Research

A look at the emerging subscription box industry reveals rising popularity, new player launches, established retailer buy-in, and keen investor interest. Signs, however, point both to growth and consolidation ahead.

Many print newspapers have been around for more than 100 years. Digital news, on the other hand, is relatively young in terms of life cycle. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to struggle with the transition away from print toward the digital side of the house and how to monetize it. Arvid Tchivzhel of Mather Economics discusses the revenue strategies of news content to better understand ROI and shares insight into how a subtle change in mindset can make a big difference.

Since the AMEX-COSTCO "divorce", many recurring merchants have been proactive reaching out to customers to mitigate its impact since American Express cards operate separately from the Visa/MasterCard Account Updater network.Melanie Stout, of the Paul Larsen Consulting Group, outlines their latest data on declines and on the "divorce's" ongoing impact to recurring subscription merchants.

As ad blocking usage continues to grow, publishers and organizations like the Newspaper Association of America are turning up the heat, to fight against companies like Adblock Plus, Brave and Optimal who threaten their livelihood. As ad revenue declines because of ad blocking, publishers like Axel Springer are waging court battles abroad to fight against unfair competition and business practices, while in the U.S., the NAA takes their complaint to the NAA.The growth of mobile ad blocking escalates the problem, particularly for mixed revenue business models. In this report, we've got the latest ad blocking news with exclusive commentary from NAA and Adblock Plus.

Involuntary churn for subscription- and membership-based companies are rising. Its not just due to EMV (chip cards) either. Now that its been a month since the Costco-American Express divorce, we are seeing an 18% increase in decline rates and expect declines to continue to rise in July and August.

A recent Pew Research Center study of 14 news magazines shows single copy sales for digital issues are up an average of 30 percent and digital subscriptions are up 6 percent, while print subscriptions and newsstand sales dropped slightly. Though the data varies across titles, most of the magazines saw year-over-year gains in their website traffic as well, reports Pew Research Center.

Every fall, InfoCommerce Group announces their picks for the InfoCommerce Model of Excellence awards. This program profiles industry exemplars to show how real revenue is generated by selling and distributing information online. To decide what companies are selected to become a model of excellence, they scan the business information landscape to identify companies whose products - both new and established - that have important new business models, or offer technological innovation within the field of online information and highlight them as a model for other companies to emulate.

Every fall, InfoCommerce Group announces their picks for the InfoCommerce Model of Excellence awards. This program profiles industry exemplars to show how real revenue is generated by selling and distributing information online. To decide what companies are selected to become a model of excellence, they scan the business information landscape to identify companies whose products -- both new and established -- that have important new business models, or offer technological innovation within the field of online information and highlight them as a model for other companies to emulate.

Every fall, InfoCommerce Group announces their picks for the InfoCommerce Model of Excellence awards. This program profiles industry exemplars to show how real revenue is generated by selling and distributing information online. To decide what companies are selected to become a model of excellence, they scan the business information landscape to identify companies whose products -- both new and established -- that have important new business models, or offer technological innovation within the field of online information and highlight them as a model for other companies to emulate.