5. Advertising Revenue at 1950s Levels
Newspapers lost $10 in print advertising for every $1
gained in online advertising
6. The Myth Of Free Was Killing The Industry
“By having a paywall you are cutting your journalism off from the
world.” – Alan Rusbridger, Guardian Editor-In-Chief (Jan 2010)
7. The Race To The Bottom
31%
Of Americans stopped
using a news outlet
because of
dissatisfaction
Source: PEW Research Center
over content
State Of The News Media 2013
8. Some Companies
Rebelled Against Free
The New York Times paywall is working better than anyone had guessed
Confidential and Proprietary Information. Do not distribute beyond intended audience.
9. A New Dawn
…subscription sales
are rising faster 33% of our revenues
than ad dollars are Digital coming from
falling…. NYT subscribers now subscriptions
Pearson Sees outnumber … Dallas Morning
Digital Income print…. FT News
Beating Print
Publishing
10. Digital Magazine Revenues Predicted To Triple
Source: PEW Research Center State Of The News Media 2013
11. Digital Paywalls Are On The Rise
Tribune Co. 27.8 % Papers With Paywalls
Swift Communications 17.2
McClatchy Co. 16.7
Times-Shamrock 75
Dow Jones Local Media 100
Berkshire Hathaway 57.9
MediaNews-Digital First 44.1
Lee Enterprises 57.7
GateHouse Media 31.6
Gannet & Co. 72.2
46.7% of newspapers now behind a paywall
News & Tech Stats Aug 2012
12. Western Europe: Online Paid Content Revenue
Expected To Rise By 65%
+65% 10,2
6,2
€Billion
2012 2017
Source: Forrester Research
13. Wall Street Is A Believer Too
Shares of Gannett, New York Times, and E.W.
Scripps are up
14. Bottom Line: Paywalls Can Work
Print Circulation Before Print Circulation After Paywall
Paywall
New York Times Weekday declined by 7.8% Weekday declined by 5.6%
Sunday declined by 5.3% Sunday declined by 0.1%
Wall Street Journal Paywall for 15 years Very gradual decline
Boston Globe Declined by 5.3% Sunday increased by 0.8%
Dallas Morning News Declined by 16.1% Weekday declined by 5.5%
Sunday declined by 1%
Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Weekday increased
Sunday remained steady
Source Michael Nevradakis “May The Best Paywall Win” University of Texas Austin
Paywalls show signs of positively impacting print circulation
15. We Proudly Support Media Industry’s Transformation
So Where Do We Go From Here?
25. Innovative Content Monetization
Pearson Plug-N-Play offers content via
APIs to third party app developers
Confidential and Proprietary Information. Do not distribute beyond intended audience.
26. Cross Content Bundling
News International: Bundling print, web and tablet
subscriptions to The Times and the Sunday Times
Confidential and Proprietary Information. Do not distribute beyond intended audience.
28. Increased
Cross title
Geographical
Bundling
Reach
1 2
Predictable
Revenue 5
3
Model Richer Multi-
Device
4 Experiences
Extended Product
Line Via
Innovative
Content Packaging
29. Increased Cross Title
Geographical Bundling
Reach
1
Predictable
Revenue 3
Model Richer Multi
Device
Experiences
4
Extended
Product Line
via Innovative
Content
Packaging
Confidential and Proprietary Information. Do not distribute beyond intended audience.
34. We Proudly Support Media Industry’s Transformation
It’s Time to Start the Journey
“There Are Three Estates in
Parliament, But The Fourth Estate Is
More Important Than All “
Edmund Burke, British Politician, 1729-1797
As quoted in “Heroes and Hero Worship In History”
35. Neil Robinson Tom Hall
Digital Director VP Education Technology Partnerships
IPC Media Pearson
Katie Vanneck-Smith Andrew Lam-Po-Tang
CMO Chief Information & Technology Officer
News International Fairfax Media
Peter A. Kreisky Christina Scott
Founder CIO
Kreisky Media Financial Times
36. The Opportunity Exists. The Tools Exist.
The Media Industry Will Be Reborn
“Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word—paper.
They’ve got to be defined by the first word—news.”
Arthur Sulzberg, Jr.
3
Editor's Notes
Today: The media industry seems to be at a crossroads
A few years ago the death of journalism was widely predicted. Based on trends in the media industry, namely the proliferation of free content online, and the growing preference for digital vs print, analysts predicted that newspapers in their current form would be extinct in the western world by 2019.
During the same period, newspapers saw their advertising revenues dwindle to 1950s levels. Online advertising revenue failed to make up for the loss in print advertising revenue, and newspapers saw a loss of $10 in print adversitning revenue for every $1 gained in online ad revenue
And yet, the debate about whether or not to charge for content online raged on. Most media outlets stuck with the theory that consumers would never pay for digital content, and that online content should always be free. But this idea of offering content for free was quickly killing the media industry. Major newspapers and publishing houses folded and went out of business.
Others outlets that are still around have taken to cost cutting as the way to survive. And the hardest hit resources in cost cuts are newsroom staff and journalists. But cost cutting is just an accelerator to the race to the bottom. Consumers have noticed the loss in quality journalism as a result of these measures. PEW research indicates that a third of the users that turned away from news outlets did so because they were dissatisfied with the quality of content they were getting.
Amidst all this, some publishers took a stand, and decided to put up paywalls and charge for content. And to everyone’s surprise, the sites that had paywalls did not die, or drive away all their readers. The News York Times paywall is doing better than anyone expected, and has reported that their subscriber revenue is rising faster than their ad dollars are falling. In fact, for the first time in history, they made more money for subscription and circulation revenue than from advertising.
Simple paywalls have stopped the bleeding. And today there are signs of hope that the media industry can turn itself around
And beyond newspapers, magazines are benefitting from the shift to digital as well. Digital magazine revenues are on the rise, even as print is falling
It’s not just big name brand newspapers that are adopting paywalls.A look at the hundreds of newspapers offered by the top 10 publishing houses across small, medium and large markets clearly shows how widely paywalls are taking holdAs of 2012, 46.7% of all newspapers offered by the top 10 publishers in America now have paywalls.
In Europe, there is a huge opportunity to capture online paid content revenue. Forrester predicts online paid content revenue will increase by 65% by 2017 due to an increase in customer willingness to pay for digital content like news, video, games and music.
A researcher at UT Austin researched a number of paywalls to detemine if they could potentially preserve print circulation while attracting digital subscribers.Surprisingly, he found that digital paywalls seem to have a positive impact on print circulation revenue.Prior to paywalls, many newspapers showed a sharp decline in print sicrulation.After implementing paywalls, newspapers showed a much slower rate of decline in print circulation (NYT and Dallas Morning News). And in some cases like the Boston Globe and the Arkansas Democrat Gazzette, print circulation actually increased.
So what lies ahead? What should media company’s do to not just stop the bleeding and simply survive, but beyond survival, get back to their days of glory?
Now is the time for media to reinvent itself
And success with making the most of any of these opportunities lies in one crucial point: A laser focus on what customers want. It’s not just about paywalls. It’s a complete transformation centered on what customers want.
The shift to digital brings opportunity. Studies show that digital consumers actually consume more news not less once they start using a mobile or tablet device to access news.31% of mobile/tablet users spend MORE time with news than they did prior to the device43% % of mobile/tablet users ADD TO THE NEWS they consume31% of mobile/tablet users turn to EVEN MORE NEWS SOURCES than they did prior to the deviceSource: PEW Research CenterState Of The News Media 2013
Now is the time for media to reinvent itself
Axel Springer, one of the largest media companies in Europe publishes 230 newspapers, has over 160 digtial offerings and over 120 apps. Axel’s “Welt Group” which is the largest newspaper in Germany is one of the most successful adopters of interactive media experiences. It’s the first newspaper brand in Germany to be represented on all major digital devices.The WELT Group also implemented Touchcode at the end of 2011 for a specific project that aimed to bridge the gap between the offline print publication, ICON, with the online outlet, The Iconist. The printed issue included a removable business card, which when touched to the screen in its Apple iPad app, downloads a free edition of The ICONIST.
The New York Times is extending it’s reach well beyond it’s New York roots. Seeing opportunity in a growing economy, affluent readership and an international business hub, the New York Times announced that there will be an online Portuguese version to serve readers in Brazil in 2013. This DIGITAL ONLY edition will publish 30-40 articles per day from local Brazilian writers and staff. They made a similar announcement this year with a DIGITAL ONLY Chinese language edition.
Pearson is going beyond publishing, and monetizing digital content in creative ways by making their content available to app developers via APIs
News International is offering creative bundles of the times and the Sunday times with mixed print and digital offerings.
The New York Times is now building a steadily growing subscriber revenue base, which is overtaking it’s advertising revenues.
