Reader Revenue Programs w/Matt Lindsay, Bob Terzotis and Arvid Tchivzhel of Mather Economics
Ned Berke & Max Resnik Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism
Discussion date: January 24, 2019
As reader revenue becomes an increasingly important source of support for news organizations, many publishers are focused on optimizing their content, marketing and technology funnels put in place to encourage reader contributions.
Mather Economics President Matt Lindsay, Executive Vice President Bob Terzotis, and Arvid Tchivzhel, Senior Director of Product Development, recently discussed what the consulting firm has learned from working with local and regional newspaper publishers to improve reader revenue programs with members of the Tow-Knight Center’s News Audience Community of Practice.
Takeaways from the discussion are shared below, including some insights from the community of practice members, who are audience development leaders at national, local, and niche news organizations, many of which field advanced subscription and membership programs.
To allow community members to speak openly, the discussion was held under Chatham House rule, which permits participants to share what was said, but not who said it or the publications they represent.
Reader revenue programs need to start with readers
The Mather team and news audience pros on the call agreed that reader revenue programs offer both an opportunity and a challenge, and deliver best when publishers pay close attention to understanding a user’s needs and habits, and craft journeys/experiences that meet those needs and align with those habits.
Communication is key
Identifying users is a prerequisite to meeting users needs/habits. So it pays off to request emails up front and then offer various incentives and routes to subscription when they return to the site or as part of off-site marketing efforts.
Reduce friction to maximize subscriptions
Mather’s data confirms that publishers can greatly increase subscription rates by reducing the number of fields they ask users to fill out when it’s time to pay. One national publication found that reducing its checkout process from 20 fields down to five increased completion rates by more than 30%. An attendee from a national publication that garners significant subscription support emphasized to call participants that reducing such friction in payment processing is the most effective route to increasing conversion rates and should be a high priority.
Don’t count on paywalls to do all the work
Mather shared that the majority of subscriptions for its clients don’t come directly from readers who’ve just hit a paywall and are promoted to subscribe to view the content.More often, users subscribe after other journeys — for example, after hitting a subscribe button on a site before hitting a paywall, or in response to off-site marketing. Moreover, for Mather’s clients, subscription bundles that include print as well as online access to content work better than online access alone.
Don’t count on paywalls to work right away
Mather’s clients have found that users hit a paywall nearly seven times, on average, before opening their wallet.
Crime doesn’t (always) pay
For Mather’s clients, crime and sports stories bring in the most pageviews — and the highest volume of conversions. But users are more likely to subscribe or donate after reading or viewing opinion or community stories than crime stories.
Metrics that indicate propensity to subscribe / contribute
Although there are many contributing factors, Mather identified three metrics above all that suggest a user’s willingness to subscriber, donate or join a membership program:
- breadth of stories: the amount of content across categories and types
- recency of visit
- frequency of visits: If a reader is engaged with lots of different types of content, there’s a good chance they support the publisher’s mission.
Third-party fulfillment services cause frustration
Working with external fulfillment providers — the companies that provide delivery and customer service for physical subscriptions — was a major point of frustration among the members of the Community of Practice. Multiple attendees shared experiences of bad services and practices, slow processes and outdated sales techniques. This can be a major obstacle to retention and the reputation of the publication, suggesting an area ripe for new ideas and exploration.
If you are a journalist interested in collaborating with your peers to increase your professional impact and expertise — and theirs — the Tow-Knight Center’s Community of Practice program may be of interest. Please let us know by completing this form.
