Charging for content
based on its age
The news value of
newspaper content changes over time, and the marketing value of content
on the Web also varies over time -- but in different ways.
Some newspapers now
provide current news for free on the Web and charge for access to their
archives. That model presumes that current news -- having inherent value,
that people are used to paying for in the print world -- should drive traffic
to the site. But, unless you go to great expense to build your brand name
or unless you have the right partner agreements, no one will know that
you have the latest story -- no one but the people in your traditional
audience, who you can prompt with notices in your print edition.
The best way to capitalize
on free current news to draw new traffic is in partnership with news distribution
services, such as NewsEdge, YellowBrix, and ScreamingMedia. For instance,
NewsEdge provides newsfeeds to Individual.com, which distributes them,
tailored to individual needs, for free to individuals and Web sites. It's
far more valuable to have your headlines dancing across the screens of
thousands of users than trying to charge subscription fees for the latest
content, like a subscription to a print newspaper.
But the revenue likely
to come from charging for archived newspaper stories is very small, because
only a handful of experts and researchers have sufficient interest in old
news to be willing to pay for access to it. It makes much more sense to
make the archives available for free, and use them to build traffic to
your site -- storing all that text in search-engine friendly ways (e.g.,
as static Web pages, rather than in a database).
As for old news, a
story from six months ago doesn't matter anymore to very many people, but
such a story would have had time to be included in search engines, to have
been bookmarked by readers and linked to by sites devoted to that particular
subject -- hence such a story could bring new traffic to your site.
In other words, while
the news value of content declines over time, the marketing value of that
same content increases over time. So it makes sense to use the old content
as a marketing asset, rather than trying to sell it.
So what should you
charge for? Not the old news and not the very latest, but rather recent
news -- stories a day to a month old. Those are the stories people pointed
you to in email or that you heard about the next day or that you didn't
get a chance to read on the day of publication. You know what you want.
You know that you need it. You understand its value to you. And you'd be
willing to pay to get it -- either by subscription or by the article.
But don't expect miracles.
Live newsfeeds (through services like individual.com) and archives fully
indexed by search engines can both boost your traffic. But, while you could
make some money selling "recent" news, that's not likely to amount to major
revenue.
Giving away "base"
level content, and selling "professional" level
Other companies today
offer a base level of content or service or software for free, and charge
for the professional level.
In the case of a newspaper,
you could provide headlines and the first few paragraphs of each story
for free; but charge (a la carte or by subscription) for the complete detailed
story and related services (like tailored news alerts). For this approach,
you would want to have huge content resources available -- perhaps the
content of other newspapers owned by the same group as yours; or perhaps
content you pick up from other newspapers in partnership deals.
If I am interested
in following a story about an election or a major archaelogical find or
a riot or a very successful business, can I easily search across a whole
set of newspapers and easily access all those stories? Can I have access
to the complete text of stories that were shortened or that never made
it into the paper because of space constraints? Can I have access to similar
information provided by content partners? Can I request alerts of followup
stories about the same or similar subjects?
Classified ads
Consider making the
classified ads at your online site far more extensive than those in the
print edition of your paper.
With classifieds,
you want to make it easy for both the seller and the buyer them to do business
with you. If all classifieds from numerous print publications are available
through the same site, then I could search for a particular kind of product
and focus my search however I like. That's very convenient for me (instead
of having to search separately three or four times at different sites),
and it gives the advertiser broader reach. Hence partner with other sites
to build a larger pool of classifieds.
Selling your audience
Even if you provide
free access to the content at your site, you might be tempted to force
your visitors to register, because you could then sell mailing lists based
on detailed demographic information you gather.
That model presents
two problems. First, mandatory registration greatly reduces traffic, even
when registration is free. People simply don't want to go through that
hassle. Your traffic might drop to a quarter or even a tenth of what it
is today if you suddenly added mandatory registration. And if you then
sell those mailling lists, you could make lots of people angry, from all
the spam they would get.
It is an entirely
different matter if you make registration voluntary, and offer incentives
for people to sign up (like the customer discount cards at supermarkets).
Let people opt for email alerts etc. on subjects of concern to them, and
also for email ads for special deals they might be interested in. Make
it optional. Make people want to do it. And then you can sell the mailing
lists -- but only very carefully, so these people will only receive mail
related to the interests they have expressed.
Actually, this approach
is a variant of advertising -- you are generating revenue by selling access
to your audience.
Serving your audience
Instead of selling
your audience, consider offering them paid value-added services.
First build your audience
-- and remember that your online audience may well be both larger and very
different from your real-world audience. Then strive to understand what
they need and value, and build new businesses around what they want.
For instance, how
many of your page views are for business-related stories? how many for
sports? how many politics, etc.?
In terms of business,
you probably have readers who are investment managers, investors, people
looking for jobs as managers, people looking for companies to partner with,
to sell to, and to buy from. Such peeople would probably value alerts (by
email, to pager, to cell phone, etc.) when news directly affects something
of importance to them. They might also value online events that put them
in touch with decision makers and people with the reputation of experts.
For teens, online
interaction is probably more important that static content (and is probably
far cheaper to generate). How many people in your audience, for instance,
are teenagers who are into video games? what value-added services might
they be interested in?
Think audience. Then
think how can you serve that audience. Your present content is an important
element of the services you will provide (so long as it is searchable and
alerts can be automated).
But once you have
assembled such an audience, creatively consider the other ways you could
serve them.
Also, remember this
is the Internet. You don't have to do everything yourself. You could partner
with companies that specialize in financial services or business information
and research. Use incentive-based opt-in registration to glean good info
about people's wants and needs. Then have other companies offer in-depth
services to this audience.
Partner galore. Find
people/companies who have services that would be of interest to the dozens
of subaudiences you already reach, and link those services to those audiences
-- quickly and smoothly, with you taking a piece of the action.
First steps
Your Web site should
be its own separate independent business that is empowered to take full
advantage of the content and audience your traditional business owns, but
to explore new directions.
Don't let your Web
site be just an afterthought of your traditional business. Give it the
independence and flexibility to advance to a new level.
"Cross-overs" (where
a subscriber or advertiser in the print publication is given a package
deal including the online version) are logical as a way of charging and
getting paid. But beware of starting with that approach, because that sets
your Web site up as just an add-on to your traditional business in the
eyes of your management and in the eyes of your audience.
Try to start with
a clean slate, free yourself from the usual internal politics and road
blocks, and creatively partner to provide your audience with the value-added
services they need.
This site is
Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com
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