The metered content bandwagon rolls on – this week, it’s Harper’s; plus, the IAB on programmatic ad sales, and more
More and more, metered content is becoming de rigueur for digital magazines looking to generate higher revenues with higher quality product. As big believers in smart subscription strategies, we love to see this shift. From The New Yorker to Pando to Time Inc. digital, publishers are molding their content around monetization with experimental tactics and finding results. This isn’t just a smart bet; it’s smart strategy: As our 2015 Digital Magazine Market Study shows, consumers are willing to spend on metered content done right.
MinOnline is on top of this industry trend, as always. Let’s take a look at their coverage of the latest metered content adoption, plus other recent posts.
Harper’s Opts for Metered Content, Mildly at First
Harper’s is easing into metered content with web-only free articles for visitors, to the tune of one per month, easing its premium policy just a bit in the hopes of boosting all-inclusive subscriptions, according to MinOnline.
“We remain committed to the principle that high-quality journalism requires an audience willing to pay for it,” Harper’s President and Publisher John R. MacArthur said in a statement. “But the metered paywall offers us a more efficient way to allow potential subscribers to get acquainted with the magazine.”
The IAB’s Report on Programmatic Ad Sales
Top 3 takeways from a recent report on programmatic ad sales from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, according to MinOnline:
1) Programmatic ad sales exceeded $10 billion last year
2) 70% of those programmatic ad sales come from open auction
3) More than half (55%) of programmatic ad sales is going to ad tech vendors
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Meredith and Reader’s Digest Developing Ecommerce Content Strategy
Meredith and Reader’s Digest recently announced deals they hope will bolster ecommerce content strategy, MinOnline reports.
Meredith acquired Grocery Server, while Reader’s Digest is partnering with Crisp Media.
The Enthusiast Network’s Approach to Multi-Platform Publishing
Great interview with The Enthusiast Network’s Senior Vice President of Enterprise Tyler Schulze in MinOnline on multi-platform publishing. Highly recommended reading. Here’s a snippet:
“One of the areas of focus for TEN moving forward is really growing our direct revenue streams from consumers versus our historical reliance on advertising by and large. So I would say, enthusiast publishers like TEN have an opportunity to leverage their brands with the editorial authority that they’ve built over a number of years and all of the brand recognition they have across multiple media which we’ve done for many years here now,” Schulze told Kelsey Lundstrom.
“But, VOD or subscription VOD is just another sort of media distribution platform for us. In addition to print, digital, social, experiential and all that sort of stuff. We see that the trend is really around diversification of revenue and direct consumer revenue and we think we’re actually doing as good a job, if not a better job, than most of our traditional publishing peers in really diversifying our revenue streams. Part of that is a digital transformation and part of it is just growing entirely new lines of business that are just sort of coming into focus here as an industry.”
Do you “subscribe” to the use of metered content? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
To read more about metered content in the news, visit MinOnline.
