Since then, how many $9.95-per-month digital subscriptions has Gannett sold in total, across all three sites? A well-connected source gave me the answer, and it's one of the following:
- Fewer than 100
- 100 to 300
- More than 300
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Paywalls | How many digital subscriptions sold?
Gannett started testing its new digital strategy on July 1, when it erected paywalls at three newspapers: The Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, The Greenville News in South Carolina, and The Spectrum in St. George, Utah.
Since then, how many $9.95-per-month digital subscriptions has Gannett sold in total, across all three sites? A well-connected source gave me the answer, and it's one of the following:
Since then, how many $9.95-per-month digital subscriptions has Gannett sold in total, across all three sites? A well-connected source gave me the answer, and it's one of the following:
25 comments:
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351
ReplyDeleteThat's higher than the figure I was given.
ReplyDelete217?
ReplyDeleteLess than 100.
ReplyDelete4:49 pm: Bingo!
ReplyDeleteYikes... that's just not good.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I am going out on a limb in predicting that paywalls will not be a revenue generator for Gannett or most other newspapers. What's in the paper now that cannot be found for free elsewhere on the web?
ReplyDeleteNational,international and sports coverage is everwhere. The Gannett "monopoly" on local-local? Check the television station sites in your town and you'll find the same stories you would find in the paper. Heck, even the coupons,comics,and puzzles are available online.
Considering some of the other misinterpreted and blatently wrong information I've read on this side, I'd be skeptical of any number you "report" from your supposedly well-connected unnamed sources.
ReplyDeleteHow has circulation and ad revenue fluctuated since then though? I think those both have to be taken into account, along with area competition. If there is no competition in the area, then put everything behind a paywall, because how else are people going to get local news?
ReplyDeleteWhoa. WTF?! Wonder what their paywall strategy consists of? I bet they wonder, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's almost $1K more per month than those sites were making before the paywall, right? And they still get the benefit of ads!
ReplyDeleteI find these low numbers hard to believe, too, but my insider has been very accurate in the past.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know the composition of these subscribers. For example, how many are writing the subscriptions off on their expense accounts or run businesses which permit writing off these expenses against taxes? I think the price is prohibitive for individuals, who are saving money where they can in this recession, and have alternative sources to go to. I also wonder if the sparse response to the subscription idea means circulation will drop at these papers, and what was the lost revenues from Internet ads. In other words, my guess is that subscriptions are not cost-effective.
ReplyDeleteSteve G wrote" If there is no competition in the area, then put everything behind a paywall, because how else are people going to get local news?"
ReplyDeleteThey will get there news from the local weekly that most towns have - many are free. That number does not surprise me.
In my San Francisco neighborhood, I get quite a bit of news -- including a police blotter, with news about burglaries, assaults, etc. -- from a free weekly that serves the area.
ReplyDeleteOK, is it fewer than 100 subscriptions PER site or fewer than 100 for all three sites? Grim either way, but if it's for all three sites, then each paper isn't getting roughly $1K more per month, as 11:22 suggested.
ReplyDeleteI'm told that it is approximately 100, total, for all three sites.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe? Consider this: Newsday, the Staten Island, N.Y., newspaper, has a weekday circulation of about 335,000, and Sunday of nearly 400,000. It erected a paywall in late 2009, asking readers to pay $5 a week for online-only access. (Gannett's papers are $9.95 a month.)
Three months later, the paper had sold only 35 digital subscriptions. (Yes: 35.)
Earth to Steve G.: If the paywall has lowered traffic to the sites, they're not getting the same ad dollars any more. Do you understand how CPM-based sales works?
ReplyDeleteWV palindrome: SPITIPS
Just a note....Newsday is on Long Island, based in Nassau County.
ReplyDeleteAfter massive layoffs a few years back, they're supposedly looking to hire about 30 reporters to do that hyper local schtick.
How many of you currently pay for any print-repurposed digital content?
ReplyDeleteIf I'm remembering correctly, if you subscribed to the newspaper itself, you also received a digital subscription. Maybe as many as five sign-on names per newspaper subscription bought? So, there are more than 100 people actually looking at the sites.
ReplyDelete7:02 pm: [Slapping forehead] D'oh. You are so right. It's Long Island, not Staten Island.
ReplyDeleteNewspapers are chasing their tails here.
ReplyDeleteBy the time they are able to generate even a modest paid digital audience, the print host (content and revenue) will have died off as a consequence of the effort to do so.
9:45 p.m. Not I. I browse enough sites on a daily basis that if I hit a paywall I can just go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteNow, another good source has stepped forward and said that the number of online-only subscribers is way, way, way, way, WAY above 300.
ReplyDeleteI'm now trying to suss out more information, and hope to get back to you soon.