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.

Last year the publishing industry was abuzz with the news that the Winnipeg Free Press was experimenting with a Read Now Pay Later micropayment platform, where readers pay $0.27 (Canadian) per article they have read. Dana Neuts explores how well the first seven months of the strategy has gone.

At just three years old, Readly has experienced rapid growth and is defining success in the digital magazine publishing space. Now offering nearly 1,100 magazines and more than 17,000 issues in 49 countries, learn more about Readly in this exclusive INSIDER Case Study.

We made it; the week is almost over! In this week’s Five on Friday, the Facebook Journalism Project reveals publisher results, we offer best practices on using Twitter as a customer service tool, Barron’s explains why investors are no longer interested in movie theater stock, Apple Insider explores the streaming music wars, and the IAB shares digital advertising results for 2018. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers and mother figures out there!

Happy May! As the days get longer, we’ve got plenty of great subscription articles to share including how fitness subscriptions are making exercise and personal training at home more convenient, Meredith Corp. has Sports Illustrated on the bidding block and Authentic Brands appears to be the frontrunner, Facebook announces a major redesign, Instagram is testing a feature that hides likes and view counts, and LinkedIn shares top subscription jobs.

Just a few years ago, meal kits were the hot, new trend in food. A lot has changed since then. Blue Apron, the industry leader, lost more than 200,000 customers between September 2017 and September 2018. They’ve also seen their stock price tumble. Where have they gone wrong? And what can meal kit companies do to turn it around? What can we all learn from this experience? We’ll share our four big ideas for securing the future of meal kits.

Happy Friday! It’s hard to believe that this is the last Friday in April already, isn’t it? In this week’s Five on Friday, Marketing Land explains why they think content alone will not win the streaming video wars, Folio talks about magazine publishing trends we’re seeing so far in 2019, Disney Plus’s plans to put its new streaming service on gaming consoles, Apple attempts to reduce opportunities for subscription scams, and Proctor & Gamble appeals to advertisers to demand higher standards from media outlets.

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.

As those of you looking at your budgets for 2019 you should factor in the cost of documenting your data collection policies and reviewing your current business models in the context of what you may need to do to comply with the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). CCPA goes into effect in 2020 but its sweeping nature will require companies to use this lead time to effect changes in order to achieve compliance. 

How much would you pay for a list of leads who are demonstrably interested in your subscription service, are proven subscription purchasers, and are familiar with your subscription brand? Hint: You already own that list. Through careful testing, it is possible to craft effective, targeted messaging that can bring lapsed subscribers back into the fold.

The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) concept has been around forever. What’s changed recently is increasingly easy access to a wide variety of input datasets (a/k/a/ “signals”) that work to increase the precision of these scores. CLV scores are increasingly used by companies to determine how they will interact with their customers. Russell Perkins explains.

Amazon made headlines last week when it made a $575 million investment in Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery service. Amazon was the lead investor in Deliveroo’s Series G funding round, joining existing investors T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company and Greenoaks Capital. The Series G round brings total raised to date to $1.53 billion. A current valuation has not been calculated, but after Deliveroo’s last funding round in September 2017, the company was valued at $2 billion, reports Forbes.

Last Thursday, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) shareholders proclaimed a resounding “no” to MNG board candidates, electing eight of its own candidates instead. MNG Enterprises, also known as Digital First Media, has been trying to take over Gannett since January when it made an unsolicited bid to buy the media organization for $1.4 billion. Gannett rejected the bid, saying it undervalued Gannett, that MNG’s offer was not credible, and it was not in the best interests of its shareholders.

Media and marketing company Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP) reported total company revenue of $743.4 million, an increase of 14.1% year-over-year, for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2019. Total revenue growth was driven by significant increases in advertising and consumer categories. Advertising revenue was $365.6 million, a 12.7% increase year-over-year, and consumer revenue was $359.0 million, 27.6% increase year-over-year. Consumer revenue includes subscriptions, brand licensing, affiliate marketing, lead generation, affinity marketing and paid products. Meredith’s “other” revenue was $18.8 million, compared to $45.2 million for the same period last year.

In this week’s subscription news, EA Access says it is coming to PlayStation 4 gaming consoles soon, FuboTV is looking an expanding into ad-supported original content, and Utah’s Megaplex Theatres will launch a subscription service for two movie tickets a month for $14.95. Also the week, Roku stock is doing well, McClatchy reports big increases in digital subscriptions, and rental startup Feather raises $12 million to fight ‘fast furniture.’

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.

In this Subscription Insider STATPACK, we look at Digital Advertising trends, including:

Understanding how ad spend and budgets are changing; Examining the revenue of all the digital advertising platforms and publishers; Looking at digital advertising effectiveness compared of “traditional” advertising, what the most effective digital marketing techniques are, Ad ROI by medium, purchasing impact, and more; Understanding consumer perception of digital advertising by ad type, the leading types of ads, the reasons people block ads, consumer attitudes toward different ads, how different age groups view the relevance of online advertising; and, much more. This STATPACK is 96 pages and fully editable for your use in your marketing, business development, and business planning.

Three established companies in this category -- Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s -- sell more than $160 billion in economy-size goods while regularly dominating the customer satisfaction rankings. How do they do that? With recurring revenue from loyal subscribers who are also devoted fans.

Online dating is the ultimate subscription. If you are involved or thinking of getting involved in the business of online dating, this Subscription Inside STATPACK is for you.

We present the latest trends and facts about online dating in the United States, including: The market outlook for online dating users and revenue, Demographic profiles of online dating users, A review of the most popular dating apps and online services, Usage of dating apps and online services, Common attitudes and beliefs regarding…

“Smart Homes”, “Connected Cars”, “Smart Metering”, even “Smart Luggage” are all examples of Internet of Things (IoT) subscriptions.

In this Subscription Insider STATPACK, we explore the trends, facts and forecasts about the Internet of Things (IoT) in the United States including information on:

The overall North American and U.S. IoT market sizing trends, Different submarkets including Enterprise IoT, Passive Devices, Metering, Cards, Homes and more, Mobile connections/users related to IoT, The number of connected devices and “things”, and, Adoption rate trends. Download this editable STATPACK for your market and product research, presentations and more.

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.