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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

Weekly Subscription News: Data Breach, Botched Promo and Blue Apron

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In this week’s subscription news, The New York Times botches a promo, giving away a Google home for $17 but subscribers could quit after receiving it. Also this week, Roku offers new TV sets that combine streaming TV with linear TV, Equifax’s CEO ‘retires’ after the company’s massive data breach, and Uber’s new CEO apologizes after the company loses its license in London. Also this week, we share stories about Blue Apron, Facebook, Google, YouTube and the Chernin Group.

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Five on Friday: Millennials, Headlines and Conversions

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We are less than a week away from Subscription Payment Boot Camp, but we are still churning out exclusive, quality content to help you grow your subscription business. In this weeks Five on Friday, Chargify makes suggestions for successfully selling subscriptions to millennials, Search Engine Watch offers tips on writing search engine-friendly headlines, Adweek explains Googles new filters that allows publishers to weed out racy or sensational ads, Real Simple gives us five ways to rein in our unwieldly email inboxes, and PYMNTS and Recurly team up to share subscription conversion data for Q3 2017.

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Time Inc. Launches Membership Program, PEOPLE Perks, for $60 a Year

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Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) is the latest publisher to add paid membership programs to its offerings in the hopes of generating additional revenue. On September 27, the company announced the launch of People Perks, a membership program for People magazine readers, for $60 a year or $5.99 a month after a 30-day free trial. Members who pay annually also receive a free welcome kit, and all members receive exclusive discounts on entertainment, style, food, beauty, pets, home and shopping products and access to unique celebrity and red carpet experiences.

Time Inc. Launches Membership Program, PEOPLE Perks, for $60 a Year Read More »

Adblock Plus Announces Increased Fees for Micropayment Platform Flattr

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Last week Adblock Plus announced higher fees and a new fee structure for micropayment platform Flattr. Both are owned by parent company Eyeo. Eyeo acquired Flattr in April. The fee will now be broken down into two parts. Content creators and publishers, who receive micropayments from readers via Flattr, will be charged a monthly fee of 7.5 percent to cover Flattr’s operating costs. Also, when they first sign up, content creators and publishers will be charged a fee of 9 percent to cover payment processing.

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Google Ditches ‘First Click Free’ in Favor of ‘Flexible Sampling’

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Google has finally ditched its ‘first click free’ program in favor of a publisher-friendly tool the company is calling ‘flexible sampling,’ reports The New York Times. With ‘first click free,’ readers can access paywalled content by searching for a particular headline or relevant keywords through Google Search or Google News, a frustrating workaround for publishers with metered or hard paywalls. ‘While research has shown that people are becoming more accustomed to paying for news, the sometimes painful process of signing up for a subscription can be a turn off…’

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Gannett Makes Major Investment in Lifestyle Vertical Grateful Ventures

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Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) investors may find themselves ‘grateful’ that the parent company of the USA Today Network is expanding its portfolio with a new purchase. On Wednesday, Gannett announced that it has made a majority investment in Grateful Ventures, an online media and publishing coalition with a focus on building content and monetization strategies for high value domains. Grateful has a particular interest in high-influence food and cooking websites and bloggers.

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Netflix is Raising Prices on Two of Its Three Subscription Plans

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Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) announced it was raising prices on two of its three subscription plans last Thursday. The company’s standard streaming plan, which lets subscribers watch TV and movies on two screens and in high definition, is increasing by $1 a month to $10.99. Its premium plan, where subscribers can watch streaming video on four screens and in high definition or ultra high definition, will go up $2 a month to $13.99.

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This Week’s Subscription News: Starbucks, Subscriptions and SaaS

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In this week’s subscription news, Google finally drops its ‘first click free’ policy in an attempt to appease publishers, the Wall Street Journal stops publishing Asian and European Print editions, and Pandora makes a promising bet on video ads. Also this week, we’re reading subscription stories about Oracle’s feature-packed SaaS updates, how FireEye could benefit from the ghastly Equifax data breach, and YouTube’s new requirement that creators must enable their channel for monetization through their Partner Program to include external links, essentially putting a wall between creators and Patreon, a YouTube competitor.

This Week’s Subscription News: Starbucks, Subscriptions and SaaS Read More »

Five on Friday: Sales Tips, Digital Ad Dollars and the Future of TV

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Yes, its finally Friday. We survived talk of the island in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water, big water, ocean water, and we are ready for the weekend. (Sorry, I could not resist.) Before you head out, check out this weeks Five on Friday. In this weeks edition, Ad Exchanger reports that CPT advertisers are cutting their digital ad dollars and Amazon is reaping the benefits, Digital TV Research forecasts the future of online TV and video, Hubspot shares five sales tips, Zuora talks about the subscription economy in the U.K., and The Muse offers productivity tips to help us get more done.

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Cornerstone OnDemand to Make Corporate Learning Available Anytime

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Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD), a cloud-based learning and human capital management software company, announced that its new subscription product, Cornerstone Content Anytime, will be available to all Cornerstone OnDemand clients in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Africa, collectively known as EMEA later this month. In addition, the company has added some new partnerships with content providers to help global companies that need training and education in English, French, German and Spanish.

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