single subscriptionmodel laurainman
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Emailvision - The Roundtable on Strategic Marketing - August 2011 - Laura InmanTRANSCRIPT
Would you like fries with that?
Laura Inman
Director of Consumer Marketing
Evolving to a single subscription model
Combo meal
AJC print / digital combo
Evolving as a media company
• 2011 strategic alignment and company initiatives
– Research driven content changes and editorial focus
– Circ momentum in numbers and yield
– Ad revenues challenged by national trends and economy
– Ongoing migration to Cox Media Group in Atlanta
Circulation and readership update
Subscription starts have exceeded stops over the last seven months
New subscriptions in top 50 ZIP codes for preprint distribution have
increased 17% from prior year
Renewal rates of core subscribers at highest level since 2001
Forecast: steady and sustainable improvement in 2011
ABC Publisher’s Statement
6-Month Period Comparisons As filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations, subject to audit.
Daily Avg. (M-F) Sunday
Mar. 2011 183,415 391,815
Mar. 2010 196,200 397,926
% Change -6.5% -1.5%
Sunday AJC:
1.4 million readers
Weekly Print AJC + ajc.com:
2.1 million readers
ajc.com avg. monthly page views:
105+ million
Sources: Scarborough Research 2010 Release 2, Atlanta CBSA; Omniture Site Catalyst Nov 2010-Apr 2011 Average
Cox Media Group Atlanta
Leading Southeast newspaper with 2 million readers in print and online
reaching nearly 1 out of 2 Atlantans every week.
Atlanta’s four Cox radio stations reach 3.3 million unduplicated
listeners every week, representing 69% of the market:
Cox’s eight content websites are Atlanta’s market leaders with
41% reach of the Atlanta DMA’s online audience every month and
150+ million monthly page views.
The country’s #1 rated local TV news station in the Top 10 media
markets reaches 94% of Atlanta homes every month.
Atlanta Digital Market: Online and Tech Savvy
• 2nd Most Wired City: Forbes consistently ranks Atlanta at or near
the top due to high marks in both broadband availability and usage
• Tech savvy rankings among Top 10 based on percentage market:
– 1st for using Internet features on wireless phone
– 1st for accessing coupons online (past 30 days)
– 2nd highest Smartphone ownership
– 2nd highest Internet penetration
– 3rd highest for shopping and buying online (past 12 months)
Internet features on phone: play/download games or music, maps/GPS nav, search, social neworking,
subscribe to TV service for fee, watch free TV programs, watch video clips or other Internet feature
Source: Scarborough Research 2010 Release 2 Multi-Market Study
Building momentum
Improving valuable content - watchdog reporting and in-depth
local coverage
Investing in product improvements – Deal Spotter, County by
County Pages 7 days/week, revamped ajcHomefinder – to
increase reader engagement
Focusing on customer service has led 94% of subscribers to
rate us good or excellent in our delivery service
Marketing aggressively via a multi-media campaign to
reinforce our position of being credible, compelling and
complete
Forecast: We’ll continue building positive momentum by
listening to our readers and remaining committed to
journalism and customer service.
Focused on customer loyalty: content, service & marketing
Brand marketing campaign- September 5, 2011
Project Bullet Points- at the start
• Developed by Mercury Intermedia, which did USAToday
• Subscriber-only
• User challenged when attempting to click on any content
• Offer free trial period
• Access controlled by AJC IT department through registration
• AJC IT will pass a token to Mercury, indicating who can receive access
• Will leave AJC Digest in market as iPhone app and free iPad.
• AJC Select offers limited content of full newspaper.
• Pricing and packaging limited to 2-3 total to make launch deadlines. Depending on
policy decisions, those could be:
– Free to 7-day subscribers
– One single price to other subs, regardless of print sub price or FOD
– One single price for walk-ups
•
Defining iPad Content
5 A.M.: Mirror that day’s paper
11:30 A.M.: Offer “new” news
4:30 P.M.: Your evening news
AJC.COM
RSS FEED (Best of print and
online)
Developing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for iPad
Decisions / learnings:
• Functionality of iPad with print
sensibilities
• Lead with brand values not channel
• Begin with shared voice ad model
• Adopt a hybrid subscription model
• Super serve best customers and grow
new segment
• Ask for help along the way
• Embrace the E-edition
• Replica, replica, replica- ABC
• Adapt
Marketing 30 day FREE trial 7 day FREE trial
•In paper and ajc.com advertising
SEM, ajc mobile
•FB post in newsfeed at trial
•Ready- stop! Admob, Facebook, Mobile
When developing an app… Don’t:
• Underestimate the power of ratings in the Apple store
• Oversell a fragile or unstable product- there is a
threshold for quality vs. test and learn
• Expect Apple to help you understand their
acceptance criteria
• Expect pricing strategy to be simple
• Anticipate big ad revenues until product and
engagement matures
• Minimize your IT resources needed for
authentication/ integration to ops circ system
• Stop
• Invite feedback and establish power
users- Facebook group
• Offer free trial - Build trial database for
feedback, affinity, conversion database
• Own the customer path and data- it’s
worth the pain of authentication with
legacy systems and Apple
• Be transparent with users
• Implement the developers hold on new
release feature
• Have a cross-departmental team
• Network with other papers
• Consider a non-native app
• Be agile in development
When developing an app… do:
iPad Advertising
• Sizes – section fronts
– 728 x 90 portrait (NYT)
– 238 x 174 landscape
(USA)
• Sizes – story pages
– 728 x 90 portrait (NYT)
– 128,936 impressions
delivered for advertisers
as of 8/16/11 with a .86
CTR
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
Page views
Page views
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
12/2
0
1/3
1/1
7
1/3
1
2/1
4
2/2
8
3/1
4
3/2
8
4/1
1
4/2
5
5/9
5/2
3
6/6
6/2
0
7/4
7/1
8
8/1
Weekly iPad Application Downloads & Weekly Registrations
Downloads
Registrations
Sources: Downloads, Apple iTunes store;
Value Change To Date
Weekly downloads 725 -16.67% 36,018
Weekly pageviews 289,869 4.21% 5,033,103
Weekly visits 32,770
Weekly unique visitors 11,047
Registration 2 7,176
Metrics as of 8/16/11 reporting
Driving buzz, trial, downloads and subscriptions
Asking for the subscription- ajcdelivers.com portal
Helping customers make purchase decisions
Retaining & Upgrading
current users/customers
Next steps in the pipeline
• iPad app
– to be released with interactive
crossword, sports stats and push
notifications
– Research in the field
– Constant development
• October release of the AJC
reader?
– Works in ANY browser window
(iPad, Droid, desktop, laptop,
phone)
– Easily adapted to sell as app in
Apple or Droid stores
– Includes in-app replica