[MGP-Forum Announce] Boston researcher thinks TimesSelectexperience shows a market for content service charging
Aldon Hynes
ahynes1 at optonline.net
Mon Nov 5 10:32:51 CST 2007
Consumers Union is a very interesting model. As I understanding things,
based on the 2006 990, revenue from subscriptions cover make up about 90% of
the revenues of the non-profit and covers about 94% of the expenses.
They've been around for over sixty years to build up their brand, and they
have a very clearly defined niche.
Is it possible an organization to get started like that in this day and age?
As a nonprofit accepting donations, the donations can handle the 6%
shortfall. Can something similar work for more general news outlets?
I don't know how the finances of CTNewsJunkie or the New Haven Independent
are in Connecticut. They are both exploring new models of delivering and
funding news and, at least from the outside, look fairly successful.
All of that said, I think Tish is right that it is wise to look at the
business side, including changes in advertising and marketing. A few weeks
ago, I went to the Online Media Marketing and Advertising conference in New
York. Yes, they give bloggers press passes, or at least they gave this
blogger a press pass. It was a fairly small conference, but very
interesting.
This week, the really big expo and conference is taking place in New York,
ad:tech The expo is free. The conference costs money, but they are also
giving out some press passes to bloggers and I imagine other journalists
could likewise get press passes.
So, I'm not sure I have any great ideas about where things are going, but I
think Tish hits an important theme, which is niche marketing. That fits
back nicely into what Jeff was talking about. Consumer Reports hits a very
specific niche and does well at it.
Aldon
(Whose blog meanders all over the place and fails to fit in any niche)
http://www.orient-lodge.com
-----Original Message-----
From: post-bounces at mgp-forum.org [mailto:post-bounces at mgp-forum.org]On
Behalf Of J Fox
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 8:11 PM
To: 'Tish Grier'; 'Bill Densmore'; post at mgp-forum.org
Subject: Re: [MGP-Forum Announce] Boston researcher thinks
TimesSelectexperience shows a market for content service charging
Why is no one mentioning the fact that Consumer Reports (for whom I happen
to work) has 3 million paying subscribers without any outside advertising
We
’re the largest web-based subscription site in the world, I believe.
Is it possible that if you offer unique, quality content, people will pay
for it?
Jeff Fox
From: post-bounces at mgp-forum.org [mailto:post-bounces at mgp-forum.org] On
Behalf Of Tish Grier
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 3:42 PM
To: Bill Densmore; post at mgp-forum.org
Subject: Re: [MGP-Forum Announce] Boston researcher thinks TimesSelect
experience shows a market for content service charging
anyone interested in the business-side of journalism--as in how journalism
is going to make money in the future-- should be follwing what's going on in
marketing with behavioral targeting and issues of loss of privacy. As the
landscape changes and more concerns want to fully fund their ventures with
advertising, marketers are looking for ways to gather intelligence on all of
us that they may not be entitled to have.
That's part of why the FTC is still looking at the Google/DoubleClick
deal.
This article from the NYTimes gives something of a taste of what's brewing
in the world of marketing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/technology/02adco.html?_r=1&ref=technology
&oref=slogin
If advertisers/marketers don't begin to use something that targets us,
then the cost of advertising will go down due to the proliferation of it in
so many nooks and crannies. However, there's got to be a better way than
allowing them access to personal information that, perhaps, they shouldn't
have in the first place.
Best to all,
Tish
(who's working a bit with marketers and p/r people these days--seeing it
from the inside's fascinating!)
Bill Densmore <mediagiraffe at journ.umass.edu> wrote:
MGP2006 alum John Garfunkel has completed an eight-part, 21,000-word study
about charging for content on the web. Garfunkel, a Boston-based software
engineer and Princeton University grad, studied available public
audience-traffic data for the New York Times website during the period
when
access to its columnists and archives were behind a "TimesSelect" paywall.
His report is dense and its difficult to draw hard conclusions from it.
But in
an interview, Garfunkel makes one key assertion: He says the influence of
Times
columnists, as measured by they amount they were referenced in blogs,
dropped
only about 20% during the period their material was "behind the wall."
In general, Garfunkel believes news organizations may be making a mistake
by
relying solely on advertising. But he nuances that. "The answer is not in
charging for content, it is in charging for service," he says. "It seems
there
should be options in service or avoiding advertisements."
He goes on in an interview: "I found it disheartening that so many
commentators
like Jeff Jarvis were willing to go to 100% advertising supported. But if
you
read Neal Postman and any other media commentator going back decades, you
wouldn't find anyone seriously trusting the credibility of 100 percent ad
supported content." Garfunkel's self-published study is on his website:
http://civilities.net/TimesSelect
"There is a solution for newspapers to charge money to readers who want to
pay
money for a premium service of news," Garfunkel concludes. "I don't know
if
it's a viable market, but I have discussed in some more depth in this
series
and feel it should considered as well."
Garfunkel says The Times reported it pulled in about $10 million from
subscriptions to TimesSelect. By comparison, he says, Fox News channel
realizes
$850 million a year in carriage fees from cable systems. "I think the
economics
of this bears further consideration by people who care about the future of
news," says Garfunkel in an email report of his findings.
Garfunkel notes he did not have access to NYT's internal data. "The only
person
I spoke to at the Times was Marshall Simmonds, mostly to clarify some
public
facts," he says.
His key findings, he says:
-- During his study period (with TimesSelect in place) tThe seven regular
Times
Op-Ed saw their references in the blogs go up 8 times. A
non-representative
sampleset of pundits saw increases of 10 times -- a 20% drop-off.
-- Nielsen/NetRatings data for the period TimesSelect was in place, posted
by
Jon Dube at cyberjournalist.net, show an aggregate 27% increase in NYT
traffic.
Garfunkel says this traffic growth exceeds the growth during the same
period at
comparable, competing websites.
-- The paywall was not the reason that the Times archives did not show up
in a
Google Web search over the last two years. It was already indexed by
Google
News. Why it did not show up in the web search, was an application of
Google's
unofficial policy (as reported by Danny Sullivan) to favor
non-subscription
content.
CONTACT: Jon Garfunkel Boston, Mass. http://civilities.net/
jgarfunk at civilities.net / 617.939.3449
FULL DISCLOSURE: The author of this post is a shareholder in Clickshare
Service
Corp., which has developed a patented system for charging for content on
the
web.
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