Subscription Models for Publishers
Jonah Bloom has an interesting video at Advertising Age where he is urging publishers to go back to the subscription model.
I think is overall point is a good one, in theory. Publishers have definitely traded a revenue stream of, say, $24 per user per year to a revenue stream of a tiny fraction of that via online advertising.
For branded publishers with highly considered products (The New York Times, The Economist, etc.) the move to free is understandable, but also a disaster. Those organizations employ very intelligent people who create valuable content.
The issue is that through the years the high-end publishers, if you will, have degraded their brands by not putting out content that is as intellectually rigorous as the average blogger. Hence, you have the bloggers at Swampland (with the recent exception of Joe Klein) who are getting out thought on nearly a daily basis by the folks at Daily Kos.
The value of organizations like The Times, The Economist, and The Financial Times is that they can attract first-rate minds like Paul Krugman who aren't going to get outsmarted by some random blogger.
In this day and age competence is valuable. News media companies shouldn't be afraid to leverage their brands and their resources to put out authoritative publications that provide their readers with accurate and actionable information.
I think is overall point is a good one, in theory. Publishers have definitely traded a revenue stream of, say, $24 per user per year to a revenue stream of a tiny fraction of that via online advertising.
For branded publishers with highly considered products (The New York Times, The Economist, etc.) the move to free is understandable, but also a disaster. Those organizations employ very intelligent people who create valuable content.
The issue is that through the years the high-end publishers, if you will, have degraded their brands by not putting out content that is as intellectually rigorous as the average blogger. Hence, you have the bloggers at Swampland (with the recent exception of Joe Klein) who are getting out thought on nearly a daily basis by the folks at Daily Kos.
The value of organizations like The Times, The Economist, and The Financial Times is that they can attract first-rate minds like Paul Krugman who aren't going to get outsmarted by some random blogger.
In this day and age competence is valuable. News media companies shouldn't be afraid to leverage their brands and their resources to put out authoritative publications that provide their readers with accurate and actionable information.
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