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.

In this week’s edition of Five on Friday, we review the FTC’s new advertising disclosure guidance for online influencers; Ken Doctor announces the 2020 launch of his new venture, Lookout Local; now live, Disney+ shares details about its bundled offer with Hulu and ESPN+; the ‘Hunt A Killer” mystery game is raking in $2 million a month in subscription revenue; and NewsGuild-CWA says the Gatehouse-Gannett merger will hurt journalism.

This week was nothing short of amazing, as we wrap up our very first Subscription Show. Thanks to our sponsors, keynotes, speakers, vendors and attendees for making this conference both useful and fun, chock full of great ideas and techniques to grow our subscription businesses. Here’s what else is happening in the subscription world: Amazon will earn close to $10B in net digital ad revenue this year, Dropbox is making its file transfer service available to all users, Netflix says it is compatible with certain Roku and Samsung devices, Apple plants seeds for subscription growth, and Hubspot shares social media marketing tips.

  CNN to Create Digital News Subscription Service

CNN is stepping into the subscription game by adding another app to their portfolio. The AT&T-backed company currently has CNNgo, which allows you to log in through your cable provider to access the 24-hour cable news network on the go. Their stories are also available on voice-controlled devices, Samsung and Apple devices. Their newest venture? Adding a subscription news platform to allow users access to CNN stories at their…

  Taking a break from the MLS conference semi-finals, the World Series or the kick-off of the NBA season? We’ve got some interesting subscription features for you. McClatchy lays off 30 employees as it continues its digital transformation, Meredith Corp sells the MONEY brand to Ad Practitioners LLC, and American Press Institute shares examples of how publishers have successfully retained subscribers through engagement. Also this week, Netflix is raising $2 billion in debt to pay for content, and the Financial Times adds consultancy to its list of services to help other publishers learn from their paywall success.    

Last week, in an email to staff, McClatchy president and CEO Craig Forman outlined big changes coming to the organization as it continues its digital transformation, reports Poynter. The changes include leadership shifts and changes to functional areas (News, Finance, Customer and Product, and Operations). They also include layoffs of about 30 employees, or 1% of staff. None of the layoffs will come from reporting positions. …

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.

Cyber Monday 2019 yielded record sales of $9.4 billion, a 19% increase over 2018, says Forbes. Amazon did its fair share of sales, making Cyber Monday 2019 the single biggest shopping day in company history. Though the company didn’t share specific sales totals, they noted that customers worldwide purchased hundreds of millions of products between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. Among the top purchased items were Amazon devices, including the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa voice remote, Kindle devices and Fire tablets, also breaking company records.

Last week, Fisker Inc. announced its plans to enter the vehicle subscription market. The company will offer consumers early access to the Fisker Ocean, an all-electric luxury SUV, via subscription for $379 a month. Prospective subscribers can reserve their Fisker Ocean now for $250, which is fully refundable. Unfortunately, eager drivers will have to wait until 2022 to take delivery on their cars. Much like a lease, subscribers will have to make a down payment of $2,999 before receiving their vehicles. Customers with approved credit also have the option to finance the down payment.

What’s better than good ‘ol Texas BBQ brisket and pork ribs? Getting them delivered right to your door. Popular Texas restaurant Salt Lick is making that dream come true with its own monthly subscription service, reports Restaurant Business. For $89.25 a month, subscribers will receive a selection of Salt Lick branded barbecue meats, sauces and merchandise. Among the world-famous Texas treats are brisket, sausage, turkey and other Salt Lick-worthy meats that will be fully cooked before being shipped overnight or via two-day delivery. Starting January 14, 2020, the subscription boxes will be shipped the fourth Tuesday of each month.

Scribd has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The 12-year-old eBook company announced on Monday it has raised $58 million in equity financing in a funding round led by Spectrum Equity. Scribd will use the investment to further its growth and product innovation, enhance operations and support the company’s mission to change how the world reads. “We’re excited to partner with Spectrum Equity, a firm with deep expertise in high growth subscription businesses..."

Only 1% of start-ups effectively grow into a medium- or large-sized business. If your company is not prepared to scale from start-up to beyond, your business will not achieve its true potential. In this on-demand video, Kathy Greenler Sexton, CEO of Subscription Insider and Raj Sabhlok, President of Zoho discuss key issues, trends and tactics for successfully scaling your subscription business.

Acquisition is just the beginning of the customer’s relationship with your brand. And while the quality of acquisition is very important, monetization and retention are so much more important for healthy growth. Each stage that follows acquisition — activation, up-sell and cross-sell, upgrades, renewals, and retention — represents a distinct moment that impacts revenue. Learn where on your subscriber's journey you are losing revenue and what to do about it in this on-demand webinar.

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.

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.