In the pursuit of earnings, publishers have done two things - intensified SEO efforts, which creates fly-by ad revenue and established paywalls, which create fan subscription revenue. Remember these definitions: Fly-by – Someone who visits once. Occasional – Visitor to the site two to three times per month. Regular – Visitor to the site one to two times per week. Fan – Visitor to the site more than two times per week. Some fans are willing to subscribe through a paywall, and fly-bys are commodity impression to be bought and sold through exchanges, but what about the other 15-25 percent of the audience? The barbell focus on fans and fly-bys for revenue optimization overlooks a significant untapped opportunity in between […]
Archive | February, 2011
Do Newspaper Paywalls Solve the Online Revenue Issue for Shareholders?
Given the New York Times earnings call this week and all the chatter about their paywall, my curiosity was piqued about how shareholders should assess the paywall ability to offset low online advertising revenue. The following analysis explores that topic. The assumptions and conclusions are based on both public information from the 2009 Annual Report for The Washington Post Company and Scout Analytics experience. The scenario is hypothetical but representative. As print circulation and revenues decline, digital audiences and revenue have to take their place. Because online advertising has not yielded the same revenue as print advertising, many publishers are looking to paywalls to solve the digital revenue problem. The conclusion below is that the yield from online advertising has […]
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