The Internet has made it cheap, easy and efficient to launch new streams of niche media revenue. Choosing your content focus is a business-critical decision, as the focus you choose pretty much dictates your chances of success with a subscription website. However, more serious than the focus on content for a subscription website is the business model.
In today’s Strategy Spotlight, Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda will teach you about the most popular content business model publishers will embrace online. It’s a sneak peek at our session titled The 10 Most Profitable Content Business Models at our upcoming Digital Revenue Summit in May.
Quick Strategy Tip of the Day from Don
Mequoda has identified six discrete subscription content business models. They’re defined as subscription content business models by the fact that users are “pushed” content on a scheduled and regular basis via their subscription. One of the most popular types we build for our clients is the magazine subscription content business model.
The magazine subscription content business model is setup to build subscriptions for a related print or digital magazine and to provide access to issues of the magazine. When the internet dawned, it was one of the first subscription websites invented, as mass media magazine publishers quickly jumped on the bandwagon.
A magazine subscription content business model exists if the user can view or download an issue of a magazine online – one that is linear and periodic, has pages and a regular frequency, and can be viewed in HTML, downloaded as a PDF, or downloaded to a mobile device.
Many people refer to any website that carries a legacy magazine brand and magazine content as a magazine subscription website; however, if the content is not organized in a magazine format and issues cannot be viewed or downloaded, it doesn’t meet the basic criteria of being a magazine subscription website.
- Example: Yankee Publishing has a magazine subscription website for Yankee where subscribers can access the magazine in an HTML format on any device and use a consistent navigation with a Table of Content in the right sidebar to keep their place.
This subscription content business model goes beyond what most magazines offer their customers. It’s more than a print issue or a tablet issue. This edition can be viewed from any device with an internet connection, and can be sold on the publisher’s website, rather than through a third-party newsstand or app store, which means the publisher keeps 100% of the revenue.
Eager to learn more real-world examples of this profitable business model, along with nine more business models that publishers are building online? Attend the Digital Revenue Summit in May and take a behind-the-scenes look at magazine brands from Consumer Reports and Computerworld to The American Ceramic Society and The Dark Intelligence Group to understand how others have pioneered – and profited from – the best practices from multiplatform publishing.
In The 10 Most Profitable Content Business Models at the Digital Revenue Summit, you’ll learn how to repurpose your existing content into new products that leverage all the new marketing channels made available by the Internet. You’ll discover how the Internet can also breathe new life into legacy products by adding digital components and opening new digital marketing channels.
And perhaps best of all, we’ll show you how to manage these new revenue streams with advanced technologies that actually minimize personnel costs. None of the strategies we deliver at this event requires you to go on a hiring binge!
Each session of the Digital Revenue Summit is suitable for use with either B2C or B2B audiences, and delivers multiple tested, proven techniques for improving your revenues.
Don’t wait to register. Read through the agenda. Read the testimonials from your fellow publishers. Check your calendar. When you’re through, I’m confident you’ll be ready to register.
I’m looking forward to talking with you. Let’s chat more about your publishing business over one of the networking breakfasts, lunches or the reception that’s included with the price of your seat. Register now.
