Archive | November, 2011

The Digital Drop-off

Debates are surfacing on the transition strategies to digital publishing such as paywalls and social media. Strategies are usually characterized as a response to the democratization of distribution that increased competition and lowered barriers to entry, but there is a more fundamental disruption that occurred – the basis of monetization has changed. Digital has shifted monetization from distribution of the media to consumption of the media, which is not only a disruption, but a drop-off. In the print revenue model, a publisher could monetize delivery of advertisements by sending them in the mail and claiming impressions based on circulation and pass-alongs. In the digital revenue model, a publisher can monetize delivery of advertisements only when a visitor consumes a page […]

How Many Audiences Can You Measure?

Building on our original findings in 2010 about audience loyalty, scout® research has been looking into what creates loyalty. Understanding the nature of loyalty, would obviously allow a publisher to nurture and grow the audience. For instance, is a fan a fan because she reads all the homepage articles? Or is she a fan because of a certain section of content? So what did we find out? Site-wide fans typically make up 20-30% of the visitors. Site-wide fans are the ones with a broad reading habit. Think of them as the cover-to-cover reader. In contrast when you analyze most fans’ behavior to figure out what they are a “fans of”, it is typical to find an individual fan has an […]