Comments on: Press+: Publishers are offering less free content online

By: Greg Smith

Greg Smith — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:39:35 +0000

“It’s unclear why publishers are gradually offering fewer articles for free”
Web publishers have been reducing the meter to a lower threshhold to make it more inconvenient to those visitors who delete the cookie from their browser once they hit the end of the free ride. Deleting the cookie after 30 articles is not inconvenient. Deleting a cookie after reading two articles is inconvenient. Those publishers who have been utilizing the meter for three years are using between two and five free articles. Some will put up a free registration request with email confirmation after two articles, and then request a paid subscription somewhere after five to ten free articles. It’s all trial and error with high importance placed by the publisher to know what content his customers want to consume and what price they are willing to pay for it. Those visitors who do not want to register likely will never be a customer of the publsher and will never generate revenue for the publisher.

By: jrhmobile

jrhmobile — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:15:59 +0000

Wow. You all don’t think this report is a little, well, suspect and self-serving?

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:54:32 +0000

Gordon, I work with a group of publishers looking at how a service/product like Press+ could help them. Might I connect with you to discuss?

Tim C
K12Interactive

By: Lon Haenel

Lon Haenel — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:44:35 +0000

I’d be interested in research about % of newspapers with paid content allowing free articles via social networking (sharing, tweeting, etc) AND via search engine site referrals. There are a plethora of ‘free articles’ available from the above, not figured into the meter count.

By: Greg Golebiewski

Greg Golebiewski — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:06:10 +0000

It would also be interesting to learn what the conversion rate of Press+ publications is.

Piano, a similar product in Europe, reports its paywalls convert from 0.5% to 1.5%, The NYT’s conversion seems to be around 0.8% to 1.3%, depending on which number of monthly uniques one uses as the bases for the calculation. Other publishers behind metered paywalls say (however reluctantly) that it is about 1%.

What is the average conversion rate of the Press+ publications, Gordon?

By: Laura Hazard Owen

Laura Hazard Owen — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:59:53 +0000

Thanks for the explainer, Gordon! Looking forward to seeing more findings and best practices from you guys.

By: Gordon Crovitz

Gordon Crovitz — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:35:05 +0000

Laura, Thanks for the coverage. To elaborate on the issue you raised of why publishers are lowering their meters, the reason is that publishers generate more digital subscriptions the more of their online readers hit the limit of free articles. For the 370-plus publishers using Press+, we use online data to guide publishers to the new information on the optimal number of free articles, which maximizes subscription revenues while ensuring that no publisher loses online display advertising revenues–they retain plenty of ad inventory to sell. A high percentage of publishers with paid models online are now using Press+, so we have important industry data on best practices, including where to set meters, what prices to charge, how to “bundle” different digital versions and how to convert print subscribers into being both print and digital subscribers, making for an orderly and more profitable transition to the increased use of digital products that every publisher now acknowledges is happening.

By the way, many of us heavy users of paidcontent.org would be willing pay for unlimited access if you set a meter on how much free access we got.–and you could see how meters work as a great application of the freemium strategy used widely outside the new industry, you would generate significant incremental revenue and, using our data, we’d ensure that you don’t lessen your number of monthly unique visitors in the process. Deal?

(Gordon Crovitz is co-founder of Press+)