looks like Meta is taking a global stand against supporting news on its platform.

Impact of platform news bans on publishers

In Canada, the impact of the news ban was immediate. Traffic from Facebook plummeted, leading to a sharp decline in audience reach and digital ad revenue. Many Canadian publishers, especially smaller and independent outlets, faced increased financial strain as they lost traffic.

Chuck Lapointe, CEO of Narcity Media Group, saw years of investment disappear because of the ban. Since 2013, his online outlets have thrived as “social-first” platforms, relying heavily on Facebook and Instagram for distribution. Meta’s abrupt ban severed Narcity and MTL Blog’s connection to Canadian audiences, cutting off revenue streams tied to branded content deals and partnerships.”Right away, all of them were blocked and Canadians were not able to see our content. That was an immediate hit to revenue,” Lapointe said.

Facebook pages for Narcity and MTL Blog, which had well over 3 million followers, went dark. Lapointe watched as his audience dropped as a result. “We lost 50% of our traffic overnight, which impacted perception and trust.” He also found that “some writers and journalists said that they didn’t want to work with us because they can’t share their work openly.”

Great West Media, which produces 20 print publications across Alberta, also saw traffic and revenue decline. “If we look at traffic as the prime factor in driving revenue, then yes, the Meta news ban had a serious impact,” said Brian Bachynski, president of Great West Media.

Despite the Meta news ban, Great West has still managed to grow its audience online. The company is using a variety of methods, including a strategy for breaking news, newsletters, SEO and more. However, Bachynski said “I’m certain if Meta hadn’t banned news in Canada, our numbers would be greater.”

He has concluded that it is in no business’ best interest to rely heavily on a third party as the primary driver of revenue. “Because ad volume is predicated upon page views, the Meta ban has depressed traffic to our websites and therefore our ability to drive revenues. These revenues, however, are not enough to operate a plausible business,” he said. “Even without Meta’s ban, our audience isn’t large enough to exist on the extremely low ad rates carved out by the monopolistic practices of Meta, Amazon and Google.”

The decline in traffic appears to have been part of a longer-term trend in Canada, according to David Beers, editor in chief of The Tyee, a B.C.-based independent, online news magazine. Even before the official block, he watched The Tyee’s Facebook engagement dropping over the previous year—evidence that Facebook was already adjusting its algorithms to deprioritize news.

“We saw it. It was unmistakable. We compared notes with other publications. They saw the same,” Beers said. “It really throws a lot of doubt on Facebook’s claim that if it weren’t for the Online News Act, they would be supportive and sharing a lot of news on their site.”

Beers said that Facebook may be using Canada as an example to deter similar regulations in larger jurisdictions like California and the European Union. However, he said, “no one pays attention to Canada, so there’s no price to be paid by depriving us of the sharing of news.”

Meta decides what’s news

The ban rollout was also messy because it affected media outlets that don’t produce news. Among them was the satire and parody publication, The Beaverton, and campus radio stations, from CIUT 89.5 at the University of Toronto to CJSW 90.9 at the University of Calgary.

CJSW Station Manager Adam Kamis believes campus radio stations were included in the list of news agencies simply because they are community media, rather than being assessed individually. “We lost our Instagram and Facebook about this time last year,” he explained.

CJSW, which has been broadcasting since 1957, has 110 music, spoken word and multicultural programs in more than 10 languages. They have volunteer hosts talk about stories that matter to them, Kamis explained. “And, we don’t even really do news reporting that much.”

“Now we’re getting no money and we have no use and access to these services. And though our presence is rooted in the auditory experience, we live in a world where the visual needs to be part of the presence as well. Without that, it’s like we have the worst of all possible worlds befalling us where we have no presence and no money.”

As a campus community radio station, CJSW relies on community and listener engagement. They leverage their following for ads and sponsorship. The ban impacted the station’s ability to sponsor local music festivals and its annual funding drive, which generates essential revenue to support station operations, programming, and services.

It’s usually an amazing opportunity to share on social media, but not with a ban in place, Kamis said. “Last year was our first year without it,” Kamis said. “We were able to leverage our connections with our friends of the community to help… but that’s a thing I don’t want to rely on year after year.”

Meta’s interpretation of what qualifies as news posed a particularly ironic challenge for digital outlet Narcity–one that demonstrates the subjectivity of the company’s decisions around what to block. “The government doesn’t hold an official list of news organizations that Meta would have to comply with,” said Lapointe. “So Meta… relies on their interpretation of which companies would be captured. And right now, you are automatically part of the law if you are a QCJO company.”

For years, Narcity tried to receive a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO) designation, which must be determined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to qualify for journalism labor tax credits. Narcity was denied the qualification in 2021. It resubmitted in 2022, and was denied again.

“Essentially [the government] doesn’t believe that we do enough original news content to get the validation or to get the designation for our news organization, which would allow us to get the subsidies. It would allow us to get the QCJO, which would’ve included us automatically in the Online News Act,” Lapointe said.

After the denial of the QCJO, Lapointe used the rejection letter–which says that the government does not recognize it as a news organization that is engaged in the production of original news–to Meta for reconsideration. “The government does not believe that Narcity is a news organization, so why would Meta?” Two days later it regained control of its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Workarounds, circumventions, and modified hyperlinks

The ban made it difficult for news outlets and emergency officials to get information out to the public during public safety emergencies. Over the last year, officials noted that misinformation about the fires was rife on social media, encouraging the public to tune in to radio or to live blogs for accurate updates on the dozens of wildfires burning across Western Canada. As a wildfire closed in around the city of Yellowknife, Ollie Williams, the editor of Yellowknife-based news station Cabin Radio, got around the Meta ban by posting a live blog.

So, with news no longer accessible on Meta platforms, Canadians have turned to creative ways to share information that is important to them. The Media Ecosystem Observatory study revealed prior to the ban, there were about 19 posts per week with Canadian news screenshots. After the ban, this number surged to an average of 68 posts per week.

Canadians continued to share and circulate news through direct links to an X (formerly Twitter) post, which then links to the news website. They also copy and paste text.

Another way Canadians shared news on Meta platforms was by making a video with a news story in the background, talking about or responding to the events, Bridgman said. “That person, that influencer is producing engagement on the website using news content, and so they are distributing the news content.”

CJSW’s Kamis saw CJSW spelled out phonetically as a workaround. “It’s so funny. We can be on Threads because nobody’s on Threads, but this is how cynical the business model is. We’re allowed to be on Threads because no one’s on Threads.”

The future of media and news consumers at risk

Long-term ramifications for publishers are emerging, including obstacles for new launches, future growth and reaching some communities with news. According to Beers, Facebook is often the only major means of distributing information in rural, non-metropolitan areas in Canada. Many First Nations live in rural areas and Facebook acts as their source of news.

“In rural places, they’re cut off. And because Facebook purchased social license to be the place where you shared information, other alternative forms of news did not grow there,” he said. “Why would I start up a small little website in Fort Nelson or something when everyone’s on Facebook sharing news?… These places are deprived. It’ll take years, if ever, for them to come up with an alternative.”

The Observatory’s report also highlights what Bridgman called “a collective shrug,” among Canadians. Instead of actively seeking out news from reliable sources, there is a growing expectation that information will find its way to people through their existing social networks and everyday media consumption.

The behavior highlights a “news will find me” attitude. However, he said that Canadians aren’t getting their news on Facebook and Instagram any longer, so the thought is that they must be getting it somewhere else. Unfortunately, “we have very little evidence to suggest Canadians are doing that at all,” Bridgman said. “Gone are the days when you would seek out information actively, you would be an active participant in that process.”

Meta’s news ban in Canada has had a profound impact on the media landscape, though only 22% of Canadians are aware that the ban exists, according to the MEO study. It resulted in a dramatic and immediate impact on traffic, a decline in revenue, views and engagement and diminished trust, underscoring the need for new strategies to engage audiences outside of social platforms.

“I don’t think anyone looks at this and thinks this is good. It has hurt Canadian viewership of news. It has hurt Canadian news organizations. It has hurt journalism in that sense. It has hurt the ability to hold truth to power. None of that is good,” Bridgman said.

The situation Canadian news publishers find themselves in emphasizes the need for innovative business models that do not rely heavily on social media platforms for distribution and revenue.

If journalism is crucial for a healthy democracy, then we need to find ways to support its news-gathering efforts, at arms length from government, Bachynski said. Bachynski suggested implementing a taxation policy whereby digital ads and services are purchased, and a ‘journalism’ tax is applied to it, which could significantly bolster news gathering and reporting. Lapointe also mentioned the possibility of subsidizing innovations around business models.

However, as he and others have noted, the need for smart regulatory interventions becomes urgent when news organizations’ survival is tied to the whims of tech giants.

“Having this third party mediator between the content is highly risky and many have been saying that for years. And here is the proof in the pudding: relying on an external company to manage that relationship puts you at extreme vulnerability. If they decide to pull the rug out, that’s what happens,” Bridgman continued.

The Economist on the value of consumer research

August 1, 2024 Esther Kezia Thorpe – Independent Media Reporter

The Economist is an industry leader when it comes to subscriptions innovation: Last year, they paved the way in audio by paywalling all but one of their podcast portfolio. The Economist’s multi award-winning Espresso app has been used as a blueprint for other publishers looking to offer a sample of content behind a cheaper paywall. Earlier this year they also launched the largest brand campaign since the early 2000s in a bid to attract younger readers.

What binds these initiatives together is a strong consumer research team. In addition to brand building and surveying about new initiatives or products, this team is also involved in almost all aspects of the organization, from retention efforts to optimizing its growing B2B business.

The Economist’s Global Head of Consumer Research Seema Hope believes that this is a function more publishers should be seriously considering to optimize subscription efforts. There is real value to be gained in getting to know audiences on a deeper level, even for those without paywalled products.

Getting to know consumer research

Hope’s Consumer Research team is one of the few which has ongoing communication with readers. “We get a lot of dialogue through editorial; people write in,” she noted. “But that two-way conversation is where we come in, and we take that really seriously. We’re there to represent what consumers are saying, and it’s our job to be frontline and independent on that.”

The team is made up of a mixture of disciplines, from UX and design to data and research. Hope firmly believes that it is more important than ever to bring these together rather than operate in silos. “You want to make sure that you’re understanding everything about the consumer, not just the way they’re interacting with a product. You want to understand their needs and motivations,” she explained.

This does add a layer of pressure on research teams to specialize in multiple methodologies. But Hope has seen this be advantageous for careers. Her team has people who are strong in UX, qualitative research and talking to people, as well as experts in qualitative and statistical methodologies. As consumer researchers, being able to operate across all of these means that they can work more effectively with teams across the business, from product to consumer marketing. “We touch nearly every aspect of the organization. And that can only get wider,” Hope said.

An internal and external independent voice

One reason the consumer research team at The Economist is so effective is because they believe in taking stakeholders on the research journey with them. “We won’t just deliver a project and say: ‘Here you go,’” Hope said, explaining how they anticipate any resistance to findings. “We start in partnership with them, working out what the objective is, what the business challenges are. Then our job is finding the right methodology to get them to a deeper understanding.”

Most of the projects the team are involved with are “quite iterative, with constant dialogue,” so findings aren’t a surprise. Hope also outlined that her researchers are often embedded in other teams while a project is ongoing so that everything is transparent. For example, if a consumer has made a statement about user experience in a video, that video is shared with the relevant people in The Economist’s Slack channels.

This perception extends to their interactions with participants, too. “It’s really important that we’re independent when we’re talking to consumers, and we make it really clear that you’re not going to hurt anyone’s feelings [with honest feedback],” Hope said. Constant and open dialogue with customers helps, as does keeping each other’s biases in check internally, with the team ensuring they’re not asking leading questions or putting a spin on data interpretation.

Currently working on growth and retention – once customers are acquired, how do we best keep them, as well as brand perception. Also students and what loyalty means for a news org.

Uncharted territory with Podcasts+

One prominent example of the Consumer Research team’s influence was in in shaping The Economist’s Podcasts+ program. Last October, the publisher moved all but its daily The Intelligence podcast behind a paywall, offering a separate podcast subscription product.

Planning for this was a challenge as virtually no other publishers had made such a move (and still haven’t!). Many consumers will have never come across a paid-for podcast until they hit The Economist’s paywall.

The decision to charge for podcasts was one the whole company stood by. It seemed incongruous to have such a significant product available for free when nothing else was? But they had concerns about how audiences would respond. Hope’s team started with needs, behaviors and motivations. This shaped their messaging and approach.

“It was interesting the way the project evolved. Our consumers were telling us, ‘I can see why you’re doing this. You value your journalism. It’s really in-depth. It’s well-researched. It’s amazing to hear the voice of the journalists in my ear. I feel a real personal connection to this person,’” she explained. “So in the end, our consumers told us the kind of language that we should use when talking to them.”

It took months of conversations and rigorous testing before they arrived at a model that made sense for the publication, as well as one consumers would take up. The Intelligence daily podcast would remain free as a daily touchpoint. However, all other weekly and daily shows would be available for $4.90/month, or as part of the full Economist subscription package.

Hope says that there has been uptake not just of the podcast-only package, but also to the full subscription. One finding that her team were able to pick up was the perception of increased value now that the podcasts were paywalled. “Once you start charging for something, people put more of a value on it. So it’s changed that perception of quality content because they’re now paying for it, and increasing their listening,” she noted.

Now, their focus is on understanding how to move people along the funnel from free to podcast to full subscriber. Hope’s work is never done; consumer research is an ongoing dialogue as tools, technology and behaviors evolve. “I think it’s naive to think you get it right the first time. It’s naive to think that you stop learning. So we rarely say, ‘That’s the end of a project’,” she said.

Lessons from The Economist’s consumer research

Hope has had over 16 years working in audience research, and firmly believes it’s a role all publishers should have to inform decisions across the business. It’s a role that changes and evolves. “But at the very crux of it, we are, as publishers, curating and creating content for a person,” she emphasized. “If you don’t understand what they’re thinking and the why, what, who they are as people, it’s very difficult to adapt what you’re doing.”

We may have more data and insights than ever before into our audiences. But this can’t always provide the full picture about what is going on with consumers. To truly create products that audiences not only enjoy, but are willing to pay for, benefits greatly from insights that run deeper than data. For The Economist – ranked sixth most effective subscriber conversion publisher globally – having a dedicated consumer research team to get under the skin of what really makes their audience tick is clearly paying off.

Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Media organizations must be smart about cost management

July 24, 2024 George Adelman, Principal – FT Strategies

In an era marked by diverse economic and market challenges, a rigorous cost management strategy is vital for media organizations pursuing sustainable revenue. However, with increased pressure on the top line (declining referral traffic, print circulation and advertising revenues) as well as rising costs (labor, supply chain, materials and technology), the route to financial sustainability is not always obvious.

This article explores practical methods that will help media organizations improve profits by examining four key areas: people, process, technology, and capital operating expenditures (capex/opex).

1. People: enhancing efficiency and organizational structure

Improve employee efficiency and organizational structure
Efficient organizational structures are crucial for media companies to remain agile and competitive. The best approach involves redesigning organizational structures to improve efficiency and reduce costs. By streamlining the workforce, aligning roles with strategic goals and fostering a culture of collaboration, companies can enhance productivity and adaptability.
Skills and ways of working
Enhancing the skill sets of employees and streamlining workflows are essential to boost productivity. This involves continuous training programmes, adopting flexible work arrangements, and leveraging collaborative tools to improve team efficiency. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, media companies can ensure that their workforce remains competitive and adaptable to industry changes.

2. Process: streamlining and enhancing operations

Streamlining and enhancing key processes and operations
Optimizing processes includes reviewing and refining workflows to eliminate inefficiencies and redundancies By leveraging data and analytics, companies can identify bottlenecks and implement process improvements that enhance overall efficiency. Streamlined operations lead to faster decision-making, reduced costs, and improved alignment with strategic objectives.
Production costs
Aiming to reduce the costs associated with the creation and production of content is crucial. This involves optimizing production schedules, negotiating better terms with suppliers, and leveraging economies of scale. By focusing on cost-effective production methods and utilizing technology to automate repetitive tasks, media companies can significantly reduce production expenses.

3. Technology: delivering tech efficiencies

Digital efficiencies
Optimizing digital operations to reduce costs and increase collaboration and reach is critical in today’s media landscape. This involves adopting advanced digital tools and platforms that enhance content creation, distribution, and monetization. By streamlining digital workflows and improving user experience (UX), media companies can drive efficiency and boost profitability.
Reduced reliance on physical infrastructure
By shifting to cloud-based solutions and reducing reliance on physical infrastructure, media companies can lower operational costs and improve scalability. This transition not only reduces overheads but also enhances the speed and flexibility of digital operations, enabling companies to respond swiftly to market changes.

4. CapEx/OpEx: optimizing capital and operating expenditures

Business/product consolidation
Streamlining assets and functions that are not adding value and focusing on more profitable areas is another key aspect of our approach. This includes consolidating underperforming business units, divesting non-core assets, and prioritizing high-margin products and services. Such strategic consolidation helps in reducing overheads and generating capital for reinvestment in growth areas.
Efficient supply chain management
Enhancing the efficiency of supply chain and distribution networks is essential to minimize costs. This involves adopting just-in-time inventory practices, optimizing logistics, and renegotiating supplier contracts to secure better terms. By improving supply chain management, media companies can reduce wastage and ensure timely delivery of content.

Cost benefits: targeted savings across the board

Media companies seeking to improve profitability through strategic cost management can expect a number of significant benefits, including:

Cost savings from streamlined workforce
Streamlining the workforce and aligning roles with strategic goals leads to significant cost savings.
Reduced costs in content creation/production
Optimizing production processes and schedules can significantly reduce content creation costs.
Bargaining power/supplier negotiations
Strengthening bargaining power through strategic supplier negotiations and optimized production schedules helps in reducing costs.
Enhanced employee productivity
Continuous training and development programs, coupled with streamlined workflows, boost employee productivity.
Streamlined digital workflows and increased speed/performance
Adopting advanced digital tools and platforms streamlines workflows and enhances performance
Lower overheads and capital generation
Streamlining operations and consolidating non-core assets result in lower overheads and capital generation.

Cost management and the path to profitability

In the face of significant financial pressures, media organizations stand at a critical juncture to ensure their future sustainability through strategic cost management. By implementing the strategies outlined above, your company can streamline its operations, reduce expenditure and enhance productivity, future-proofing your business and setting you on a path to sustainable profitability.

About the authors

George Adelman is a Principal at FT Strategies, he joins us from Monitor Deloitte with over a decade of experience in strategy consulting and in-house advisory. Leading strategy development, service design and digital transformation teams, he has advised senior leadership from across both the public and private sectors.

Jhanein Geronimo is an Associate Consultant at FT Strategies that supports the ongoing development of media and subscription expertise. She studied BSBA Corporate Management (Summa Cum Laude) from Assumption College, San Lorenzo.

How media companies can succeed in podcasting: Slate’s secret

July 18, 2024 T. J. Raphael – Independent Media Reporter

Podcasting — it’s been a hot business since Serial became a cultural phenomenon back in 2014, spurring SNL skits and inspiring satirical spinoffs on streaming networks. In the years since the true crime megahit launched, there’s been a podcasting goldrush among publishers, and for good reason.

There’s a hunger among audiences for quality audio content. More and more people are tuning into podcasts: Last year alone, nearly 100 million Americans listened to podcasts every week, according to Edison Research.

But as an increasing number of media companies, brands, and individuals have ventured into a growing sea of audio productions (there are 450 million podcasts out there in the world), the water has become rough and murky. Last year, the audio industry saw mass layoffs, canceled productions, and shrinking ad revenue.

It’s led some to question whether podcasting itself was just a passing trend, a la the disastrous 2015 media industry “pivot to video.” Yet, as the audio industry and the publishers who create podcasts come off a “year of reckoning,” it’s clear that one brand seems to have figured out a way to build something solid from podcasting.

A podcasting business with sustainable revenue

Slate dove into the podcasting business with the Slate Political Gabfest in 2005, back when people were still listening on iPods, which is how the medium got its namesake. Since the early aughts, the Slate Podcast Network has put out dozens of shows. Its audio catalog currently boasts more than 20 titles, including listener-loved and award-winning programs like Slow Burn, Decoder Ring, and Death, Sex, and Money.

Today, podcasting accounts for a whopping 50% of the company’s advertising revenue. But audio isn’t only about ad sales for Slate. “We know membership is a huge part of keeping our business diversified overall, and podcasts are a big part of that,” says Heidi Strom Moon, Slate’s Director of Subscriptions.

The Slate Plus membership program started in 2014, and podcasts have been woven into its fabric since the jump. In each of the Slate Podcast Network’s shows, podcast listeners will hear on-air hosts encouraging them to join Slate Plus, via the Slate website, or hear pre-recorded ads directing listeners to sign up.

To support the company’s overall subscription business, “We do things like run remnant inventory ads (for Slate Plus) across the network to let people know about different shows and episodes that we’re doing,” says Strom Moon.

When signing up for Slate Plus, a member can get a three month trial for $15.00, and a full subscription runs $119.00 per year. You might be wondering: Why, exactly, would someone stop listening to a free podcast to sign up for a paid subscription? The answer is built into Slate’s strategy.

“Within each show, we talk a lot about what the benefits you’ll get by joining Slate Plus,” says Heidi Strom Moon. “Those include ad free (listening) benefits, extended listening, and premium episodes that you’ll get as a member. And a lot of that is what drives people to subscribe. Across many of our shows, we have exclusive episodes, extended episodes, and other kinds of bonus content, which we’ll be doing even more of in the weeks and months to come. ”

And the strategy is working. Last year, company revenue from Slate Plus increased 33%. Strom Moon says that AMICUS, Slate’s podcast on jurisprudence and the law, is one of the Slate Plus’ stand-out success stories.

Using podcasting exclusivity to drive paid subscriptions

“AMICUS is one of our big drivers of membership,” she says. “They do weekly standalone bonus episodes for members. So (on air), they’ll talk about what members can get in their bonus episodes each week.”

When listening to AMICUS, the benefits of the Slate Plus membership program are touted, and some of those benefits are intrinsically tied to content strategy. As the Supreme Court reached the end of its term this year and dropped major, bombshell decisions every week of June, AMICUS hopped into action to cover and dissect the rulings in weekly emergency podcast episodes — unscheduled content designed to react to the breaking news — and integrated Slate Plus into the strategy.

“For example, just going into that regular weekly cadence of having a standalone Slate Plus exclusive episode, especially when we do the emergency drops, we’ve seen a 146% increase in (Slate Plus) conversion since we’ve gotten to that regular weekly cadence (covering new Supreme Court decisions),” Strom Moon says.

So how does Slate Plus work from a technical standpoint? When members sign up on the Slate website, Slate Plus listeners get exclusive podcast feeds — the place where new episodes appear and live within a listening app ecosystem. The exclusive feeds can be accessed through the Slate mobile app, or anywhere listeners are already getting their audio content.

“Slate Plus members can subscribe directly on the Slate website, and from there if you’re already using a podcast app that you love and you wanna continue using, you can go ahead and add your premium feeds to any of those apps,” Strom Moon says. “We have partnerships with platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts to make it easier for people to subscribe on those platforms, if that’s where they’re listening and subscribing. We offer all of those options so that people can pick and choose what works best for them.”

While AMICUS may be offering listeners something immediate — quick reaction to what’s going on with Supreme Court rulings on a given day — Slate Plus is also tapping its audio back catalog to drive subscriptions.

“One thing we recently did is we resurfaced an evergreen series that we had done a few years back, called The Queen,” Strom Moon says. “We decided that was really good content that people would be interested in again. So we resurfaced that, and that has led to new conversions as people rediscovered this really interesting story.”

Gaining control of your audience through podcasting

While podcasts are a huge driver for Slate Plus, audio is only part of the success story.

“So it’s a combination of benefits for both listeners and readers,” Strom Moon says. “So on the written side, because of the metered paywall (on the Slate website), Slate Plus members get unlimited access to everything Slate — hundreds of articles a month, plus our extensive written archive of almost 25 years of content. We also have member exclusive advice columns. So if you’re an advice fan, and a lot of our readers are, you get even more advice as a Slate Plus member. We also have a member newsletter and a Facebook group.”

For Slate, it’s all about creating multiple touch points and offerings to get audiences to sign up.

“Slate Plus continues to be a big priority because we do think there’s a lot of opportunity for growth there,” Strom Moon says. “It’s the line of business we have the most control over.”

Advertising | Industry-Research | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

How brands’ LGBTQA+ ad-pullback impacted publishers

July 17, 2024 Brett House, SVP, Product GTM & Strategy – MediaRadar

For years, June’s Pride Month has been a beacon for brands to demonstrate their support for the LGBTQA+ community, often translating into vibrant advertising campaigns across various media outlets focused on these demographics. Historically, these initiatives have served as a celebration of diversity and inclusivity. They’ve also provided a lucrative opportunity for LGBTQA+-themed publishers who saw significant increases in advertising spend during this period.

However, recent trends indicated a significant shift in Pride Month advertising. Brands have increasingly and unfortunately retreated from public LGBTQA+ supportive ad campaigns, influenced by last year’s Bud Light backlash and growing anti-LGBTQA+ legislation. This pullback did not just take the form of a reduction in rainbow-themed products but was deeply reflected in advertising spend. Major players like Target and Starbucks scaled back their Pride-themed offerings and the ripple effect dampened the financial outlook for LGBTQA+-focused advertising this past Pride Month.

Trend analysis: beyond pride month

This retreat hasn’t been confined to June alone. While our data for this period is still pending – a more comprehensive analysis will be available by mid-July – we analyzed advertising spend across 18 LGBTQA+-themed media outlets including national TV, print publications, and online channels, revealing a broader trend that predates Pride Month. In the first four months of 2024 alone, there was a noticeable decrease in advertising commitment. Here’s a detailed data breakdown:

2023 overview

In 2023, the landscape appeared strong, with more than $63 million spent on advertising across selected LGBTQA+ media outlets, marking a 38% increase from the $45.5 million recorded in 2022. Top advertisers such as pharmaceutical brands Biktarby, Spravato, Dovato, Cabenuva, and Apretude significantly contributed, each investing more than $1.8 million.

Early 2024 trends

The momentum shifted in 2024. From January to April, these outlets witnessed a fairly massive 10% decrease in advertising spend compared to the same period in 2023, with $17.9 million spent down from $19.9 million. However, this still represented a 40% increase from the $12.8 million noted between January and April of 2022. Yes, this is better than 2022. But the numbers suggest a volatile advertising environment for these publishers.

Notable declines

Prominent advertisers like Spravato, My Pillow (surprise!), Vitamin Water, and Harlem (an Amazon Prime Video series) slashed budgets almost entirely. This contributed to a collective $2.2 million drop year-over-year. Similarly, Cabenuva and Virgin Voyages cut expenditures by at least 60%, tallying up to a $929K reduction.

Impact on LGBTQA+ publishers

This decrease in advertising spend could be dire for LGBTQA+-focused media outlets that rely on these revenues. These publishers undoubtedly faced a tough loss this year. As brands retreat, the onus falls on LGBTQA+-focused publishers to find new ways to attract and retain advertisers, ensuring they can continue to serve their audiences effectively.

A strategic reassessment

For brands and advertisers, this LGBTQA+ advertising pullback calls for a strategic reassessment. It is crucial to recognize that while immediate reactions to socio-political pressures might seem necessary, they can also undermine long-term brand loyalty and consumer trust, especially within the LGBTQA+ community.

To navigate this complex landscape, brands should consider more sustainable and genuine engagement strategies that extend beyond the confines of Pride Month. This could involve year-round support through consistent representation in advertising, sponsorship of LGBTQA+ events, and partnerships with LGBTQA+ organizations. By integrating inclusivity into the core of their brand ethos, advertisers can build deeper, more authentic connections with their entire customer base.

The road ahead

These advertising insights underscore a cautious approach taken by brands, reflecting a broader hesitation across industries to engage in what has become a politically-charged atmosphere. For LGBTQA+-focused publishers, the challenge will be to navigate this new landscape where traditional peaks in advertising spend are no longer guaranteed. Depending on the 2024 election, we could see even more volatility.

Publishers in this space must now innovate and perhaps look to diversify their brand customer base. With Pride Month shouldering less of the annual revenue, it may be helpful to consider higher impact media types like video and native advertising to help mitigate losses. Above all, media companies should focus on fostering year-round partnerships with brands willing to commit to diversity, equity and inclusion, regardless of the prevailing political climate.

This data not only sheds light on the challenges facing LGBTQA+-focused publishers but also signals a conservative shift across the entire brand landscape, especially during an election year. Heightened scrutiny and polarization have made advertisers more cautious about brand safety– focusing on where and how their ads are displayed. Publishers that provide content with universally appealing themes, such as family, lifestyle, and travel could attract more advertisers, as a result.

Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

A post-cookie revenue risk and revenue replacement playbook

July 1, 2024 Art Muldoon, CEO – ArcSpan Technologies

Regardless of how many times Google delays its cookie phase out, publishers need to understand what’s at stake for them in the advertising ecosystem post third-party cookies. Media companies also need to be aware of the various data operations strategies then can experiment with to position themselves for success as first-party data moves to the fore.

ArcSpan Technologies analyzed the extent to which the looming deprecation of third-party cookies in digital advertising requires publishers to revamp their audience data operations in order to maintain and grow their sales results. Through quantifying the expected data monetization disruption that digital media companies face over the coming 12-18 months, we found that there are proactive solutions that offer ways publishers can mitigate material revenue losses.

What’s at stake for media companies

CPMs on Google Chrome will decrease 42%: Based on the value of programmatic advertising over the past eight months based on the presence of third-party cookies (“3PC”) across browsers.
Google Chrome 3PC deprecation puts 25% of publisher’s total revenue at risk: The impact of a 42% decrease in Google Chrome CPMs translates to a 25% overall revenue loss for median publishers in the study.

To measure the potential impact of impending third-party cookie deprecation, ArcSpan analyzed data across a number of top-tier and mid-tier publishers. By dissecting publisher revenue according to channel, browser and cookie presence, we were able to identify the portion of revenue most vulnerable to cookie deprecation.

The analysis looked at the revenue distribution between Direct Sold and Programmatic channels, of which Programmatic is expected to experience the most pronounced revenue impact. ArcSpan observed an average distribution of 20% of revenue stemming from Direct Sales, while 80% was sourced through the programmatic channel.

Next, we analyzed the percent of programmatic impressions and revenue in which third party cookies were present. While these impressions comprised 68% of total programmatic impressions, they accounted for 80% of programmatic revenue. Finally, we isolated the revenue attributable to Chrome browsers in which third-party cookies were present.

**CPM decrease with no third-party cookies present**

Among the publishers analyzed, a median of 60% percent of total revenue was associated with programmatic impressions delivered via the Chrome browser where third-party cookies were present. This portion of revenue will thus be the most impacted by CPM decreases in the event that third-party cookie deprecation occurs without viable and scalable alternatives.

The analysis further quantified the potential revenue impact by observing CPM differences based on whether third-party cookies were present or absent. According to our research, impressions lacking third-party cookies cleared at 42% lower CPMs. To summarize, ArcSpan identified a potential scenario in which 60% of publisher revenue could decrease by 42%, netting a 25% decrease in overall revenue.

Revenue risk grows to 35% amongst heaviest programmatic and Chrome-driven publishers

While a potential revenue decrease of 25% represents the median in our research, the range of outcomes can vary greatly across the publisher spectrum. ArcSpan highlighted a quartile of publishers who were most at-risk as a result of cookie deprecation. Publishers in this quartile tend to have greater than 95% of revenue sourced via programmatic, and greater than 85% of programmatic revenue coming from Chrome programmatic impressions with third party cookies. For this quartile of publishers, the total revenue at risk increased from 25% to 35%.

Advertising success without third party cookies

Leading media companies are developing strategies to both prepare for a future without third party cookies and mitigate potential revenue losses under those conditions. These strategies typically take the form of a portfolio management approach and upgrading publishers’ revenue operations tools with a focus on first-party data quality, accuracy and scale.

These options can support both direct and programmatic revenue:

Develop a first party data strategy: Publishers are creating compelling first-party audience segments by processing and organizing contextual, content consumption, engagement, and offline data signals. Publishers are also investing in collecting first party data from their users by offering on-site engagement tools such as surveys and polls, while more premium publishers have been able to acquire registered and even subscription users. They can then develop differentiated data product offerings to both earn data premiums and grow direct sales.
Participate in audience curation opportunities: In this scenario, publishers with and without a direct sales team can feed audiences into curated deals that meet the buy-side needs to target consistent audience definitions at scale across multiple publishers. By partnering with the right platforms, publishers can leverage A.I. and machine learning to automate site content and data processing to create scalable audiences with accuracy and consistency.
Establish an identity framework: Testing different identifiers to determine open auction uplift is critical for publishers. There needs to be a consistent approach to onboard alternative identifiers and measure their incremental impact in programmatic transactions under different scenarios (type of browser, SSP, etc).
Incorporate first-party data signals in the bid stream: While still evolving offerings like Google PPS and Prebid SDA offer an opportunity to push high quality data signals into the bid request and potentially positively influence bidding behavior.
Explore dynamic flooring: Publishers can leverage machine learning in conjunction with their proprietary data signals to optimize programmatic auction prices.

These options have different degrees of impact and different levels of effort to implement. But as a portfolio, they will help drive incremental revenue in a changing environment.

Although Google has (repeatedly) delayed the timeline for Chrome third-party cookie deprecation, leading publishers are keenly aware that they cannot become complacent. ArcSpan’s research highlights the revenue at stake in the event publishers are forced to accept the level of CPMs that are associated with cookieless impressions today. Regardless of a publisher’s level of readiness, it is important that they identify tools and platforms that can comprehensively address the portfolio of strategies that will enable them to protect and grow their revenue.

Featured Post | Innovation | Perspectives | Revenue

Insights from a tour of 16 NYC news, media and tech giants

June 20, 2024 Damian Radcliffe, Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism – University of Oregon

Last month, I co-led a week-long journalism program during which we visited 16 newsrooms, media outlets and tech companies in New York. This study tour provided an in-depth snapshot of the biggest issues facing the media today and offered insights into some of the potential solutions publishers are exploring to address them.

We met with everyone from traditional media players – like The New York Times, Associated Press, CBS and Hearst – to digital providers such as Complex Media and ProPublica, as well as conversations with academics and policy experts. Based upon these visits and conversations, here are four key takeaways about the state of media and content publishing today.

1. Hands-on AI experience matters

Not surprisingly, AI dominated many conversations. Although recent research shows the American public is both skeptical and surprisingly unaware of these tools, the emergence of Generative AI – and the discussions around it – are impossible to ignore.

One mantra oft repeated throughout the week was that everyone in the media will need to be conversant with AI. Despite this, research has shown that many newsrooms are hesitant about adopting these technologies. Others, however, are taking a more proactive approach. “I like playing offense, not defense, Aimee Rinehart, Senior Product Manager AI Strategy at the Associated Press, told us. “Figure out how the tools work and your limits.”

Audiences share the reticence seen in some newsrooms about the use of AI in journalism. But media players cannot shy away from the impact of this technology in terms of what they do and how they do it.

With many media companies having to do more with less, AI can help improve workflows, support labor-intensive work like investigative journalism, as well as streamline and diversify content creation and distribution. By harnessing these AI-powered functions, smaller outlets may benefit the most, given the efficiencies these resource-strapped players may be able to unlock.

Reporting on AI is also an emerging journalistic beat. This is an area more newsrooms are likely to invest in, given AI’s potential to radically reshape our lives. As Hilke Schellmann, an Emmy‑award winning investigative reporter and journalism professor at NYU, told us “we used to hold powerful people to account, now we have to add holding AI accountable.”

Echoing Schellmann’s sentiments, “every journalist should be experimenting with AI,” one ProPublica journalist said. “We owe it to our audience to know what this is capable of.”

2. Demonstrating distinctiveness and value is imperative

One fear of an AI-driven world is that traffic to publishers will tank as Generative Search, and tools like ChatGPT, remove the need for users to visit the sites of creators and information providers. In that environment, distinctiveness, trustworthy and fresh content becomes more valuable than ever. “You need to produce journalism that gives people a reason to show up,” says Ryan Knutson, co-host of The Wall Street Journal’s daily news podcast, The Journal.

In response, publishers will need to demonstrate their expertise and unique voice. That means leaning more into service journalism, exclusives, and formats like explainers, analysis, newsletters, and podcasts.

Bloomberg’s John Authers, exemplifies this in his daily Points of Return newsletter. With more than three decades of experience covering markets and investments, he brings a longitudinal and distinctive human perspective to his reporting. Alongside this, scoops still matter, Authers suggests. After all, “journalism is about finding out something other people don’t know,” he says.

Media players also need to make a more effective case as to why original content needs to be supported and paid for. As Gaetane Michelle Lewis, SEO leader at the Associated Press, put it, “part of our job is communicating to the audience what we have and that you need it.”

For a non-profit like ProPublica that means demonstrating impact. They publish three impact reports a year, and their Annual Report highlights how their work has led to change at a time when “many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting.”

“Our North Star is the potential to make a positive change through impact,” Communications Director, Alexis Stephens, said. And she emphasized how “this form of journalism is critical to democracy.”

The New York Times’ business model is very different but its publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, has similarly advocated for the need for independent journalism. As he put it, “a fully informed society not only makes better decisions but operates with more trust, more empathy, and greater care.”

Given the competition from AI, streaming services, and other sources of attention, media outlets will increasingly need to advocate more forcefully for support through subscriptions, donations, sponsorships, and advertising. In doing this, they’ll need to address what sets them apart from the competition, and why this matters on a wider societal level.

“This is a perilous time for the free press,” Sulzberger told The New Yorker last year. “That reality should animate anyone who understands its central importance in a healthy democracy.”

3. Analytics and accessibility go hand in hand

Against this backdrop, finding and retaining audiences is more important than ever. However, keeping their attention is a major challenge. Data from Chartbeat revealed that half the audiences visiting outlets in their network stay on a site for fewer than 15 seconds.

This has multiple implications. From a revenue perspective, this may mean users aren’t on a page long enough for ad impressions to count. It also challenges outlets to look at how content is produced and presented.

In a world where media providers continue to emphasize growing reader revenues, getting audiences to dig deeper and stay for longer, is essential. “The longer someone reads, the more likely they are to return,” explained Chartbeat’s CMO Jill Nicolson.

There isn’t a magic wand to fix this. Tools for publishers to explore include compelling headlines, effective formats, layout, and linking strategies. Sometimes, Nicolson said, even small modifications can make all the difference.

These efforts don’t just apply to your website. They apply to every medium you use. Brendan Dunne of Complex Media referred to the need for “spicy titles” for episodes of their podcasts and YouTube videos. Julia D’Apolito, Associate Social Editor at Hearst Magazines, shared how their approach to content might be reversed. “We’ve been starting to do social-first projects… and then turning them into an article,” she said, rather than the other way round.

Staff at The New York Times also spoke about the potential for counter-programing. One way to combat news fatigue and avoidance is to shine a light on your non-news content. The success of NYT verticals such as Cooking, Wirecutter, and Games shows how diversifying content can create a more compelling and immersive proposition, making audiences return more often.

Lastly, language and tone matters. As one ProPublica journalist put it, “My editor always says pretend like you’re writing for Sesame Steet. Make things accurate, but simple.” Reflecting on their podcasts, Dunne also stresses the need for accessibility. “People want to feel like they’re part of a group chat, not a lecture,” he said.

Fundamentally, this also means being more audience-centric in the way that stories are approached and told. “Is the angle that’s interesting to us as editors the same as our audiences?” Nicolson asked us. Too often, the data would suggest, it is not.

4. Continued concern about the state of local news

Finally, the challenges faced by local news media, particularly newspapers, emerged in several discussions. Steven Waldman, the Founder and CEO of Rebuild Local News, reminded us that advertising revenue at local newspapers had dropped 82% in two decades. The issue is not “that the readers left the papers,” he said, “it’s that the advertisers did.”

For Waldman, the current crisis is an opportunity not just to “revive local news,” but also to “make better local news.” This means creating a more equitable landscape with content serving a wider range of audiences and making newsrooms more diverse. “Local news is a service profession,” he noted. “You’re serving the community, not the newsroom.”

Even though local journalism is typically more trusted than national media, the hollowing-out of newsrooms has created an information vacuum in many communities.

According to new analysis, the number of partisan-funded outlets designed to appear like impartial news sources (so-called “pink slime” sites) now surpasses the number of genuine local daily newspapers in the USA. This significantly impacts the news and information communities receive, shaping their worldviews and decision-making.

Into this mix, AI is also rearing its ugly head. While it can be hugely beneficial for some media companies—“AI is the assistant I prayed for,” says Paris Brown, associate editor of The Baltimore Times. However, it can also be used to fuel misinformation, accelerating pink slime efforts.

“AI is supercharging lies,” one journalist at ProPublica told us, pointing to the emergence of “cheap fakes” alongside “deep fakes,” as content which can confirm existing biases. The absence of boots on the ground makes it harder for these efforts to be countered. Yet, as Hilke Schellmann, reminded us “in a world where we are going to be swimming in generative text, fact-checking is more important [than ever].”

This emerging battleground makes it all the more important for increased funding for local news. Legislative efforts, increased support from philanthropy, and other mechanisms can all play a role in helping grow and diversify this sector. Steven Waldman puts it plainly: “We have to solve the business model and the trust model at the same time,” he said.

All eyes on the future

The future of media is being written today, and our visit to New York provided a detailed insight into the principles and mindsets that will shape these next few chapters.

From the transformative potential of AI, to the urgent need to demonstrate distinctiveness and value, it is clear that sustainability has to be rooted in adaptability and innovation.

Using tools like AI and Analytics to inform decisions, while balancing this with a commitment to quality and community engagement is crucial. Media companies who fail to harness these technologies are likely to get left behind.

In an AI-driven world, more than ever, publishers need to stand out or risk fading away. Original content, unique voices, counter-programming, being “audience first,” and other strategies can all play a role in this. Simultaneously, media players must also actively advocate for why their original content needs to be funded and paid for.

Our week-long journey through the heart of New York’s media landscape challenged the narrative that news media and journalism are dying. It isn’t. It’s just evolving. And fast.

Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

How publishers can use predictive audiences to grow revenue

May 28, 2024 Danish Ahmed, Director of Product Management – Nativo

Publishers have faced intense headwinds in recent years when it comes to protecting and growing revenue streams. However, there are some equally powerful tailwinds that the industry needs to acknowledge and embrace to put publishers on a viable path forward. Perhaps the most significant one is predictive audiences.

Predictive audiences, supercharged by growing AI capabilities, offer publishers multiple paths to increased revenue. Even more importantly: sustainable revenue. Let’s explore why that is, and the ways in which publishers can incorporate these capabilities into their monetization plans.

A sustainable path within a landscape of crumbling identifiers

When Google announced its latest stay of execution for third-party cookies, some publishers breathed a(nother) sigh of relief. Third-party cookies have long been seen as an understood path to revenue thanks to their role in enabling cross-site ad targeting. However, this capability has been in decline for years. In fact, the reach and accuracy of third-party cookies has become increasingly limited.

Publishers don’t need a replacement for third-party cookies. They need something altogether better. And that’s where predictive audiences come in. By fueling growth based on the strength of a publisher’s first-party data, predictive audiences offer a path to revenue that’s both in a publisher’s control and can be strengthened over time.

The premise behind predictive audiences for publishers is fairly simple: By taking a publisher’s first-party data (i.e., everything the publisher knows about its audience), the publisher can build models capable of predicting likely behavior in current and potential new users. These predictions can be used to create better user experiences while simultaneously opening more and deeper monetization opportunities.

Here are a few areas where predictive audiences’s power to help publishers drive revenue has become most evident.

Growing ad dollars

For many publishers, the fastest path to revenue growth is to look beyond their sites to find additional high-value inventory for their advertisers. By using their audience data as seed data, publishers can leverage predictive audiences to identify users beyond their own walls who are likely to behave like their known audiences. Working with external partners, a publisher can make these models and their resulting segments available for advertisers on demand as an extension of their audience.

Growing Yield

Predictive audiences can also be leveraged to greatly help publishers make more from their inventory within their walls. By combining first-party data with contextual and engagement signals, publishers can fuel robust data models that predict which ads will perform best when served to a given audience. Such an approach tends to deliver far more relevant results than can be achieved with third-party data, enabling publishers to improve the yield on their inventory. Such models can also fuel ad personalization that drives better results for advertisers and higher premiums for publishers.

Growing Audience

Beyond direct revenue, publishers can also tap into predictive audiences to grow their user base. Such growth helps expand their first-party data assets and inventory, driving greater revenue downstream. The mechanisms for fueling audience growth are similar to those for driving more ad dollars: Publishers can model their data to help them predict the behavior of unknown users. By activating that data, they can drive interested audiences in hopes of converting them to loyal visitors.

A bright future paved with predictions

The ability of these predictive audience strategies to drive publisher revenue has a lot to do with the level of first-party data the individual publisher brings. Of course, not all publishers are on equal footing when it comes to first-party data assets. Some have been capturing and building their first-party data practices for years, enabling them to fuel strong predictive models and broader identity graphs that can reach across their properties. Others—publishers that have not invested nearly as heavily in their first-party disciplines—are looking for off-the-shelf solutions that can help them take advantage of predictive audiences’s power all the same.

The AI-driven future will favor publishers that prioritize robust first-party data practices, but the race is far from over. Regardless of where an individual publisher stands with its first-party data assets, there’s still time to build out the needed strategies that can fuel growth through predictive audiences. By doing so to capture the right data and signals to fuel the strongest models, publishers can chart a more sustainable (and monetizable) path forward.

With 1 million subscribers, The Atlantic eyes what’s next

May 16, 2024 Jessica Patterson – Independent Media Reporter

In the age of artificial intelligence, it could be argued that the calculus of content is changing.

Since the advent of publishing metrics, the goal has always been more: more page views, clicks, keywords and SEO. And while AI can automate various aspects of content creation and production to save digital media companies time and resources, the convenience of the technology has also allowed for a firehose of low quality content to proliferate.

A recent NewsGuard report, which rates the trustworthiness of websites, revealed that AI chatbots are being used to create junk websites, filled with low quality AI-generated content and stuffed with programmatic advertising. In addition, NewsGuard reported that 140 major global brands are supporting these junk websites with little to no human oversight, “which appear to be entirely financed by programmatic advertising.”

But, amid the sharp increase of these junk content farms, is there a new opportunity for quality journalism to quietly reclaim its place at the fore? It’s certainly on the minds of the leadership at The Atlantic.

In April, The Atlantic announced it had reached 1 million subscribers and become profitable, by investing in areas where the company had “fairly high confidence of good returns,” according to CEO Nicholas Thompson. The 167-year-old publication currently boasts financial stability and is well-positioned to think about where it is headed as it approaches its 200th birthday.

The Atlantic’s one-million milestone is just the foundation for further growth. In a recent memo to staff, Thompson and Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote:

“The key to continued success is to be constructively dissatisfied with the present, and so both of us believe very strongly that our 1 million subscriptions represent merely the foundation of future excellence and growth.”

Goldberg says that he would like The Atlantic to double, then quadruple its current size, saying the company needs to figure out how to reach larger audiences around the world. “I want to set a course as The Atlantic heads towards its bicentennial in 33 years. Now is the time for us to decide this is where we want The Atlantic to go and this is how we’re going to get there,” he said.

In terms of excellence, The Atlantic’s awards speak volumes to the quality of the journalism it produces. For the third year in a row, The Atlantic was awarded General Excellence for a News, Sports, and Entertainment publication at the 2024 National Magazine Awards. No one else has done that in this century, Goldberg remarks.

“So, we have the recognition of our industry that we’re doing something right, and I feel like this is the year when we need to really focus on: what are the next large steps we take?” Goldberg said. “Because we’re in a very good spot. But I don’t want to spend the next five years defending the hill that we’re on. I want to move to some other mountain entirely.”

And, that means not just defending their reputation for journalistic excellence, or growing iteratively. It means figuring out how to reach enormous audiences around the world – and getting a whole lot of them to subscribe.

Subscription strategy with an editorial focus

Prior to the pandemic, Atlantic Chair David Bradley and Laurene Powell Jobs decided they should move into the digital subscription space. They’d had a lot of success through scale – growing web traffic and advertising, Goldberg said. The company hired Alexandra Hardiman, (currently New York Times’ Chief Product Officer), as Chief Business & Product Officer in 2018-2019, to build The Atlantic’s digital subscription model.

“We launched basically six months before the pandemic started when advertising collapsed. And we did very well in those early months. There was a lot of demand,” Goldberg recalled.

The 2019 metered model offered three annual subscription plans for readers: digital, print and digital and a premium tier, which offered exclusive access to podcasts, product discounts and priority access to events among other perks. The Atlantic earned 300,000 new subscriptions in the 12 months that followed.

The following year, the pandemic impacted the publication’s in-person events and advertising, forcing layoffs of 17% of its staff, and losses in the millions.

Now, overall revenue is up more than 10% year over year. The company says advertising booked year-to-date is also up 33% year over year. And, subscriptions to The Atlantic have increased by double-digit percentages in each of the past four years. In fact, they’ve surged 14% in the past year alone.

By 2023, The Atlantic was back on the path to profitability. According to Axios, The Atlantic adjusted its paywall to be more flexible for subscribers and was working to add new revenue streams. Then, roughly 60% of its revenue came from subscriptions, which included print magazines and digital subscriptions through Apple News.

Flexible paywalls meet journalistic excellence

The strategy was to have the best, smartest, most dynamic, flexible subscription, acquisition and retention strategies, Goldberg said. “We’ve always believed that you can have the best systems in the world for acquiring people easily, but if you don’t have a quality product to sell them, they’re not going to come, they’re not going to stay.”

“We pivoted, I would say, to a total quality model on the web. We were doing good stuff on the web for years. We had a large team of young reporters doing news analysis and quick summaries and that sort of thing. But I’ve always believed that the aspect of The Atlantic that differentiated us from everyone else was a commitment to having the highest standards and producing the most complicated, interesting, aesthetically-pleasing, well-written journalism. I think that strategy has borne fruit,” Goldberg said.

The Atlantic focused on editorial excellence, publishing stories that exemplified depth and range and drove news cycles. It recruited high-profile writers including New York Times’ Jennifer Senior and Caitlin Dickerson, who won Pulitzers in 2022 for Feature Writing and Explanatory Journalism, respectively.

“My goal here is to build the greatest writers collective in the English language. We’re halfway there,” Goldberg said. “I don’t need the biggest one. I just need the best one. There are tremendous numbers of readers of English, who want access to our writers, and so as long as there’s an audience for quality journalism, quality non-fiction, we will be okay.”

Reaching new subscribers with newsletters

In addition to a flexible digital subscription strategy and editorial excellence, The Atlantic invested in new newsletters for subscribers in 2021, bringing nine newsletter writers into the fold. Newsletters help reach different audiences, build loyalty and repetition. And as Goldberg pointed out, The Atlantic is launching new ones all of the time. Thus far, the strategy appears to be a moderate success.

“One of the best things to happen out of that is we found more great staff writers, Yair Rosenberg, Xochitl Gonzalez and Charlie Warzel, just to name three and so, it ultimately brought their following,” Goldberg said. “They’re integrated into our writers collective in a way that’s great for our readers and great for our journalism.”

High-quality content reckons with AI

As digital media companies reckon with the changes artificial intelligence brings, deciding on how to adapt or adopt, it’s becoming clear that high-quality journalism retains immense value in the AI era. It offers authenticity, context, and deep analysis that AI-generated content lacks. It provides meaningful insights, informs people and counters misinformation.

Despite the one million subscriber milestone, Goldberg isn’t ready to relax. “It’s not like a breath out. We’re not breathing easy because you’ve got to run scared in this business,” he said. “But those three things, the subscription health, financial health, journalism health and recognition, give us a great place to have meetings where we can actually think through, alright, what are we going to do with The Atlantic on its approach to its 200th birthday.”

“Because it is a very unstable industry, obviously, and I worry about small mistakes or small missed opportunities snowballing over the years. I worry about missing the opportunity to do something newer and bigger.”

While mum on details, The Atlantic is actively engaged in discussions with AI companies. Thompson told The Wall Street Journal that The Atlantic is experimenting with artificial intelligence and is “building an experimental website and app with AI features, such as AI-based games and search.”

Few of The Atlantic’s contemporaries are left. As Goldberg points out, many venerable magazines that came after The Atlantic – like Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post – have disappeared.

“So it’s kind of a miracle that The Atlantic has made it through the beginning of the internet age successfully. It survived the Great Depression and the Civil War and World War II. And, so we really have to focus on what is it that made it survive? And what do we do to increase its chances of surviving and flourishing into the next phase?”

Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Power media revenue and retention with renewal strategies

April 29, 2024 Katelyn Belyus, VP, Strategy and Analytics – Piano

As media organizations manage shifting consumer behaviors and economic uncertainties, sustainable revenue growth remains a top priority worldwide. Understanding the intricacies of subscription retention, as well as what resonates with your audience, has never been more crucial. Given the critical importance of retention, we are seeing revived interest in the lifetime value of digital subscribers, which requires robust renewal strategies.

These days, audience insights are powered by a combination of acquisition volumes, price points, and rebounding retention rates. We analyzed extensive data from the publishers we work with at Piano from the past five years and discovered a notable resurgence in efforts to retain subscribers. This signals a strategic pivot for many publishers, who are re-prioritizing retention-centric initiatives to build loyal subscriber relationships and fuel long-term revenue growth.

Annual vs. monthly subscriptions

Consumers understand the benefits of choosing an annual offer over monthly: discounted pricing, uninterrupted service, and premium add-ons. However, our benchmark data also outlines intrinsic advantages for publishers when focusing on annual subscriptions, which shows annual users sticking around twice as long as monthly subscribers. It also reveals their annual term retention rates are nearly double those of monthly users.

Further, the duo of better retention rates and higher overall spend only compounds over time: at the end of three years, these annual subscriptions are worth 60% more than their short-term counterpart. It is easy to see the allure of deploying this type of offer strategy and explains why optimizing retention is a pivotal driver for sustained publisher growth.

Paid trials and renewal strategies

In the not-so-distant past, free trials were all the rage. However, over time, this approach did not lead to the desired stickiness. On the contrary, paid trials can leave a lasting impact not only because they offer a compelling introductory price point for new subscribers, but also provide publishers with valuable insights into consumer behaviors. By taking this approach a step further, and combining paid trial offers with annual subscriptions, publishers gain long-term users of premium products, while driving more opportunity to build loyal subscribers. Piano’s data demonstrates that paid trial subscribers are more likely to renew in year three, ultimately driving a higher lifetime value.

Reduce active churn

Once paid trials are in place, the next step is to prevent active churn, as cancellations can often occur early. As an example, auto-renewal cancellations are about 14% on day one and can rise to 38% within the first sixty days of a trial. To reduce this, immediate onboarding and communications should take place to build engagement between the subscriber and the product. Sending a welcome email, reminding users of the benefits, and highlighting top content are a few ways to keep consumption high.

In fact, even when a price increases at the renewal phase, building rapport with the subscriber can improve retention. Our aggregate client data reveals that implementing price increases of 15% to 20% for annual digital subscribers drove an increase in overall revenue of 6% to 14%. Even with a slight dip in retention that a price increase may spur (typically around 5% to 8% churn), it can still be offset with the revenue gains earned from the overall higher price point. Leveraging a grace period message that alerts potential access loss, has helped many media companies earn worthy renewal success rates.

Another fundamental of churn reduction is an interception at the point of auto-renewal and providing an offer to retain the customer when the churn behavior begins. As an example, The Daily Beast began integrating a “save” notice when the subscriber clicked on “cancel auto renew” where the customer is shown a downgrade offer to interrupt the cancellation and attempt to save the subscriber. When implementing this functionality with several publishers, we have seen up to 16% save rates on would-be lost subscribers.

Smart, effective renewal strategies are critical to capturing active subscribers and overall revenue growth. Through targeted retention efforts and personalized outreach, including regular touchpoints during a customer’s lifetime, publishers can nurture subscriber relationships and encourage continued loyalty, while reducing churn.

Renewal strategies retain customers

This is not meant to imply that the path to sustainable revenue growth will be simple. However, by refocusing on paid trials, retention, and active churn prevention—all while adopting a comprehensive approach to subscription management—publishers can approach their subscription models with confidence and build strong long term relationships with audiences.

Safe bets versus experimentation and adaptability

Diverse and individualized identity in media

Mission-driven partnerships

Transformative role of technology

The road ahead for media revenue

The YouTube video-podcasting strategy

Cashing in on YouTube

Social video strategy

Navigating a power struggle

Impact of platform news bans on publishers

Meta decides what’s news

Workarounds, circumventions, and modified hyperlinks

The future of media and news consumers at risk

Getting to know consumer research

An internal and external independent voice

Uncharted territory with Podcasts+

Lessons from The Economist’s consumer research

1. People: enhancing efficiency and organizational structure

2. Process: streamlining and enhancing operations

3. Technology: delivering tech efficiencies

4. CapEx/OpEx: optimizing capital and operating expenditures

Cost benefits: targeted savings across the board

Cost management and the path to profitability

About the authors

A podcasting business with sustainable revenue

Using podcasting exclusivity to drive paid subscriptions

Gaining control of your audience through podcasting

Trend analysis: beyond pride month

2023 overview

Early 2024 trends

Notable declines

Impact on LGBTQA+ publishers

A strategic reassessment

The road ahead

What’s at stake for media companies

ArcSpan’s study to measure the impact of cookie deprecation

Revenue risk grows to 35% amongst heaviest programmatic and Chrome-driven publishers

Advertising success without third party cookies

1. Hands-on AI experience matters

2. Demonstrating distinctiveness and value is imperative

3. Analytics and accessibility go hand in hand

4. Continued concern about the state of local news

All eyes on the future

A sustainable path within a landscape of crumbling identifiers

Growing ad dollars

Growing Yield

Growing Audience

A bright future paved with predictions

Subscription strategy with an editorial focus

Flexible paywalls meet journalistic excellence

Reaching new subscribers with newsletters

High-quality content reckons with AI

Annual vs. monthly subscriptions

Paid trials and renewal strategies

Reduce active churn

Renewal strategies retain customers