Comments on: Can news publishers learn anything from Netflix?

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:33:50 +0000

The real analyses will begin – and be more instructive – once the actual numbers of account changes/cancellations/churn at Netflix are known at the end of the month. Users will have to decide whether or not they go with higher prices or less service or streaming/DVD only. Or go elsewhere. In spite of hundreds of comments on blogs, behavior will demonstrate how up-in-arms NF users really are.

And I think the term you’re looking for isn’t “up to 10 times less” but rather “up to one tenth as much.”

Great read – Roger

By: modlula

modlula — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:58:06 +0000

Co- sign, Doug: i am a netflix subscriber and i would love to transition to all digital, but the content just isn’t there… the best tv, the best recent films, are all only available via dvd. if netflix gets their act together in this regard, i’ll fall in line right quick.

By: Rich Fahle

Rich Fahle — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:04:14 +0000

Fascinating comparison. The difference though, as I see it, between the Netflix scenario and publishing, is that The Netflix DVD product and the Netlix streamed product are not at all identical. Newspapers and other forms of publishers are in a position of ultimately being able to add additional value in a digital product on form of links, multimedia, additional graphics and context. Netflix, on the other hand, offers less in their digital offering – less new releases, less big hits- in other words, less value for most consumers. Where is the incentive to transition?

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:35:14 +0000

“The problem with that model is that online advertising produces a tiny fraction of the amount of revenue per reader that print does — up to 10 times less, in some cases. ”

I hear this mentioned all the time, but there’s never any explanation. Why do ads on web sites produce so much less revenue? Given the volume and enviable demographic of online viewers, you would think that Web ads would be generate more revenue, not less. Are Web ads really less effective than print? Or is it that just that they can be measured far more accurately? Maybe the impact of those print ads in the newspaper is drastically overstated?

By: randy

randy — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:18:28 +0000

The transitioning of print subscribers to digital media is not in the Publishers’ interest, because, unlike Netflix, the Publishers’ profits in physical media exceed those in digital. So the comparison here is moot.