Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Online
Revenue
Initiatives
2009
Highlights of initial results
from the paid-content survey
conducted by ITZBelden
in partnership with the
American Press Institute
2009 SUMMARY REPORT
n There is no clear consensus on how well charging for content will work. Fifty-one percent of
respondents say it is likely that paid access will raise enough new revenues to significantly con-
tribute to the future of newspapers.
n Current prices for online subscriptions strongly suggest that “convenience” pricing is gener-
ally in play. That is, charges do not seem to be tied to rigorous price analysis or research into
what people are willing to pay. Respondents report a wide range of online subscription charges
(from $1 to $27.50 a month), yet they report surprisingly uniform levels of uptake on subscrip-
tions, typically 1 percent to 3 percent of print circulation -- regardless of price.
n While most of the respondents allow users to register for their sites, few require it and even
fewer are monetizing registration in any way. Only 27 percent require users to register, and 23
percent have a specific program for monetizing registration information in active use. This is
another area where the landscape may be changing: 36 percent of respondents indicate they are
considering a registration program.
n There is some concern about unauthorized or uncompensated online use of content that origi-
nates in newspapers, but few papers are taking action on this issue. Forty-four percent of respon-
dents indicate they are very concerned about content “piracy,” but only 25 percent are actively
tracking the use of their content across the Web.
n There is a potentially deep disconnect between news organizations and the audience for their
Web sites. For this segment of the research, industry executives' survey responses are compared
with user responses aggregated from Belden Interactive 2009 Local Market Surveys.
While 54 percent of news executives rate their online news and information as “very valuable,”
only 44 percent of news Web site users see it that way.
PROVIDERS VISITORS
Very valuable 54% Very valuable 44%
Somewhat valuable 39% Somewhat valuable 51%
Not very valuable 1% Not very valuable 3%
Not at all valuable 1% Not at all valuable 1%
Don’t know 6% Don’t know 1%
Only 9 percent of news executives indicate it would be “very easy” for their audience to find a
replacement for the online content their news Web sites are currently providing, compared with
19 percent of users.
PROVIDERS VISITORS
Very easy 9% Very valuable 19%
Somewhat easy 22% Somewhat valuable 33%
Not very easy 34% Not very valuable 28%
Not very easy at all 34% Not at all valuable 15%
Don’t know 2% Don’t know 5%
The audience that gets its local news and information online would focus on the Internet and TV
– not print – if their local newspaper Web site were no longer available. Sixty-eight percent of
users say they would turn to other local Internet sites; 45 percent would turn to television; only
30 percent would turn to the print edition of the paper. Compare that to the responses of news
executives: 75 percent of them say they think users would turn to their print editions if their
Web sites were no longer available.
PROVIDERS VISITORS
Your print newspaper 75% Other local Web sites 68%
Other local media sites 55% Television 45%
Television 53% Regional/National sites 37%
Other local Web sites 48% Radio 35%
Radio 46% Your print newspaper 30%
Regional/National sites 42% Other local Web sites 17%
Other newspaper 31% Other newspaper 12%
Other 4% Other 5%
Don’t know 3% Don’t know 2%
n Faulty models are likely in place for assessing the opportunity and return on investment for
paid-content strategies. Survey respondents, apparently relying on automated logfile data, consis-
tently report unique visitor counts that are 10 times print circulation and 1.3 times greater than
local populations -- no matter the size of the market. (A separate analysis reveals no increase in
the net monthly visit rates reported by Omniture and Google Analytics since 2003.) The data
strongly suggest that the number of monthly unique visitors calculated by Omniture/Google
Analytics is exaggerated, and news organizations risk failure if they use these figures to project
future revenue based on a percentage of online audience that will convert to paid subscribers.
Recommendations
Based on these initial findings and observations of the industry, we recommend that news organi-
zations contemplating a conversion to paid online content – or any other revenue opportunity –
consider these key variables:
n Fly-bys: They visit once a month, mostly through search engines. There is wide variation
in the mix of viewers who live in and outside the market . Fly-bys are unpredictable and in
any given month can be 25 percent to 80 percent of total site visitors.
n Incidental loyalists: They visit one to three days a month, one to two times a day. They are
predominantly local.
n Core loyalists: They visit 20 days a month, two to three times a day. They are mostly to
overwhelmingly local.
n Single-story fees. Likely to appeal only to fly-by visitors; large resistance can be expected.
n Single-day pass. Likely viable for all types of site visitors; this may represent the greatest
total revenue opportunity and least resistance of all pay models.
n Subscriptions. Likely to appeal only to core loyalists; expect some resistance and accept
the likelihood of capped revenues. Of all the pay models, this is most familiar to newspapers
and the easiest to implement.
It is still possible for news organizations to participate in this ongoing survey. For details, please
contact Greg Harmon at itzharmon@gmail.com / (415) 566-4348 or Greg Swanson at
itzgreg@gmail.com / (503) 241-3650.