Paywalls can bring in extra revenue for newspapers and other traditional media outlets, and they can help keep existing readers from leaving — but how do they help bring in new readers? And what happens if they don’t? Read more at paidContent »
What can a book look like in the digital age and how will people pay for it? This is one of the themes we’ll be exploring at paidContent Live on April 17 in New York Read more at paidContent »
Everyone uses YouTube, but how exactly do people discover new videos? We asked both web video professionals like Amy Pham and Zadi Diaz as well as your average 12 year old girl to find out. Read more at paidContent »
Marco Arment softened the paywall around his iPad-only magazine because his content was not benefiting from the social-sharing effect that the web enables — a microcosm of the dilemma that many other publishers are also facing. Read more at paidContent »
Dutch newspaper publisher Jan-Jaap Heij talks about why he decided to launch a mobile app that allows readers to subscribe to individual writers for a monthly fee, and how personal brands are the future of journalism. Read more at paidContent »
Both Andrew Sullivan — the conservative blogger who recently announced that he is going independent — and former Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer are taking the same approach to media: connect with your fans, and then ask for help. Read more at paidContent »
Blogging superstar Andrew Sullivan dropped a bombshell on Wednesday by saying he is leaving The Daily Beast and setting up his own subscription-based website. Can he become the first prominent success story in what some have called the move towards “post-industrial” journalism? Read more »
It seems that no discussion of the merits or weaknesses of newspaper paywalls is complete unless one side accuses the other of having virtually nothing intelligent to say on the topic. Is there no common ground at all between paywall advocates and paywall skeptics? Read more »
Longform journalism site Longreads is giving paying members exclusive access to long-form content that is not available elsewhere on the web. The first selection is a chapter from Charles Duhigg’s bestselling book “The Power of Habit.” Read more at paidContent »
Is offering your readers membership benefits a better approach to revenue generation than putting up a hard paywall? The tech commentary site Techdirt thinks so, and has launched some interesting new features that other traditional media companies might want to pay attention to. Read more »
The Financial Times and New York Times are at or close to the point where subscription revenue exceeds advertising revenue. This means their paywalls are working, but it also means advertisers are fleeing — and the implications of that for journalism could be significant. Read more »
Penny Arcade, a webcomic publisher and event producer, is trying to use Kickstarter to finance its web operations for a year so it can replace traditional banner advertising with a reader-centric model. Could traditional publishers learn something from this crowdfunding experiment? Read more »
Publishers saw the iPad as a chance to turn back the clock and convince consumers to pay for content in a new form. But that dream has collided with reality, and now some content producers — including MIT’s Technology Review — say the standalone content app is dead. Read more »
Apart of what it would do for Microsoft’s Xbox games business, the purported new hardware-and-services bundle, if successful, could hold significant implications for its broader digital living room ambitions as well. If Microsoft proves it can attach long-term service commitments to Xbox hardware, it’s no big ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In just the past few weeks, Barry Diller-backed Aereo launched a subscriptions streaming service in New York City, Cisco bought NDS for $5 billion, word leaked of Intel’s plans to create a nationwide virtual cable TV service and Netflix began chatting up cable operators about addings ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big funding round for the digital content subscription and billing specialist Zuora: the company has raised $36 million in a Series D round… Read more at paidContent »
On Wednesday, Facebook will announce subscriptions, which will let users decide what they want to see more and less of in their news feeds. Subscriptions build on the idea of more control, which follows Tuesday’s Smart Lists, and enhanced privacy features introduced last month. Read more »
The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple’s stable of periodicals available for in-app subscription got a little bigger with the release of an update to Reader’s Digest magazine on Thursday. Reader’s Digest is now offering annual subscriptions (10 issues) for $14.99, or monthly subscriptions at $1.99 through in-app purchase. Read more »
Innovation is best measured by the disruption it causes, and Apple sure has been disruptive this week. OS X Lion being offered only via digital distribution is perhaps the most noteworthy example, but here are a few more that are nearly as pertinent. Read more »
Condé Nast began offering in-app subscriptions for iPad versions of Allure, Glamour, Golf Digest and Vanity Fair on Monday. The publisher began offering The New Yorker iPad subscriptions just last week, marking the first time it has used Apple’s new in-app subscription system. Read more »
How many people might you expect to click “Allow” when face with Apple’s forbidding dialog asking you to “Share Your Information?” with publishers? According to a couple of very reliable sources, a surprising 50 percent of iOS subscribers are agreeing to pass their info along. Read more »
The New York Times delivered details regarding its new paywall today, with a tiered pricing plan that begs the question: Considering how well the Times iPhone and iPad apps have done, has the Gray Lady thought hard enough about the app user’s perspective? Read more »
Apple has finally launched its subscription option for publishers with iOS apps, and it offers magazines and newspapers the ability to charge readers easily, as well as some other concessions from Apple — but in order to get those benefits, publishers have to pay a hefty price. Read more »
Apple today introduced in-app subscriptions alongside newspaper app The Daily. No details about subscriptions were revealed at the announcement event for the app, but luckily Apple’s own updated terms of service for the iTunes Store shed some light on what to expect. Read more »
The Sony Reader app for iPhone has been rejected by Apple, according to the NYT. Apple apparently rejected the app because from now on, all in-app purchases would have to go through Apple, and no apps can access content bought outside the App Store. Read more »
When the iPad launched, many expected the New York Times to follow-up its awesome iPhone app with an equally impressive version for Apple’s tablet. Instead we got “Editor’s Choice.” Now, the newspaper is making amends with a new iPad app with full content. Read more »
Newspapers and magazines may not be faring so well in this economic climate, but consumers are holding onto their entertainment subscriptions, according to a new survey from The NPD Group. The research firm says that monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is up […] Read more »
eMarketer projects the number of online video viewers in the U.S. will grow 31 percent in the next five years, hitting 188 million in 2013, up from 144 million in 2009. In addition, online video viewers will make up 85 percent of U.S. Internet users by […] Read more »
Disney CEO Bob Iger told a tech conference crowd yesterday that his company is interested in putting up more content online, but it won’t be free, and it might require a subscription. From MediaWeek: “The notion of going online at some point as a subscribe-to, robust […] Read more »
