Question

Topic: Strategy

Print Pub To Online Subscription Service

Posted by Anonymous on 2/2/2010 at 4:15 PM ET 500 Points
We are in the process of moving our flag staff publication to an online only model that is subscription based. The current print subscription gives each subscriber up to 15 copies of the pub. My company wants to go online only with the pub. Part of going online would mean creating an administrator for the account. The admin would be allowed to add an "unlimited" amount of users to the account. Not 15, not 20 but unlimited.

The idea is that this unlimited use would be leveraged to sell the bigger ticket items. But there is no data suggesting that this will work.

I have a bunch of issues with this. Number one we are providing a better experience for the user by going online to begin with. The articles will be interactive and archived meaning you can link from one article to the next to the next etc. I don't think i need to go into the benefits of going online with this group.

I see no reason to go unlimited. Keeping the subscription at 15 allows for the possibility to purchase additional licenses or seats. It also helps to prevent pirating of information (which to this point has been on the honor system). It helps keeps things tidy, etc. We would also be losing money immediately because some subscribers purchase as many as 40 issues over the 15 per month. So we'd be losing that revenue. We have the potential of devaluing our product. If we want to scale back in the future from the unlimited to a limited model we will have angry people to deal with. The list goes on. I think this decision is ludicrous.

I'm having trouble seeing the positives of this decision.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/2/2010 at 4:29 PM Member
    Dear Scott,

    I agree with you: unlimited access cheapens things and lowers people's perceptions of the overall value.

    Exclusivity in 15 users gives a certain elegance, it says that those WITH access are in with the "right" crowd, while those who lack access are SOL until they pony up, so to speak.

    Going online with the linked content is great, but to maintain the highest perceived value the number of access points MUST be controlled.

    Don't know what good MY opinion will do you here, but I hope it helps. Good luck to you.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 2/2/2010 at 4:35 PM Member
    Even though you may lose the difference from 15 to 40-- won't you more than recoup this with the savings of print, mail etc vs online?

    My downside view of this is some people just love the feel of paper. One of my trade mags just went to this option -- still having the print option but that comes with additional charge. And there are still some parts of the country that do not have high speed internet. You can't practically download a publication on dial up. There are poor screens, small screens, poor lighting and people just tired of sitting at a desk. The written version is more portable, and I can catch up on my reading while curled up in the man room couch while hubbie watches TV.

    My thinking is make sure you know your customer before you go all online. One trade pub I like just came out with online version. Same kind of thing-- as many sign ups as you want. But if you want the print version, the price went up.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/2/2010 at 9:57 PM Member
    Dear Marcus,

    Wow Marcus! I hadn't thought of it QUITE like that but you've got great points. This is a model I'll be, er ... "borrowing" if that's all right with you!

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by Markitek on 2/3/2010 at 8:23 AM Member
    My view on this is your asking us to reach a conclusion as to how your should price product without giving us both sides of the argument.

    Your arguments are clear and well articulated. And I believe you when you say:

    "But there is no data suggesting that this will work."

    I'm not seeing the opposite though: I'm not seeing any data from you suggesting that it won't.

    If you brought this to me in a real world setting, I'd want to see both arguments, objectively, side-by-side along with whatever supporting data etc you have.

    My suggestion to you is that you should do just that.

    Chances are very good that your position will prevail.
  • Posted on 2/3/2010 at 9:55 AM Member
    My suggestion is to do two things:
    1. Focus group/advisory council - do a focus group/advisory council with key customers and present them with the new strategy. Get their feedback and use this to validate the strategy.
    2. Do a test - it is CRITICAL and probably the best way to tell what might really happen. Even if you test over a 6 month period with a limited number of accounts - you could position it to them as they would be "Beta" testing something new. See if the number works out..

    Doing an A/B test is a little extra work but the payoff in the end is always very much worth it.

    Good Luck!
  • Posted by thecynicalmarketer on 2/3/2010 at 11:50 PM Accepted
    Scott, You are 100% correct.

    Unless the content of the subscription has been recently diminished, or a less expensive alternative source for the same content has suddenly emerged, there is no reason to discount your content.

    There are countless solutions that will allow you to effectively manage your subscriptions and protect the rights to your content. These DRM solutions provide a wide variety of licensing models and options. I come from that space, so if you need a recommendation, just send me an email.

    Don't listen to comparisons to the newspaper industry. The fact is that the 50 largest city newspapers all produce remarkably similar content. Since it is all free online already, few want to pay for the print edition. But unless you have a large number of people producing the same content as you do and for free, then this analogy does not apply to your situation.

    I can tell from the way your question is written that you are passionate about this issue. Stick to your guns and invite the opposing side to produce the data that supports the claim that more free issues will drive enough sales of "the bigger ticket items" to offset the lost revenue.

    Best of Luck, JohnnyB.
    if you like the advice, read the blog, https://bit.ly/75KkSG
    https://twitter.com/tcmblog

  • Posted on 2/4/2010 at 10:58 AM Member
    A minor correction to Marcus's excellent reply.

    Newsday spent $4 million (US) not $40 million. It was 35 subscribers, not 36.

    Subscription cost: $5 per week.

    Apparently, the site is awful, badly laid out, broken links, etc. I grew up on Long Island (where Newsday is located), and it never was a very good newspaper even in print.

    Back to the question at hand. Let your information spread freely. Then charge for extras (say a private forum, seminars, training tools, workbooks, etc.) - whatever is appropriate for your business.

    People will pay for extras, for exclusivity, and for time-saving (say taking 20 articles scattered around your site and packaging them together with new material).

    Jodi
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