Reader Revenue – a Do or Die issue for Publishers
eRev is a unique global benchmark for Digital Reader Revenue strategy & operations, with particular focus on Paid Content / Digital Subscriptions. Members are top publishers who work strategically with paid content.
Request an invitation to join by emailing [email protected]
We have two meetings a year with Group workshops & Visits to key market players.
Core eRev topics and angles:
* Audience development
* Marketing / Funnel optimisation
* Content strategy
* What moves the needle on Retention
* Membership & Events
* E-commerce as extension of subscriber strategy
and more...
A decade of eRev: 10 predictions we got right (and wrong)
We have been preparing top news execs for the future since 2006. Below we take you back through some of the seminal moments.
It’s 2006 and the only medium not yet digitised is text…WAN-IFRA predicts the impact tablets will have and sets up eNews to get publishers preparing for a future of mobile e-reading.
In 2007 we visit Google, who openly share their take on how smartphones will change media consumption in the not too distant future. Later that year Apple launches the iPhone and Amazon the Kindle.
During the spring of 2008 WAN-IFRA eNews runs a unique series of global focus group tests on e-reading at member companies the New York Times, Dagens Nyheter, Tamedia and the Yomiuri Shimbun. Results: Content is king and e-reading devices are viewed as personal.
In 2009 and 2010 the Exec Progs visit Tokyo, where business models and media consumption on smartphones are still ahead of the West. In Singapore, SPH is a news publisher with a TV studio and a strategy for online video.
We visit the New York Times three months after the introduction of its paywall in 2011. The next day we meet an enthusiastic Greg Clayman, publisher of News Corp’s new tablet-only publication The Daily. One strategy turned out to have more merit than the other.
2012: A year into serious paywall discussions among top publishers and we’re in Berlin, where Bild has just acquired the rights to publish Bundesliga clips – part of their strategy ahead of the launch of a freemium paid content model.
Forget SEO, social sharing is the next big thing in content discovery – and we see early signs of implications for news publishers. In the spring of 2013 we meet some of the drivers in this new world, including BuzzFeed (photo) and sports publisher Bleacher Report.
2014: Media consumption on smartphones is exploding, but ad dollars are still trailing badly. In New York Yahoo! UX design expert Luke Miller provides constructive feedback on our members’ apps and what should be done to drive usage.
Video, video, video. Users want it but few publishers seem to make much money from it. In 2015 the eRev group meet with the major Multi Channel Networks in Los Angeles, gaining insights into talent management, as well as audience and production strategies.
London offers a full smorgasbord of digital reader revenue strategies by news publishers – and all have a membership element to them. In 2016 we meet with the Times, the Guardian and the Daily Mail to share experiences on how to build the business around the most loyal readers.