Author: Dana E. Neuts - Page 230 - Subscription Insider

Writing App Ulysses Switches to a Subscription Model

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Industry Announcements, News, Paywall, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscription Apps / Dana E. Neuts

Last week Ulysses, a writing app for iOS and macOS, switched to a subscription model. Instead of paying for a one-time license to use the app, writers can subscribe to Ulysses for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Student pricing is available for $11.99 for six months. One major advantage for users is that they can now access Ulysses on all devices for one price. Prior to this subscription, users who wanted to download the app to multiple devices had to pay for the app on macOS and iOS separately, compliments of the App Store.

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Will Walmart Buy Beauty Subscription Box Company Birchbox?

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Revenue and Sales, Subscription Boxes, Subscription Business Marketing / Dana E. Neuts

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has met with beauty box subscription company Birchbox, Recode reported last week. Sources told Recode that Birchbox co-founder and CEO Katia Beauchamp met with Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce chief Marc Lore, but it is not known specifically what was discussed or if Walmart is looking to acquire Birchbox. If so, it would be the latest in a string of recent acquisitions for Walmart that will help strengthen Walmart’s position in online retail.

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Facebook Launches Watch, a Video Platform for Original Shows

Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Media and Publishing, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, Free Subscription, Industry Announcements, News, Product Development, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps / Dana E. Neuts

Eager to compete with social video platforms like YouTube and Snapchat, Facebook announced the launch of Watch last week, a new platform for original shows. Soon to be available on mobile devices, through TV apps and on desktops and laptops, Watch shows are made up of episodes that are either live or recorded and that follow a theme or story. Facebook says each user’s experience will be personalized, helping them discover new shows that their friends and communities are watching.

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Uber Investor Benchmark Sues Ousted CEO Travis Kalanick for Fraud

News / Dana E. Neuts

This has been a rough year for Uber. After a series of scandals including allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and stealing technology and trade secrets, CEO Travis Kalanick was asked by investors to resign from the company he co-founded. Kalanick reluctantly stepped down in June, but remained on the board, but his seat may not be warm for long. Last week one of Uber’s largest investors, Benchmark, is suing Kalanick to try to boot him off the board of directors, reports the New York Times.

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This Week’s Subscription News: Financial Times, FireEye and FX

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Media and Publishing, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Media and Publishing, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, Industry Announcements, Memberships, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services / Dana E. Neuts

This has been a huge news week in the subscription world with Netflix’s acquisition of comic book publisher and producer Millarworld and Google’s offer to buy Snapchat for $30 billion. Also in the headlines this week, FX will offer an ad-free subscription service, the Financial Times returns to the App Store after a six-year break, and the new Time Warner chief says CNN is not for sale. We’re also reading about antitrust concerns over Amazon, Microsoft pushing hardware sales with a device subscription model, and how the pursuit of digital readers broke the New Republic.

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Quarterly Financial Round-Up for August 2017, Part 1

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Customer Service, Entertainment and Streaming, FInance, Freemium, Industry Announcements, Memberships, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing, Subscription Gaming / Dana E. Neuts

There are so many publicly-traded subscription companies that we want to cover each quarter, but there is never enough time to report on them all. In this round-up, we’ve chosen some of the companies we’ve covered in the past to update you on where they are now. In this particular round-up, we’re including Activision Blizzard, Alarm.com, CBS Corporation, Etsy and IAC. IAC isn’t a household name, but you’ll recognize some of its 150 subsidiaries including Match.com, HomeAdvisors and Tinder. Next week, we’ll cover five more subscription companies including Apple, Box, Onvia, SiriusXM and Tronc.

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Why Are Publishers Like The Ringer and BackChannel Leaving Medium?

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Freemium, Industry Announcements, Memberships, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps / Dana E. Neuts

Five-year-old publishing platform Medium has had a tough year. In January, Ev Williams, CEO of Medium and co-founder of Twitter, announced that the company was renewing its focus which included cutting 50 jobs and closing its offices in New York and Washington, D.C. In March, Williams announced subscriptions and member-only content. Ironically, that post and related comments are now only available to members, so non-members can’t see the value proposition that Medium offers. These decisions and others have caused publishers like Bill Simmon’s The Ringer, which moved to Vox, and Conde Nast’s tech blog BackChannel to move to Wired. Why are they leaving?

Why Are Publishers Like The Ringer and BackChannel Leaving Medium? Read More »

Five on Friday: Marketing, Mobile Ad-Blocking and Mobile Ad Spending

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, News, Product Development, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only / Dana E. Neuts

To help you figure out what you need to know to succeed in the subscription world, weve got some great tips and insights for you. In this weeks Five on Friday, Insead offers advice on how to thrive in the subscription economy, Forbes shares a marketing technology cheat sheet, Marketing Tech News gives its take on the state of mobile ad-blocking, Editor & Publisher explains seven ways to make digital audiences pay for news, and Tubefilter offers insights from a mobile video ad spend vs. computer ad spend study.

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Disney to Pull Content from Netflix & Launch Streaming Service in 2019

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Operations, Business Services, Business Strategy, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, FInance, Industry Announcements, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Product Development, Regulation and Compliance, Revenue and Sales, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing / Dana E. Neuts

Tuesday was a big day for Disney (NYSE: DIS). The entertainment and media company announced its third fiscal quarter financials for the period ended July 1, 2017, the acquisition of a majority ownership of BAMTech, and its plans for over-the-top streaming services for Disney in 2019 and ESPN in 2018. Though the Disney news is all related, we’ll tackle one topic at a time.First, let’s look at the new streaming services Disney is planning. In early 2018, Disney will launch an ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service. The service will offer a range of sports programming; approximately 10,000 live regional, national and international games and events, including Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Grand Slam tennis, and college sports…

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Netflix Buys Comic Book Publisher Millarworld in Its First Acquisition

Auto-renew Subscription, Business Services, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, Industry Announcements, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Revenue and Sales, Subscription Apps / Dana E. Neuts

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) acquired Millarworld, a comic book publisher founded by New York Times best-selling comic book writer and producer Mark Millar. Millar created popular characters and stories including Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Super Crooks and The Ultimates, some of which went on to become movies. Netflix and Millar will work together to bring character franchises to movies, series and kids’ programs, exclusively to Netflix. In addition, Millarworld will continue to create and publish new characters and stories under the Netflix brand. This is the first acquisition ever for the 20-year-old Netflix. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

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Insight to drive subscription growth

Dana E. Neuts