Dhar Mann, CEO of LiveGlam, will be presenting at Subscription Show 2019 leading an informative session in our ‘Subscriber Acquisition’ track on ‘Referrals, Affiliates And Influencers: How We Grew From $600 To $20m In 3 Years’. Subscription Show 2019 is the conference to be at to stay on top of the latest trends impacting your recurring-revenue business and connect with the people and companies that can help both you and your business grow. Get the preview of Dhar's session here.

Like many legacy publishers, the 160-year-old McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), the owner of 31 media companies in 28 U.S. markets, is doing a major transformation, moving aggressively over the last several years to become a digital-first company. Instead of fighting a changing tide, McClatchy is making sweeping, long-term changes that are beneficial to the company but also to its readers.

In the summer of 2012, Liz Cadman knew she had a problem. She was addicted to subscription boxes, and she wanted more. She couldn't find the information she wanted online, however, to make smart buying decisions, so she started a blog to talk about subscription boxes. The blog grew into My Subscription Addiction, a full-fledged website dedicated to the discussion of subscription boxes. In four years, the site has exploded in popularity, and she has added additional features including swaps, a discussion forum and more. Learn how My Subscription Addiction started and grew into what it is today.

How can you combine a wholesale book business and a passion for children's literacy to get more books in the hands of kids? With the subscription box model. That's how founder Eric Shmuely made his dream become a reality -- by creating a subscription book service for children.

If you are tired of impeachment news, check out our Five on Friday features instead: a new study shows that nearly half of U.S. broadband homes subscribe to more than one streaming service; in seven-and-a-half years, the subscription economy has grown by 350%; Stitch Fix goes beyond just subscriptions; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is the latest newspaper to pare down its print operation; and Facebook agrees to a $40 million settlement for misleading advertisers on the potential success of video ads.

Subscription companies facing increased competition are trying different tactics to attract and retain subscribers. For example, this week Sony is slashing PlayStation Now subscription prices as new gaming services come online. Also, Netflix is allowing nonsubscribers free access to the pilot episode of Bard of Blood, a Netflix original. In other subscription news, a new report shows that more than half of online shoppers subscribe to a subscription box, Apple News+ is expanding beyond the U.S. and Canada, and eMarketer reveals how some publishers are replacing revenue lost from ad blocking.

It is hard to be it is already fall. Where did the year go?!! Despite the changing of the seasons, the subscription economy is growing strong. In this week’s Five on Friday, we talk about sneaker subscriptions (hint – it’s not about the shoes)! Also, Apple and Google take their gaming subscription services live, two ad blockers for Chrome are caught in an ad fraud scheme, the Washington Post launches an ad network, and Marketing Profs shares some tips on how to get the attention of millennials and Gen Z.

Every week, the subscription world has some interesting tidbits, news or acquisitions to share. This week is exceptional though with an array of jaw-dropping lawsuits, takeover bids and fake accounts. In this week’s Five on Friday, we’ll cover an unexpected takeover bid for MoviePass, a lawsuit alleging AT&T created fake accounts to beef up DirecTV subscription numbers, NBCUniversal’s streaming plans, the New York Stock Exchange putting McClatchy on notice (again), and a lawsuit against Peloton, alleging they violated copyright to the tune of $300 million.

The new California privacy law (CCPA) will bring with it a need to get far more sophisticated about your data collection practices. The risk in ignoring this law is real.

There is a private right of action for any security breach, and consequently, it is time to address your company’s data security procedures. In addition, the CA Attorney General will have the right to take action for any violation of the statute. The law is effective on January 1, 2020, and although the AG has agreed not to enforce the law for six months, that will not stop class action attorneys from acting sooner if there is a security breach. In this privacy how-to, we cover: Does the statute applies to you?, CCPA is being amended, should you wait to comply?, and, Will you need to revise your online privacy policy to comply with CCPA?

Tina Adolfson, Data Innovation Lead at Survey.com, will be presenting at Subscription Show 2019 leading an interesting session in our ‘Subscription Product Strategy’ track on ‘How to Get Recurring Value Out of Your Data’. Subscription Show 2019 is the conference attend to stay on top of the latest trends impacting your recurring-revenue business and connect with the people and companies that can help both you and your business grow. Get the preview of Tina's session here.

How-to manage lapsed subscribers, how-to manage subscription customer service, how-to manage payments: these are just some of the how-to topics we covered in 2018. Here are the six most-read how-to articles from 2018.

Does your CFO always say no to your budget requests?  Learn what your CFO needs to hear so you can secure budget for your Subscriber Retention Initiatives.   In this on-demand seminar, get inside the mind of a CFO, understand how they prioritize expenditures and learn how to convince them to loosen the purse strings for your engagement and retention programs.

The holidays are just around the corner, and appliance maker LG and BuzzFeed’s Tasty want to make seasonal baking easier with their new, co-branded LG | Tasty Cookie Club. Cookie club members receive step-by-step recipes and natural, organic, pre-measured baking ingredients, so they can recreate delicious cookies using their LG ProBake Convection ovens, the official oven of the Tasty kitchen. The Cookie Kits are delivered quarterly and will include seasonal recipes, including the following:

Netflix had a strong third quarter, boasting total revenue of $5.2 billion, a 31.1% increase year-over-year. The company also reported solid membership growth of 6.8 million in paid net additions, down slightly from Netflix’s forecast of 7.0 million, but an increase over Q3 2018’s paid net adds of 6.1 million members. The Q3 membership increase was 12%, a record for Netflix in the third quarter. Netflix now has 158.33 million paid global memberships, a 21.4% increase year-over-year.

At Google’s Pixel 4 event yesterday, the company announced changes to it Nest Aware subscriptions, plans that provide support for Google Nest Cams and Nest Hello doorbells. Currently, users of the Nest Aware subscription service have to pay for each individual camera, reports Engadget. Starting next year, customers will pay one fee, regardless of how many cameras they have and can purchase the new Nest Aware support plans in the Google Store. The plans are automatically renewable. For new customers and for customers upgrading from a 1st gen Nest, there is a 30-day free trial available.

On October 10, Comcast angered basic cable subscribers who were fans of Turner Classic Movies by removing the popular cable network from its basic subscription package. Fans who want to watch TCM, a collection of movies mostly from the 1930s through the 1960s, will have to upgrade to a more expensive sports entertainment package to get access to the channel. They will now have to have a minimum package of 140 channels, plus pay $9.99 more a month for the sports entertainment package, to get access to the commercial-free TCM, said AJC.com.

Learn subscription-specific payment trends that will eat into your profitability in 2019. The team at PLC, leading experts in "card-not-present recurring payments", will outline the key trends your business will need to stay on top of and the strategies you will need to implement in order to minimize their impact.

What you will learn:

Subscription payment trend data and impact on your profits from 2018. Understand how those trends translate moving forward in 2019. Tactics and best-practices subscription your business should employ to mitigate the negative impact on your profitability from these trends.

Marketing automation across many organizations is often filled with buzzwords, poor understanding of its full capabilities, and false expectations. As such, many subscription organizations are struggling with how to effectively choose, implement, and leverage the power of the marketing automation systems that they have invested in.

In this on-demand webinar, we discuss misconceptions, specific technology platforms, explode some truth bombs holding your company back, and provide you with a blueprint for choosing the correct marketing automation solution for your subscription company.

Does your CFO always say no to your budget requests?  Learn what your CFO needs to hear so you can secure budget for your Subscriber Retention Initiatives.   In this on-demand seminar, get inside the mind of a CFO, understand how they prioritize expenditures and learn how to convince them to loosen the purse strings for your engagement and retention programs.

How do you minimize the financial impact of subscriber complaints, refund requests, and chargebacks while keeping your subscribers happy? In this briefing, we will answer that question and also explore:

What is Friendly Fraud? How Do Chargebacks Impact Your Subscription Business? What Is Best Practice For Managing? What are the New Rules for Managing? With a recurring revenue business (especially with card-not-present transactions for monthly and annual subscriptions) getting complaints, refund requests, and chargeback is part of what you need to manage.

The banking industry is in the very early stages of exploring subscription offerings. However, there are both start-up firms and huge players making moves into this space. Odds are that the future successful offerings will cater to younger demographics, on fully mobile platforms, offering a wide range of substantial added value to make the subscription price compelling compared to current common free checking plans.

Interest in subscription boxes online is flattening, and the most recent data shows that traffic to subscription box sites is way down. There is still a lot of money in the industry, and a plateau is not a bubble, but a shakeout is coming. These three trends point to strategies that smart companies will use to survive.

Marketing a smaller business is unique. From budgets to what actually works and doesn’t work for acquiring subscriptions to your processes and tools for getting your marketing done. In this Subscription Insider STATPACK, we look at marketing trends specifically focused on small businesses.

More gamers are playing -- and paying -- for video games than ever. Gaming has even surpassed paid TV among millennials. In this golden age of gaming, the offerings are vast and many companies are trying out payment plans and options, especially subscription. The winning business model has yet to be determined.

Not all failed recurring payments can be “saved” with an Account Updater update. Failed payments can be for a variety of reasons from cancelled cards, cards opted-out of Account Updater services, or declined transactions due to credit limit issues. In this sample, we show three very different approaches to notifying subscribers about a declined payment and requesting updated payment information. (Plus, a bonus at the end, Subscription Insider’s own notice!) 

Are you receiving more alerts notifying you of expiring cards? We have and frankly, it’s no surprise with the increase in the volume of payment cards that been reissued. Without that updated payment information, subscribers and members will not get renewed successfully. In this sample, we show you real examples of payment card update notices from three separate companies, with three very different approaches to getting their subscribers to update their payment information. Plus, a bonus, Subscription Insider’s own notice!

ABC Mouse Early Learning Academy is an award-winning, subscription-based site/mobile app that uses email promotions to acquire subscribers. In this Sample, we walk through their promotional email campaign and offers. Are they sending too many promotions? Are they effective? You be the judge.

You may not be a sports fan, per se, but everyone plays games, whether it's chess, checkers or Thursday nights down at the local bridge club. We took a look at three sports-themed businesses offering subscriptions to see how well (or not) they are converting visitors into subscribers.

Understanding the difference between your most valuable customers and those that will not renew, is like separating out the wheat seeds from all the wheat chaff at harvest time. It will take the right tools and tactics to maximize renewal rates. Subscription Insider's Retention Workbook (Excel) will help you track the retention performance by key drivers in your business, turning your data into both a summary and a detailed retention report that you can use to manage your retention.

Does your subscription management or billing platform connect you to Account Updater — a service offered by Visa, MasterCard, Discover and more recently, American Express — that provides updated payment card information to help merchants manage involuntary churn issues? With this directory of 25 subscription management and billing platforms that support account updater services, you'll be able to create a short list of vendor contenders for your subscription business based on applicable industry experience, existing customers, payment gateways and processors supported, as well as pricing.

This extremely detailed subscription & membership financial model was developed as a tool for would-be subscription businesses who either are planning a new launch or an acquisition. It may also be useful for current publishers who are doing a minimum of marketing and who want to see how their cash flow might change if they ramp up marketing and/or ancillary product offers. Its purpose is educational and inspirational rather than strictly predictive . Everyone's business is slightly different, so it was impossible for us to create an easy-to-use model that would work with enormous accuracy for all. However, if you've not modelled this type of business extensively before, you'll learn a great deal from it!

Effective monitoring of subscriber retention is the result of understanding retention opportunities and trends, tracking attrition patterns, developing a tracking methodology, and applying those metrics in order to manage your retention business more effectively. Use this excel workbook to track and manage your subscribers and members.