Wednesday 10th April: Peak subscriptions and rich niches

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Our agenda reveal for the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summit on June 12th is nearly ready, but if you want to get in early, we have a bargain pre-agenda rate on tickets.

Let’s examine a sentence in Jacob Donnelly’s look at a report into the health of subscriptions published by Digiday: “For the publishers represented in Digiday’s research, there’s a harsh truth that they’re realizing: subscriptions are really hard, and if you’re not the best, it’s not going to work”. Well, that’s terrifying.

There’s plenty to pick out in this write-up, not least the fact that the numbers do confirm the suggestions we saw towards the tail end of last year that subscription numbers at most media outlets are flattening and they’re falling as a priority. And lest we think that’s due to some concerted revenue diversification, the report also found that the percentage of publishers who said they’re not focused at all on building their subscriptions business has consistently risen over the 18 months.

Jacob’s early assessment is that, yes, subscriptions are still really hard to do well — especially for generalist news outlets. It requires investment in creating content that audiences think it worth paying for and the teams and tools required to convert them. But as Jacob says, a rising tide floats all boats and, if you can get those things right you have a much stronger proposition for growing other revenue streams as well.

This is a pretty terrifying look at the impact that the banning of foreign media outlets can have on the public’s ability to stay informed and abreast of news — national and international. It reminded me of our interview with war correspondent Jane Ferguson from a few weeks ago. It’s also worth bearing in mind that while Israel is being used as an example, there are plenty of other examples of countries outright trying to bar their populations from being kept informed.

I’d say that Media Voices is a fairly niche media company, which is both a blessing and a bit of a curse. But, as this article from journalism.co.uk sets out, there is so much to be learned about community development, engagement, and clever use of resources that mainstream media can and should learn from niche sites. That said, ‘riches’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘niches’. Oh, and speaking of…

Rory and his business partner Neil Thackray (see below) gave me my very first full-time job in journalism, and their work in growing a kernel of a B2B media idea to an international information powerhouse is a case study in how to do it properly and proportionally. That said, ‘riches’ still does not rhyme with ‘niches’.

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