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Site License Giant Pivots in a Changing Market by Offering Individual Subscriptions

Industry Announcements, News, Subscriber Acquisition /

Site license and group subscription sales are often advantageous for most subscription sites — they allow publishers to expand their market to those who are reluctant to buy an individual subscription as well as further monetize accounts with the most passionate subscribers. But nowadays a once heavy group subscription site may need to consider a lower price point and individual subscriptions in order to meet the needs of changing marketplace demands and audience behavior. That’s the case…

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Consumer Reports Sends Holiday Gift Renewal Notice That Upsells More Subscriptions

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Retention /

I’ve written before about how smart subscription marketers will tie their year-end renewal efforts to a gift subscription offer. This technique does double duty by increasing both your retention and new subscriber acquisition rate. But year-end and holiday subscription marketing can go both ways, which means that renewal efforts for gift subscriptions can also include upsells for additional subscriptions. Take a look at this email campaign from Consumer Reports for a print subscription to Money Advisor. Consumer…

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The Washington Post’s New App Reduces Text, Likely to Increase Engagement

News, Subscription Apps, Technology /

The #1 refrain I seem destined to repeat to news editors is to understand the difference between new media and print when creating content. Just like you wouldn’t convey the news on TV with a scrolling version or a newspaper, newspaper shouldn’t simply recreate the print experience for the second screen online. That’s why I was so excited to discover The Washington Post’s new app Topicly. Designed for mobile and tablet use, but just as useful…

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The Australian Has 40,500+ Digital Subscribers, Gains Insights on Those Who Don’t Convert

FInance, News, Subscriber Acquisition /

Last September, The Australian launched a campaign with three introductory digital offers in order to garner more digital subscribers. This month, the newspaper reported that they increased digital subscribers by 49% over the past year, from 27,182 to 40,561. But what’s most interesting are the insights the paper is willing to share regarding converted subscribers and non-subscribers. Specifically, The Australian found that trial-takers who converted to paying subscribers spent an average of 140.5 minutes per week on…

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UK ‘Times’ Launches Educational Subscription Site for Kids

FInance, Industry Announcements, News /

In order to stay relevant and solvent, newspapers are taking to diversifying their revenue streams through more than just advertising and circulation. Just this past year, Subscription Site Central has featured new ventures from The Christian Science Monitor’s foray into B2B publishing, The Toronto Star’s line of eBooks, and Politico’s premium real-time Blackberry service. Now, The (UK) Times is the latest to join this gang of mission-creeping revenue generators with their launch of Times Tutorials, a…

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Are You Including Re-Upgrades in Your Customer Lifetime Value Estimates?

FInance, News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Retention /

Customer lifetime value is an important metric because it allows you to estimate the ROI on your marketing spend, explained Bakley Smith, CFO of TestingMom.com and guest speaker on this week’s Webinar for Subscription Site Insider members. Usually, customer lifetime value for subscribers can simply be calculated as total all-time revenue/total all-time number of paid subscribers. But certain subscription sites, especially those that see subscribers cancel and then rejoin (e.g., dating and seasonal sites, like MLB.tv), may…

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Politico Plans $1,000 Subscription for Newly Acquired Capital New York

FInance, News /

After announcing its acquisition of Capital New York last week, Politico says it’s looking to start a high-end subscription for Capital, which focuses on media, City Hall and New York State politics and policy. Jim VandeHei, Politico’s co-founder and executive editor, told Bloomberg.com that he envisions charging $99 to $1,000 a year for a premium subscription. While some have expressed surprise at this price, it’s not without precedent. Politico already charges $5,000 a year for Politico…

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Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite to Include MPA Tablet Metrics

News, Subscription Apps, Technology /

Back in May, the Association of Magazine Media (still using its old acronym MPA) released suggested metrics for tablet editions of magazines. This week, Adobe announced that it will include four of the MPA metrics in its Digital Publishing Suite, namely: total number of tablet readers per issue total number of sessions per issue average time spent per reader per issue average number of sessions per reader per issue The metrics will be available to all customers of Adobe Digital Publishing…

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Have You Tested Blue Conversion Buttons Yet?

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Technology /

I once gave a talk where someone asked me “What’s the best color for a button?” I remember mumbling something about red and orange doing well, usually, and then gave my standard response that the button should contrast with your site’s design and brand colors. But I may have been wrong. Apparently, blue buttons are testing off the charts. But first, let me say my belief in orange buttons was not unfounded. Numerous A/B tests have shown that…

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Looking to Survey Your Market? Here’s One Tip to Boost Your Response Rate [Data Chart]

News, Subscriber Retention, Technology /

Market research used to be a prohibitively expensive endeavor, especially for independent publications. But online survey software has made market research, industry benchmarking and even customer satisfaction polling much easier. However, the ease of using such software doesn’t mean everyone uses it well. In this week’s Members-Only How-To on Subscription Site Insider, we detail the 10 best practices you need to observe to create an effective survey, as well as six ways to boost your response rate…

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