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Minal Bopaiah

TeamSnap Innovates Email Registration for Mobile Devices

News, Subscription Apps, Technology /

TeamSnap has definitely found an interesting and profitable niche — team sports managers and coaches who are tired of phone trees, paper sign-up sheets, and other disorganization tools and want a seamless online/mobile tool for organizing team sports for both kids and adults. With a freemium site, TeamSnap lets coaches and team managers organize intramural and kids teams by entering the email addresses for players or their parents. However, Ken McDonald, VP of Customer Acquisition, told…

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TED Launches Paid Membership Site to Watch Live Talks

Industry Announcements, News, Subscriber Acquisition /

Here’s another story I didn’t see coming. TED has just launched TED Live, a paid membership site for subscribers interested in viewing their annual conference and global talks live. The subscriptions are pretty high-priced: $995 for home use (with 10 seats) $995 for primary and secondary schools (with 50 seats) $2,500 for universities and business (with 50 seats) Custom quotes for a membership with more than 50 seats. While it makes sense that TED would price their offers for primary and…

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New York Times Co. Puts Boston Globe Up For Sale

FInance, News /

The New York Times Company announced this week that it plans to sell The Boston Globe, along with other New England properties, including Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Globe Direct, a direct-mail marketing company. NYT Co. bought The Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993. In 2006, a group of Boston businessmen, including former General Electric Co. Chairman Jack Welch, made an offer to buy The Globe for $550 million to $600 million, but the…

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Case Study Lessons: Sample Issues Work Better Than Trial Offers for iPad App Subscriptions

News, Subscription Apps /

While publishing an iPad app can be profitable, it can also be difficult. Popular Science was one of the first consumer magazines to publish an iPad app (and the subject of this week’s Case Study on Subscription Site Insider). As pioneers in the industry, they’ve been there for single copy sales, the introduction of app subscriptions, and the introduction of trials and the marketing “opt-in” feature. While the marketing opt-in, which extends a trial offer or gives…

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New York Times Adds 74,000 New Digital Subscribers in Q4, $125M in Annual Revenues Expected

FInance, News /

Despite all predictions, The New York Times doesn’t look like its slowing down in subscriber acquisition. The company gained 74,000 new digital subscribers in Q4 of 2012, with a total of 640,000 digital subscriptions. And using the lowest priced subscription plan of $195/year, the Times should expect about $125 million in digital subscription revenues alone by the end of 2013. Assuming they can retain all of their digital subscribers. And there’s the rub. Analysis of NYT’s metered…

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Are International Markets Ready for Paywalls?

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps /

For years, newspapers and print magazines thought they could bolster their declining print circulation numbers with international sales, as other countries like India and China still had thriving print markets. But that may be changing. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulation recently published data indicating that print sales may have peaked in 2011 in BRIC and developing countries, and now is on the decline. Countries as varied as Romania, Spain, India and China (the…

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Intel to Launch Set-Top TV Box with Subscription-Based Service

Entertainment and Streaming, News, Technology /

Two big pieces of news for those in the streaming video niche: Intel is launching a subscription TV service. And Intel is launching a set-top box to stream Internet TV. While that may seem like the same thing, Intel’s recent announcement can affect subscription sites in two ways. One, Intel’s new subscription video service means more competition for Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video sites. Two, the creation of a new set-top box for Internet-viewing means that…

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When To Offer Lifetime Memberships — And for How Much

News, Subscriber Acquisition /

In this week’s Members-Only Webinar, Steve Reitmeister of Zacks Investment Research explained to the Insider audience how Zacks has been able to sell more online subscriptions and paid content products by offering a $39.99 trial to everything. By allowing subscribers to sample the company’s breadth of offerings, Zacks is able to sell prospects a customized bundle of products. But one of the most interesting tips Steve had for our audience was about lifetime memberships. For around $6000,…

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Native Apps are Better for Engagement, Worse for Revenues and Retention

News, Subscription Apps /

The newest quandary for publishers? Whether to go native or not on the tablet. B2B publisher GIE Media found that their audience engaged more with a native tablet app of its magazine “A Garden Life” than the flipboard app. “We see engagement of roughly 47 minutes per entrance into the [native] app, which is huge,” Chris Foster, President and COO of GIE Media told Talking New Media. For the uninitiated, a native app is a downloadable piece of…

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Ask Paul Larsen Your Payment Processing Questions at Subscription Site Summit

News, Payment Processing /

Do you know why it’s best to never dispute a chargeback? Or that Account Updater can significantly reduce your credit card churn? Or that Visa and Mastercard have taken a strong stance against $1 pre-authorization charges and mandated $0 pre-auths instead? Most subscription site executives know the answer to some of these questions, but not all. Recurring billing is complex for card-not-present transactions, especially since new methods of payments (debit cards, eChecks, direct debit, mobile wallets)…

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