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- Thursday 14th March: What consumers think of publishers' subscription products
Thursday 14th March: What consumers think of publishers' subscription products
Good morning! Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Esther.
Charlotte Henry built her newsletter, The Addition, from scratch and was named ‘Best Solo Newsletter’ at the Publisher Newsletter Awards just over a year later. Now, she wants to help others build their own successful newsletter. You can book either a single hour-long call or a course of three calls with her. These are all 1-on-1, so you can really drill down into what you need to make a newsletter work for you.
Toolkits has conducted a consumer study from over 6,500 respondents in the US to find out how consumer attitudes to digital subscription products - specifically those from publishers - are evolving.
The good news is that overall satisfaction with publishers’ subscription offerings is growing, with more consumers satisfied with the value for money they get than in 2022 (85% reported being completely or mostly satisfied). Engagement is also growing, as are the number of subscriptions people hold; 29% have increased the number of subs they have in the past 12 months.
There are some less positive, although still valuable findings too. Subscribers are becoming increasingly hostile to ad overload in publications they’re paying for. And 67% said they would be more likely to subscribe if cancellation processes were easier.
Talking of subscriptions, they aren’t the only way to monetise readers (of course). If it’s not the right path for you or your audience, here are some examples of publishers using alternatives. And no, none of the case studies are micropayments.
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Are you using AI? So far the most popular response is, ‘No, but we’d like to’. What’s stopping you getting started? Take our poll and let us know in the comments. Who knows, maybe we can help…
Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin at the New York Times do a much better job of what I attempted to do on the podcast a few weeks back: bring some good media news to the table. It’s notable that all the examples they’ve highlighted centre a newsletter, or newsletters as their main delivery vehicle; something I think will really help resilience in the SEO/social media carnage we’re sliding into.
So this is paywalled, and we try not to include too much paywalled stuff in here as it gets frustrating for readers. But this is my first freelance piece for Jacob Donnelly at A Media Operator and I think his content is consistently excellent. This might even be worth a subscription if you’re considering video podcasts as Chris Stone goes really deep into their video strategy and what other media execs should consider.
