Category results for "Revenue"

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three is with Neil Johnston, Cox Media Group’s Executive VP of Strategy & Digital Innovation on Premium Programmatic.

Q: How would you define Premium Programmatic as it compares to what we’ve come to know as “Programmatic Advertising”?

A: The value proposition of programmatic advertising is the efficiency and scale that automated buying confers. Premium programmatic retains these values, while adding in the safety and fidelity of guaranteed site-direct buying. Technologically speaking, this means bypassing an RTB exchange in favor of exposing and booking a subset of inventory directly against a publisher’s primary ad server.

This has advantages for both demand side buyers and supply side publishers. Buyers are able to selectively access quality, site-specific, high impact inventory in a highly efficient way, while publishers are able to increase yield by accessing the high demand programmatic sales channel in a transparent and optimized way.

Despite the moniker, “Premium” does not necessarily mean better – it’s simply another buying tool that suits certain campaigns more than others. The name is more a reflection of the relative scarcity of this guaranteed inventory compared to the rest of programmatic space, as well as the higher prices that come with that. Premium may be better suited to certain branding campaigns, for example, while RTB might be better leveraged by performance campaigns run through DSPs that can optimize against its scale in real-time.

Q: Describe the way in which your organization handles programmatic?

A: Our CMG properties leverage the technology of our subsidiary, Cox Digital Solutions (CDS), on the programmatic supply-side to excellent results. Some of our sites seek to maximize yield, others maximize fill, and still others are most concerned about protecting CPMs and direct sales channels. CDS’ proprietary dynamic floor optimization technology lets us optimize demand tailored to our properties specific needs.
On the sell-side, our inventory has been included in private exchange deals facilitated by CDS through our partners at Casale Media to buyers such as MediaMath. We are currently exploring our options to expose guaranteed inventory programmatically.

Q: What types of marketing initiatives lend themselves best to leveraging programmatic and how can the premium approach better deliver?

A: Practically any campaign, shy of a truly integrated/native one, can benefit from the advantages of programmatic. While there is currently a bias towards premium for branding and RTB for performance, the lines are blurring, as scale and measurement improve optimization in the premium space, and transparency and viewability improve brand safety in the RTB space.

My advice here is simply that while programmatic will evolve, it’s here to stay. So get educated. And, more than anything, get started.

Neil Johnston is Cox Media Group’s (CMG) Executive Vice President, Strategy and Digital Innovation at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta where he oversees Strategic Development, CMG Digital and the company’s growing portfolio of digital investments. Johnston previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cox Media Group. He also was Cox Radio’s Chief Financial Officer from September 2000 until it was made private in 2009.

For premium access to Cox Media Group inventory, please contact Andy Levi at Cox Digital Solution ([email protected]).

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights.

Innovation | Revenue

Free to Innovate: Experimentation in Fee-based Media Models

February 20, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

For a time, free looked like the only option for the media business. The model seemed to be a veritable free-for-all. Because, despite digital content consumers’ insatiable appetite, models that made this all-you-can-eat buffet profitable—or at least as profitable as offline legacy models—remained elusive. The upside of the rise of free was that market pressure caused many media businesses to experiment with monetization methods and, in many cases, they have diversified their revenue streams, strategies, and organizational structure which makes them more resilient in the long term.

Yet contrary to the seemingly overwhelming tide of free, many media organizations sustain subscription-based models. In fact, according to research conducted late last year, 95% of OPA members have an ongoing subscription based strategy. And these strategies are far from stagnant.

Subscription Model Starting Point
While its longstanding subscription business makes it one of the industry’s paid content poster children, the Financial Times continuously pursues the development of new offerings that maintain customer affinity and feed the bottom line. When considering a new premium offering, FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw suggests that you first focus on “what is unique or different about your product. Then he says, “take advantage of the flexibility that the web environment offers. You don’t have to put up a gigantic blank door on the site that says ‘pay to enter.’ The web offers many ways to do these things: You can build sampling in, you can use freemium models.”

Though Michael Crosby, COO of The Deal says that a subscription based initiative “is no different than any business idea,” he suggests examining the market and look for a problem that exists. Then ask “Can we provide insight or analysis the fills that gap?”

Sarah McConville, Harvard Business Review Group VP and HBR Press publisher, also approaches the development of subscription offerings from distinct value propositions. However she says “we always start with audience. For whom are we developing this? What job are they hiring Harvard Business Review to do?”

Innovation and Experimentation
As Grimshaw points out, digital media provide an opportunity for a great deal of flexibility and experimentation with pricing, offerings and customer experience. At FT.com, they not only view subscription models as a revenue stream, they are a means to better understand, serve and retain customers. “Subscriptions create a direct relationship with your audience,” he says. “You learn so much about them including demographics, onsite behavior and other information that can be very powerful from a marketing and advertising point of view.”

One insight that he has put to work for FT.com was that “engagement is absolutely critical to the success of subscription models.” This engagement imperative was a driving force between the company’s Fast FT product, which provides a continuous stream of “intelligent first-response to the news.” While the creation of a near-real time news culture marked a shift for the FT, Grimshaw says it has paid off with those visiting Fast FT spending ten or more minutes on the site.

HBR has also made a significant change in approach over the past year by offering “All Access” as its primary offer to subscribers. Readers can access their Harvard Business Review subscription in print, online, and via your iPad, and access to the current issue as well as the online archive of 50+ years of HBR articles. McConville says “we were really pleased to see that, in a time when many media brands are cutting subscription price and offering more content for free as a way of maintaining circulation levels, with “All Access” we’ve been able to add more subscribers, and increase the price with this subscription. Harvard Business Review’s 1H13 AAM Publisher’s Statement was the highest paid circulation level in HBR’s history at 260K. “

At The Deal, Crosby says they focus on helping readers come up with “ideas for their next deal through our editorial insight.” Realizing that these readers will then want to figure out how they might have a connection with someone who will help them make that next deal, The Deal launched a subscription offering called “Connections” that does just that.

Subscription Success Strategy
To create a content product that pays, Crosby says you must have an “obsessive focus on the user experience” Understanding how it fits in with their daily workflow is the starting point that will ensure that a user “needs to have your service.”

One piece of advice McConville says it is essential to align the editorial and commercial stakeholders in a shared understanding of how offerings serve subscribers. However she also suggests “bringing in the skeptics, listen and take them seriously.”

Grimshaw agrees that much can be learned from peers and your own team. However, he suggests that one of the best ways to foster innovation in subscription content offerings is to “look outside of the boundaries of the publishing industry.” He suggests looking at the retail industry, gaming, and others pioneering the space to find inspiration for the next generation of subscription innovation.

You Might Also be Interested In:

Q&A with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com on Subscription Model Success

Q&A with Michael Crosby, Chief Operating Officer, The Deal on Subscription Model Success

Q&A with Sarah McConville, VP of Marketing, HBR & Publisher HBR Press on Subscription Models

Revenue

Glamour’s Hot New Look at Shopping: The Shop Glamour Ecommerce Experience

February 13, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

At 75, Glamour is not afraid to experiment to maintain its youthful appeal and please its digitally-savvy readership. The Condé Nast publication has introduced ecommerce initiatives in the past, including Shop Style, which used the affiliate model, and SnapTags, a social/mobile experience. This week it debuted its most holistic ecommerce effort yet Shop Glamour, which allows readers to buy items, pay through one shopping cart, and receive their haul in a Glamour-branded box, even if the items are from multiple brands. In developing Shop Glamour, Glamour partnered with AHAlife for the e-commerce technology and fulfillment capabilities as well as the development of a mobile app and responsive website.

Executive digital director Mike Hofman points out that “Glamour readers are great experimenters; this is a very fashion-forward magazine and they want to try out the latest styles and trends.” Glamour fans also rely on the brand’s editorial perspective to help them identify those trends and how they can “translate into a woman’s real life.” Shop Glamour, says Hofman, is a natural extension of the relationship the editors have with their readers. The offering includes more than 200 brands curated by Glamour’s editorial team. Hofman says, “Our fashion and beauty teams are thrilled with the project. Seven editors have already curated ‘boutiques’ of their own.”

This, says Hofman, is a natural extension of the editorial process. “We are used to providing fashion and beauty inspiration and providing a curated shopping experience is an extension of that.” And, he points out, “in some ways, editorially-curated is the holy grail of shopping tools.” Maintaining reader trust is an important component of any brand extension so Glamour is maintaining a “strict wall” between what the editors choose and what is promoted by advertisers.

While not every item in the magazine’s editorial and advertising content will be shoppable, every ad in the March issue will be as will many items featured in editorial spreads. At launch, 20 advertisers are participating in Shop Glamour across the app and video, including L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Sexy Hair, and LOFT. Other features of the app include additional editorial content and behind-the-scenes celebrity videos.

Shop Glamour includes two components developed with AHAlife: shop.glamour.com, a fully-integrated ecommerce site, and the shopping app, which uses image recognition software to display the shoppable items from the page on a phone. The mobile component is one that Hofman is particularly enthusiastic about. “Your phone is like oxygen now, especially for users in our demo of women 18 to 34.” While he says only a few years ago, he might not have viewed mobile as a “sure thing for commerce” today, it is a given. “Glamour’s online mobile audience is north of 40% of our readers. With that fact, and all of the trends around mobile commerce, the mobile app is a key piece.”

The Glamour audience, says Hofman, “is a contemporary reader who expects to have inspiration, and the ability to act on it, wherever and wherever she wants to—in-book, on her tablet, online, and in stores.” And Glamour is betting that its latest foray into taking the reader off the page to deliver a satisfying content experience will be a hot new shopping trend.

Perspectives | Revenue

Q&A with Sol Masch, Director of Mobile Sales & Strategy, Time Inc. on Mobile Ad Innovation

February 6, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three is with Sol Masch, Director of Mobile Sales & Strategy, Time Inc.

Q: In mobile advertising, what is the most important thing to consider?

A: The place to begin is always around the KPIs and defining those so we can figure out how to make a campaign a success. On mobile, most clients want engagement. The question is, what does engagement mean? Then you can define the right message, the right user and appropriate data targeting. Often, engagement is defined as getting a user to interact. Then you have to create rich messaging that drives interaction. But the message can also be delivered in the form of content that will prompt interaction. We are definitely getting more requests for native and we’re looking at how it lives on the mobile screen and how it will engage readers.

One of the big differentiating factors for mobile versus desktop or other platforms, is the idea of time spent. This is a big misnomer as a KPI on mobile. Agencies often want to drive campaigns based upon how much time people are spending interacting. We don’t find that time spent is the best KPI. If you can engage a user in five seconds—if they go through the entire experience and you get them to want to share the content—you have engaged them, in a matter of seconds.

We see that it is important to be more sensitive to the issue of time on mobile. Often we see that people use mobile during “found time,” which is a couple of minutes on the bus or waiting for an appointment. Mobile demands quick hits that are just as powerful as longer times spent on other devices. The trick is in designing those experiences that last less than a minute, or even just a few seconds, to deliver impact and engagement.

Q: Describe one of your recent or upcoming mobile campaigns that you think is particularly innovative and why it worked.

A: We recently did a campaign with Infiniti promoting the Q50 vehicle. What’s interesting about the Q50 is its intuitive features: You step into the car and it knows all of the personalized features you like such as seat and mirror position.

Given how personalized the Q50 experience is, we wanted to create a similar ad experience that knew the user and that was intuitive about them as well. With our database targeting we are able to identify our print readers through our partnership with Apple and on Facebook and Twitter, et cetera. We developed an experience that gave users not only content from their favorite brands but also content tailored to their specific taste. So if we identified a mobile user as a Time reader who likes technology, the ad unit would contain a bunch of tech articles. A business enthusiast would get business news articles. We tailored this experience so that it leveraged the right brand with the right reader, but also the exact right content.

This campaign was extremely successful. By delivering the right content through the ad experience, we saw engagement levels lifted three to five times.

Q: What is working in mobile advertising, and what do we need more of, in order to drive success?

A: I think that mobile is getting a lot less clunky and more sophisticated, which is a good thing for users and the industry. A few years ago, there was marketer resistance around investing in mobile because experiences on the desktop, with flash and sexy animations, couldn’t be replicated on mobile. Now we are seeing beautiful, rich experiences on mobile that have excited a lot of marketers. These improvements have fueled their interest in investing in mobile and is making it a larger part of their multimedia platform spend.

However, we still need less fragmentation and more simplicity. Mobile is still a challenging landscape to navigate. With different devices and different operating systems, mobile is a much more complex environment to run a rich media experience in and to format them to work properly. All that device and screen variation is holding us back.

Devices and operating systems will keep on coming and we need to simplify it for the marketing and advertising community. We have made progress over the past year. I’ve seen a lot more publishers and agencies adopting IAB Rising Star units, which has been a big help for the mobile advertising industry. The more we can establish standards, the more it will help everyone. Within the structure of standards, we will be able to innovate even more.

Sol Masch, Director of Corporate Mobile Sales & Strategy for Time Inc., is responsible for mobile ad monetization across Time Inc.’s network of 32 million monthly mobile users – including brands such as People, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, TIME, Sports Illustrated, Real Simple, Health, Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine. Prior to joining Time Inc., Masch served as the Mobile Advertising Director for Viacom Media Networks. In this role, he built Viacom’s mobile business from $0 into a multimillion dollar business. Previously, Masch was co-owner of Not13, a full service mobile marketing agency and content provider dedicated to providing interactive campaigns and services on mobile devices for Elektra Records and Fuse TV.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A with Brian Colbert, Chief Revenue Officer, About.com on Mobile Advertising Innovation

Q&A with Joe D. Weir, VP of Digital, A.H. Belo on Mobile Advertising Innovation

Innovation | Revenue

Q&A with Sarah McConville, VP of Marketing, HBR & Publisher HBR Press on Subscription Models

February 3, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three is with Sarah McConville, the Vice President of Marketing for Harvard Business Review Group and Publisher of Harvard Business Review Press.

Q: When conceiving of a subscription-based model, initiative or product, where should you begin strategically?

A: At Harvard Business Review, we always start with the audience. Whether it’s a strategic initiative, a new product concept or our overall subscription model, we ask the questions: For whom are we developing this? What job are they hiring Harvard Business Review to do? What’s the context in which they will be using this offering? What are we bringing to it that is of distinctive value for the audience? What can we give them that is far and away better than they could get anywhere else?

And, just as importantly, we work to ensure that all parts of our business – editorial, marketing, advertising, product development – are in sync when beginning a new strategic effort or offering.

In the past year we’ve been following the framework of a book we recently published calledPlaying to Win. It’s been an incredibly helpful focusing mechanism at all levels of our business.Playing to Winputs you through the paces of asking: What is our winning aspiration? What does winning, not just competing, look like? Where will we play? Specifically, which segments, which markets, which channels, which products? How will we win? So that we get at what our strategic advantage is in achieving our winning aspiration, what capabilities must be in place? How must we be prepared as an organization and as individuals to achieve our aspiration? And finally, what management systems are required? In other words, how are we going to support our behaviors and track our progress? It’s helped us to align and cascade our efforts from an HBR group-level down to individual units and teams.

Q: Please describe one of your subscription-based initiatives and the way in which you feel it is particularly innovative.

A: In the past year we’ve made a significant change to our subscription model by offering “All Access” as our primary offer to subscribers. “All Access” is just that: You can access your Harvard Business Review subscription in print, online, and via your iPad, and you have access to the current issue as well as our online archive of 50+ years of HBR articles. We made the move to “All Access” after hearing from subscribers that this offer represented a greater value for them than just print or print and website alone. And I have to say that we were really pleased to see that, in a time when many media brands are cutting subscription price and offering more content for free as a way of maintaining circulation levels, with “All Access” we’ve been able to add more subscribers, and increase the price with this subscription. Harvard Business Review’s 1H13 AAM Publisher’s Statement was the highest paid circulation level in HBR’s history at 260K.

Based on the success of “All Access” we’re in the process of engaging with our audience to explore other ways of adding value to a Harvard Business Review subscription at a premium level so that we can build on our success to deliver an even better experience for our readers in the future.

Q: What advice would you give in terms of approaching subscription models creatively? Are there any best practices, processes, tips or resources that you would suggest?

A: I think it’s important to listen closely to your subscribers and to understand their most important needs today, but also have an eye on the future and a sense of how you think you can grow your business. Finding this balance of today and tomorrow is critically important. Engage in ongoing audience research, follow best practices from other media brands, but have a strong point of view about what you think makes your offering unique and what you can capitalize on to deliver more value.

When considering new models or offerings, work hard to align the editorial and commercial stakeholders in a shared understanding of how you’re serving subscribers and what you want to deliver to them. But also bring in the skeptics, listen, take them seriously. They will help you gain a different perspective on what you’re trying to do and push you to think more rigorously about the solution you want to offer and the audience segments and channels in which you want to play.

Work to create value for everyone – subscribers and customers, the editorial team and contributors, advertisers, employees. It’s important that everyone involved is contributing and feels they are being well served by the outcome.

Continually check your assumptions. What is true today is sure to change in the future. Evolving your subscription model is an ongoing practice that requires you to constantly test, try new things, learn from the feedback, refine − and sometimes, take a step in a new direction. Innovation is a dynamic process.

Sarah McConville is the Vice President of Marketing for Harvard Business Review Group and Publisher of Harvard Business Review Press. In her role as Publisher, McConville leads the commercial aspects of Harvard Business Review Press, including strategic partnerships, marketing and communications, licensing, and global sales. With Harvard Business Review Group’s executive team led by Group Publisher Joshua Macht and Editor-in-Chief Adi Ignatius, McConville is helping to shape the transformation of Harvard Business Review into a multi-platform digital media brand.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com on Subscription Model Success

Q&A with Michael Crosby, Chief Operating Officer, The Deal on Subscription Model Success

Innovation | Revenue

Q&A with Michael Crosby, Chief Operating Officer, The Deal on Subscription Model Success

January 27, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three is with Michael Crosby, the Chief Operating Officer at The Deal, part of TheStreet, Inc.

Q: When conceiving of a subscription-based model, initiative or product, where should you begin strategically?

A: The answer to this is no different than any business idea. You look for a problem that exists in the marketplace. For us, it comes down to some information gap that exists amongst our clients and prospects.

Secondly, we look to whether we have an answer for that problem. Can we provide insight or analysis the fills that gap? The first two questions are the theory part, and the last two are the monetization ones.

Third, are there users out there that care about having this problem solved in the way we are solving it? And, are there enough of them to scale the revenue? For The Deal, we are fortunate that we serve a client base–bankers, lawyers, fund managers–that traditionally pay for quality information. So, determining information gaps in the marketplace and how we could fill them is the bigger question for our firm.

Q: Please describe one of your subscription-based initiatives and the way in which you feel it is particularly innovative:

A: The most exciting one we are working on right now is called “Connections.” Our clients are forever looking for new M&A and restructuring deals. We’re in the business of coming up with ideas for their next deal through our editorial insight. Often, when we write something, our clients want to quickly figure out how to get “connected” with a company mentioned in an article.

“Connections” does just that: It lists how a user is connected to a company or person mentioned in an article. It accomplishes this without requiring the user to enter any information. We are very excited about the service and have a patent pending on it. We are in the process of launching it and client feedback has been phenomenal. This finally answers the question, “How am I connected to that person” directly without a user having to email their entire office.

Q: What advice would you give in terms of approaching subscription models creatively?

A: I believe everything starts from having great product. Whether that is principally your content, data, or application layer, you need some combination of those that a user would deem “must have.” Obsessive focus on the user experience with your product, and understanding how it fits in with their daily workflow is the starting point to ensuring that a user needs to have your service.

Once you have that figured out, getting the right subscription model is based on what you have done in the past; what your competitors are doing; and how valuable you are. One of the toughest things to do is reposition a brand and product to a new subscription model. The bigger the gap, the more work you will need to put into sales and marketing. If your users know you as mostly a free ad-based model with great content, and now you want to be a paid subscription model, you need to do a lot of work to have them change their perception of you. One of the ways The Deal did it, when we shifted from majority ad-based to majority subscription-based, was doing a massive amount of user outreach where we presented a well thought out concept of where we were going. We find clients are great at giving us feedback on incremental change, but if you want to make a major shift, you have to clearly spell out your vision and have them respond to it.

Lastly, you can’t talk to enough people: your team; clients; prospects; industry players; advisors et cetera. Most subscription-based businesses operate in a competitive space so even a great strategy can be ruined by poor execution. Constant communication and belief that you can continually improve – that you are not doing everything perfectly – puts you in position to achieve success.

Michael Crosby is Chief Operating Officer at The Deal, part of TheStreet, Inc. Michael is responsible for strategy and day-to-day operations of The Deal, a transaction information service used by 45,000 bankers, lawyers, hedge fund managers, and private equity professionals. He was instrumental in transforming The Deal’s business from ad-based to a subscription model, achieving 22 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and guiding The Deal’s sale to TheStreet, Inc. Previously, Michael was a Managing Director at Thomson Reuters where he was responsible for starting their hedge fund business and transforming their buyside client model.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com on Subscription Model Success

Q&A with Interview with Sarah McConville, Vice President of Marketing, Harvard Business Review Group

Innovation | Revenue

Q&A with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com on Subscription Model Success

January 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights. Today’s Three on Three is with Rob Grimshaw who is the Financial Times Board member responsible for the commercial development of the FT’s B2C digital business and product portfolio.

Q: When conceiving of a subscription-based model, initiative or product, where should you begin strategically?

A: I think the key things are: First, think about what is unique and different about your product. What are people going to come to you for, as a publisher, that they won’t go to anybody else for? Perhaps it is a particular columnist or topic that few other people do. Identify something that differentiates you in the marketplace and that’s how you’ll approach it from a content point of view.

Second, take advantage of the flexibility that the web environment offers. You don’t have to put up a gigantic blank door on the site that says “pay to enter”. The web offers many ways to do these things: You can build sampling in, you can use these freemium models. Many publishers find that once the paywalls are in, you don’t see advertising suffer at all, which has been our experience.

Thirdly, look to third parties that can help with the task of building your subscription offering. It can be quite challenging technically, certainly more difficult than running a free access site. There is an ecosystem of third party providers that can help you with these projects and help you shortcut some of the processes to get something out to market more quickly.

And one last bit of strategic advice is to consider the wider benefits of having a subscription model and how to take advantage of these. Subscriptions create a direct relationship with your audience. You learn so much about them including demographics, onsite behavior and other information that can be very powerful from a marketing and advertising point of view.

Q: Please describe one of your subscription-based initiatives and the way in which you feel it is particularly innovative.

A: We’ve done many at FT.com. A recent one was fastFT, a feature we launched earlier this year, in May. fastFT is what I would call the FT’s intelligent first response to the news. It provides a continuous stream of content, managed by a team of eight journalists based around the world—in London, New York and Hong Kong—so they can maintain the output 24 hours a day. The goal was to boost engagement on FT.com.

Engagement is absolutely critical to the success of subscription models. We see very clearly that people whose usage of the site drops off are far more likely to cancel and, of course, those who don’t use it in the first place don’t subscribe: a simple equation there.

When we were thinking about increasing engagement, we factored in how competitive the web environment is. We need to communicate to our subscribers that they’ll never miss anything on FT.com so they aren’t tempted to look for information on other sites. This product marked a radical departure for the FT including changes to our newsroom culture and changes to the editorial process. With fastFT, the emphasis on speed-to-page without sacrificing accuracy, authority and all things that make the FT great.

I think that this product offers an excellent example of the commercial needs of the business being creatively translated to a product.

Interestingly, we’ve seen that over half of users come through mobile devices and a third of subscribers who visit fastFT stay longer than 10 minutes on the site.

Q: What advice would you give in terms of approaching subscription models creatively?

A: I would give two tips:

The first one is to look outside of the boundaries of the publishing industry. Think about it: The news publishing experience with pay models and online retail, which is what this is, is relatively new. There are others who have been in this game much longer. You can gain a lot of inspiration by looking at or talking to people from the online retail industry and others pioneering the space. Look at the gaming model and the way they’ve set up things to get you to make in-app purchases. They’ve developed brilliant ways to ease payment and even make you feel like you aren’t paying anything.

The second thing I suggest is to test, test, test. We are in a world where there are a multitude of multivariate testing tools available. These tools allow you to test different page designs and sign-up forms against each other live on line. The insight you gain from those processes is tremendous. Often what you discover can be counter intuitive. The data helps you understand what is really happening and design better offerings as a result.

In his role as Managing Director, FT.com, Rob Grimshaw is the Financial Times Board member responsible for the commercial development of the FT’s B2C digital business and product portfolio.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A with Michael Crosby, Chief Operating Officer, The Deal on Subscription Model Success

Q&A with Interview with Sarah McConville, Vice President of Marketing, Harvard Business Review Group