261–270 of 362 posts
I wonder if there's any opportunity for a "YouTube Red" of journalism where users are charged a monthly subscription for access to many content networks and the revenue from their subscription is distributed to the networks based on which ones the users engaged with most. I'm not sure how you could measure that engagement, though.
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It's just not true though. You could use the same argument after he'd already subscribed to four publications: should the Vancouver Sun not have bothered trying to get him to subscribe because he's already done some subscribing and is obviously "not gonna do any more"? Of course not. He really was their target market. And I'd be willing to bet within a year he'll have subscribed to content from another publisher, pos…
You don't think there's any kind of limit that most people will reach? I know I have the same cable unbundling problem and have mentally decided that the maximum amount of subscriptions I will have is 4. If I want to subscribe to a new one, I find the one I'm using the least and unsubscribe from it first before adding another.
I'm certain that averaged over all readers, the reader who subscribes to four paid news sources already is a better sales prospect than the one who doesn't subscribe to any.
As a long-time publisher, there is only one primary metric that matters to me: loyal readers. I don't publish for the occasional visitor. I publish for the loyal readers that I have worked hard to cultivate, engage, and enrichen. The primary work is one of building a relationship with a loyal readership, based on consistency and quality. Our websites, as they're designed, are probably a little annoying to people who…
If you gave me an option to pay even say $20 for 10 articles, like a punchcard, then at least you’d be getting that money from me.
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> I don't limit myself to the music of one band, so i really appreciate spotify this is a bizarre analogy no one had to limit themselves to listening to only one band before Spotify
No one had to limit themselves to one news source before either, but that's what publishers are trying to do now.
> “But wait,” says Mr Manager, “you already subscribe to five publications, so you’ve proved you have a propensity to subscribe! You’re exactly my target market!” Wrong. It’s exactly because I’ve done some subscribing that I’m just not gonna do any more. Exactly. Same thing is happening with cable unbundling. Few people want to subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO, ESPN+, Disney+, Peacock, and YouTube TV/Sli…
I don't need to watch anything right away, so I keep track of what I want to watch, and rotate my subscriptions monthly to binge it. Not ideal, but I'm kind of only paying for what I want to watch, instead of a running fee for multiple services.
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Sites are gradually tightening up on workarounds like clearing cookies. Simply opening Bloomberg nwes in a private tab now fails (I think it's a bug that the site can detect a private tab is used).
It worked for me just now, with Chrome. If you're on Linux, have you tried `mkdir /tmp/t234 && HOME=/tmp/t234 firefox` or creating a new local user and logging on as that user? It would be interesting to know why your private tab isn't working.
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> I don't limit myself to the music of one band, so i really appreciate spotify this is a bizarre analogy no one had to limit themselves to listening to only one band before Spotify
No one had to limit themselves to one news source before either, but that's what publishers are trying to do now.
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How do acquire new, loyal subscribers if your site is “a little annoying to people who are not [your] loyal subscribers?”
like lwn.net? A local digital, ad free and independent magazine (republik.ch) has the same model. Everyone with a link can access an article. Everyone with a subscription has access to the links for the articles and can share them.
As a long-time publisher, there is only one primary metric that matters to me: loyal readers. I don't publish for the occasional visitor. I publish for the loyal readers that I have worked hard to cultivate, engage, and enrichen. The primary work is one of building a relationship with a loyal readership, based on consistency and quality. Our websites, as they're designed, are probably a little annoying to people who…
You cannot really have loyalty unless you have a community. Loyalty results from the personal relationship individuals make to each other within the context of a community. “Loyalty”, in the context of a subscription is still largely framed as a transactional exchange of value in the guise of a community. In that frame, without real, personal relationships, the only thing keeping someone there is value and cost-of-cancelling (laziness, inertia).
Perhaps this is why substack is gaining more traction. Maybe this is why podcasts had become very popular. Maybe this is also why traditional publishing models are dying.
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Ironically enough, buying a physical copy of a newspaper is quite literally "a daily pass", and you get to keep the newspaper in case you want to re-read an article tomorrow, want to dig deeper or share it with somebody else in the house/office. Here in .it most newspapers cost less than 2.50-3€, and you get a physical good. I just checked on one of the most relevant newspapers in Italy (IlSole24Ore) and if you want…
I'm kinda surprised that "newsstand" isn't a popular payment strategy. You just have an account with WaPo and when you want to read the paper you pay $1.50 and get the "digital print edition" which has all the articles published today organized into neat little sections. Newspapers don't have to become Spotify; iTunes is also good.
The publishers (and lots of other busineses, think fusion360/photoshop/etc) are just greedy, they can't see the value in thousands of people randomly selecting their product today, and their competitors product tomorrow. They want lock in because its easier.