Early Adopters: Paid news content

Longtail’s occasional look at trends anddevelopments in the digital space.

New Digital Development

Paid content models have been with us for a while but have been domain of the business press for the most part. There have certainly been no significant successes in the mainstream news space and today all our masthead titles remain free to access. That it is set to change as Murdoch starts to follow through on his commitment to a paid content or subscription news model.

Early Adopter Brand

The first major move is News Ltd’s flagship quality brands in the UK,The Times and The Sunday Times, which have just launched their new paidcontent model preview.  Looking like a cross between The New York Timesand The Guardian Online the new(s)paper is safely locked behind its new’paywall’.

Whilst pricing doesn’t appear to have been announced yet the newproduct aims to deliver a richer and more personalised onlineexperience. It will certainly have to work hard if it is to encourageusers to part with their cash.  Based on experience with the businesspress the quality of the market is definitely the place to start, andit’s a poorly kept secret that you can expect The Australian to followsoon.

Why is this interesting?

Putting aside the argument about a subscription model it is aninteresting move that may open up opportunities for marketers. Currently news sites are a commodity product, the audience ispromiscuous, engagement levels are variable at best and the mediaopportunities are over-priced.

A new generation of paid content models might actually provide a moreviable marketing platform for brands. A subscription revenue streambrings a more engaged and potentially responsive audience – it’s islikely that they will be more regular readers, spending longer with theproduct, personalizing it to suit their needs.

What difference will it make?

From a marketers perspective a raft of credible subscription productswith scale will provide an interesting addition to the digitalmarketing toolbox, delivering the opportunity for effectivesponsorships, branded content and ecommerce partnerships instead of,but probably as well as, the inevitable and ubiquitous banneradvertising.

Not only will these sites know a lot more about their audience becauseof the subscription process but they will also begin to build a muchbetter profile of their interests and consumption habits. You canexpect behavioural marketing and re-marketing opportunities to increasein accuracy and efficacy.

The amount of video and other multi-media content will also provide newmarketing opportunities, and expect the mobile platform to open up withthese new products as well.  Social media will also play a growing roleas these networks develop their own communities for brands to engagewith.

You can still subscribe to The Times & The Sunday Times preview so havea look and make up your own mind: http://www.timesplus.co.uk/welcome/index.htm

Carlo Bertozzi – CEO