Insight to drive subscription growth

Join

Dana E. Neuts

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Editorial Director, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, premium content, and reports. Dana is also a writer, editor, marketer and communications professional. Her work has appeared in AARP Bulletin, The Seattle Times, Seattle Business, 425 Business, 425 Magazine, South Sound Magazine, Northwest Travel and more. Her specialties include business writing, community news, senior issues, travel and, of course, subscriptions!

Dana E. Neuts

Subscription Beauty Box Service Julep Lays Off 102 Employees

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Consumer Services, Industry Announcements, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Subscription Boxes /

Subscription beauty box company Julep will lay off 102 employees and shut Seattle-area salons after its parent company Glanasol filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reports The Seattle Times. Glanasol Holdings Inc. filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, reporting liabilities ranging between $10 million and $50 million. Glanasol also owns Clark’s Botanicals Inc. and Laura Geller Beauty. Geekwire reports that Glanasol has entered into an agreement to be acquired by AS Beauty.

Subscription Beauty Box Service Julep Lays Off 102 Employees Read More »

Five on Friday: Startups, Starz and Strategy

News, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscriber Only /

Before you prepare to ring in the new year, take a look at these hot subscription topics. In this weeks Five on Friday, beauty retailers grow their U.S. online sales by an impressive 24 percent, digital startup Fair gets a $385 million investment from SoftBank, Starz markets to former subscribers with a special deal to lure them back, Tubi offers an ad-supported video-on-demand model for cord cutters who dont want to pay for a streaming subscription service, and Microsofts restructuring this year has paid off.

Five on Friday: Startups, Starz and Strategy Read More »

Amazon Boasts Record-Breaking Holiday Season Worldwide

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Consumer Services, Customer Service, Industry Announcements, Memberships, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales /

Santa was very good to Jeff Bezos and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) this year. Yesterday, the retail giant reported that the 2018 holiday season was record-breaking with more sales worldwide than at any other point in company history. Among the top sellers were Amazon devices including the all-new Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo. Millions of items in the U.S. were shipped with Prime free same-day shipping, Prime free one-day shipping and Prime Now free two-hour delivery. The last Prime Now order was delivered on Christmas Eve at 11:30 p.m., just in time for Santa’s arrival. Overall, more than 1 billion items were shipped for free using Amazon Prime.

Amazon Boasts Record-Breaking Holiday Season Worldwide Read More »

Vista Equity Partners to Acquire MINDBODY in $1.9 Billion Cash Deal

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Payment Processing, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscriber Retention, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing /

Merry Christmas to MINDBODY! That’s what investors in the fitness, spa and beauty salon software company are saying. On Christmas Eve, Vista Equity Partners, an investment firm focused on software, data and technology businesses, agreed to buy MINDBODY (NASDAQ: M) for $1.9 billion in an all-cash deal. Shareholders will receive a premium price of $36.50 per share, a 68 percent premium over MINDBODY’s share price of $21.72 at closing on December 31, 2018.

Vista Equity Partners to Acquire MINDBODY in $1.9 Billion Cash Deal Read More »

Kardashian Clan Announces the Closure of 4 Subscription Apps in 2019

Consumer Services, Freemium, News, Revenue and Sales, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing /

Fans of the Kardashian-Jenner clan may feel like they’ve gotten coal in their stockings this year. Last Thursday, four of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters – Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian and half-sister Kylie Jenner – announced they would not be updating their subscription apps in the new year. Since 2015, each of the sisters offered a celebrity subscription app with exclusive photos, videos, beauty advice, workout tips, product recommendations, Kardashian-Jenner news and insider secrets for a $2.99 monthly subscription fee. The closure does not apply to the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood mobile game.

Kardashian Clan Announces the Closure of 4 Subscription Apps in 2019 Read More »

Weekly Subscription News: Facebook, Fraud and Fiction Riot

Business Operations, Business Services, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, Learning and Training, Magazines, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Revenue and Sales, Subscription Apps /

As you head into the holiday weekend, check out these subscription news headlines: NBC is considering an online TV service for 2019, a Chaska (Minnesota) call center duped 13,000 people into paying $10 million for magazine subscriptions, and CenturyLink forced Utah subscribers to watch ads before allowing them internet access. Also this week, we have headlines about former CBS executive Les Moonves, Fiction Riot’s new platform and Tribune Publishing’s deal (or lack thereof) with McClatchy.

Weekly Subscription News: Facebook, Fraud and Fiction Riot Read More »

Verizon’s Oath Will Become Verizon Media Group in January Rebrand

Business Services, Consumer Services, Industry Announcements, News, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing /

Just one week after the value of Oath drops by 50 percent, Verizon announces that it will rebrand subsidiary Oath as the Verizon Media Group effective January 8, reports The Verge. Oath is the result of a merger between Verizon properties AOL and Yahoo that took place last year. Oath owns HuffPost, TechCrunch, Engadget, Kanvas, AutoBlog, Tumblr and all of the Yahoo properties, including Yahoo News, Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Search.

Verizon’s Oath Will Become Verizon Media Group in January Rebrand Read More »

Five on Friday: Top Jobs, Top Apps and Subscription Conversions

Business Services, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, News, Revenue and Sales, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only, Subscription Apps /

Before you head out for the holidays, check out this weeks Five on Friday, featuring the best-selling iOS apps of 2019, top subscription jobs from LinkedIn, features merchants are using to increase subscription conversions, the Better Business Bureaus investigation into subscription traps, and a new study which predicts that streaming video revenue will surpass box office revenue next year. Happy Holidays from the Subscription Insider family!

Five on Friday: Top Jobs, Top Apps and Subscription Conversions Read More »

The New York Times Shares Impressive Numbers as It Looks Back at 2018

Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Industry Announcements, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps /

As one of the country’s oldest and most respected news organizations, it isn’t surprising that The New York Times touched millions – perhaps billions – of lives in 2018, but just how big was that impact? The Times published a report earlier this week, The Year in Numbers: 2018, to break it down and to show that a new generation of readers values quality journalism and is willing to pay for it. “This year, 4 million people decided that paying for our journalism was worth it. This number was celebrated as a milestone at The New York Times…”

The New York Times Shares Impressive Numbers as It Looks Back at 2018 Read More »

Red Hat Reports Double Digit Revenue Growth in Q3 FY2019

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Services, FInance, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services /

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) had a red letter quarter for the period ended November 30, 2018. The company reported total revenue of $847 million, double digit revenue growth for its third quarter of fiscal year 2019, at a rate of 13 percent. Subscription revenue was $741 million, a 13 percent increase year-over-year. In the third quarter, subscription revenue comprised 87 percent of total revenue.

Red Hat Reports Double Digit Revenue Growth in Q3 FY2019 Read More »