Digital Winners 7-8 November: Stavanger Aftenblad - What we learned so far? Lars Helle

1. Stavanger Aftenblad – What we
have learned so far
Digital Winners, 7 November 2013
Lars Helle,
Editor-in-Chief, Stavanger Aftenblad
twitter: @lahelle

2. Jonny’s last days
• video (duration:29 min.)
downloading record
• Daypass purchases: All-time-high
day 1. Also many purchases the
following days
• 90% converted to digital users

3. 100 days previously
Stavanger Aftenblad launches «The new Aftenblad»,
a freemium model for paid, digital content

4. The big question
•
•
What make people pay for digital stories?
How does the sales funnel work?

5. The answer is even bigger
•
•
But we know there is not necessarily a link between traffic and
sale. Click-winners are not necessarily sales-winners.
Theory:
-- good, classic journalism
-- for regional papers: local, enriched news with a twist
-- lists (richest in town, evaluation of soccer players, most
expensive houses, most powerful in oil business aso.).
-- News for use

6. Key learning: Great traffic
≠
Great sale

7. «The new Aftenblad»
Our hairy goals:
• Same circulation
as in 2012
• No decrease in
digital traffic
• 75 % migration
between the
subscribers at the
end of the year
Status:
• Circulation: Well…
• Traffic: YES!!!
• Migration: On track

8. Circulation development
Before launch: - 4,1 %
After launch: - 3,2 %

9. Status migration and digital sale
• Top daily passes:
• Jonny’s last weeks
• Not a subscriber? Get full access
• Finish line, Nordsjørittet (bikerace)
Ikke-migrert
• Top subscribtion:
• Not a subscriber? Get full access
• Why you should cover your tits on the beach
• Route 44 – A digital story about the everyday
life along the region’s most important
highway
33%
67%
Migrert
Experience: A digital user
does not enter our new
universe the first time she reaches
the landing site for purchasing a
subscribtion

10. Our publication strategy – was it too liberal?
Paid
Main rule: Everything
produced in-house
Digital firststrategy
Examples:
Regional and local
news
Politics, culture
Familiy pages
Op-ed’s/editorials
Feature stories
Background stories
Videos
Case-to-casedecision
Stories with
national potential
Commentaries
Series
Paid stories shared on
social media to be
hashtagged #ABO
Not paid
Oil/energy
House and living
Jobs/education
Blogs
Traffic
Weather
100 % Sport
Crime, news from the
court, etc.
Live
Press conferences
Stories with potential for
national attention
Default: Not paid

11. Publication Strategy 1.0 – Evaluation
Plus
 Soft launch winter
2013, full launch May
13th, the day we
introduched our
universe for paid,
digital content
• Strong digital traffic
• Better digital attitude in the newsroom
• Editorial flow improved
• Better digital knowledge
• Journalists more aware of paid/free
content
• Openness: SoMe, Chat on front page, etc.
• More experiments/more live
Minus
• Speed on migration too slow
• Technical problems (slow downloading,
problems with log-in, mobile version)
• Publication strategy – too open?
•Publication rhytm: Still paper orientated
• Still dependant on purchase-solution in media
houses we co-operate with (Sports, News for
use)
• The environments for feature-stories not good
enough
11

12. Page traffic – a challenge

13. We developed a new tool to follow open/closed
stories on the front page

14. Chat and Social Media
Chat on front page
and new structure on
social media
launched May 13th.
Positive responses from users, high
percentage of response from editorial
staff.
=> Hire a full-time SoMe-specialist?

15. The road ahead. The new Aftenblad 2.0
Alt 1: Moderate
adjustment
KONSEKVENSER
Background
Consequenses
 Goals for The new
Aftenblad:
 1) Digital growth
 2) More paying
subscribers
 Solid growth on
mobile devices and
tablets. PC:
decreasing slowly
compared with
same period last
year (May-JuneJuly)
 Around 65 %
migration..
• Marginal or no pcgrowth
• Still strong growth on
tablets and mobile
• We will reach the goal
of 75 % migration
• Slow rate of new
subscribers
Alt 2: Tightening of publication
strategy
Consequenses
• Decrease in pc-reading
• Fewer open sections
• Continued growth in
tablet- and mobile reading
(but slower)
• Higher migration. More
paying subscribers
• Tougher to get traffic
from SoMe
 More paid content on front
page (+/- 50 %)
• Parts of common news
stories will be paid content
 Sections like Energy
Job/education, House and
living will be transferred to
the paying universe.
 No exceptions for
commentaries/op-eds.
 Only traffic, weather,
«common crime» remains
unpaid
 More paid stories from the
local sport arenas
 Follow moves by cooperating media houses
Default:
Paid content

16. The coming year
The new Aftenblad 2.0
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Less liberal publication strategy
More digital strength on copy editing (mobile devices)
New subscribtion packages
Focus on technical support
Focus on customer information
More and better analyses (sales funnel, big data, publication strategy)
Increase the migration. Stimulate readers to use all devices and to read
the e-paper
• More video
• More cooperation between the internal departments
• Experimentation, experimentation, experimentation

17. Mobile platforms vs. web – Week 34 – Mon-Fri
Desktop
Mobil + Leserbrett
10 000
9 000
8 000
7 000
6 000
5 000
4 000
3 000
2 000
1 000
0
23-00
22-23
21-22
20-21
19-20
18-19
17-18
16-17
15-16
14-15
13-14
12-13
11-12
10-11
09-10
08-09
07-08
06-07
05-06
04-05
03-04
02-03
01-02
00-01
Mobile
plattformer
størst

18. Mobile platforms vs. web – Week 34 – Sat-Sun
Desktop - Lørdag - Søndag
Mobil + Leserbrett - Lørdag-Søndag
10 000
9 000
8 000
7 000
6 000
5 000
4 000
3 000
2 000
1 000
0
23-00
22-23
21-22
20-21
19-20
18-19
17-18
16-17
15-16
14-15
13-14
12-13
11-12
10-11
09-10
08-09
07-08
06-07
05-06
04-05
03-04
02-03
01-02
00-01
Mobile
plattformer
størst

19. Digital Sunday edition

20. More Web-TV

21. More good journalism
The best strategy in the universe of paid, digital content