3 replies
I'm usually fairly good at getting an idea whether something will work or not, or at least have a fair chance. Sometimes you just get it plain wrong. I though paid subscriptions for ordinary news websites will never work in a million years.

The Times attracts 105,000 paying customers online | Business

Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here. Perhaps some of our own ideas aren't as unlikely to succeed as we first think.

Lee
  • Profile picture of the author Tyrus Antas
    They lost a lot of people however. Another problem
    is that they don't offer anything unique and special.

    They are offering premium access to commodity
    content. My take: it won't work long term.

    Tyrus
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2811085].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Yikes...The clock is definitely ticking on that business model. Sooner or later the non-tech-savy-newspaper-reading crowd that is paying the subscription fee is going to find Google news...
    Signature
    Do Your Copywriting Skills Suck?

    Let Us Help You Develop Your Writing Skills!

    Submit Guest Posts With [ TheBitBot.Com ]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2811128].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Lee Wilson
      Originally Posted by Tyrus Antas View Post

      They lost a lot of people however. Another problem
      is that they don't offer anything unique and special.

      They are offering premium access to commodity
      content. My take: it won't work long term.

      Tyrus
      Well, that's what I would think but I was hyper-wrong about the take up The fact they have so many subscribers in a short amount of time makes me think they have a pretty dedicated bunch of followers. I've bought about three newspapers in my entire life so this is a market I obviously don't understand at all.

      No doubt they done their market research on this. As marketers we already know that half of what gets people motivated is not often the product itself but the dream of what that product can do, the experience of how it makes them feel etc.

      Until now I just couldn't see this with news, but the more I think about it ... my wife buys one particular paper everyday, it has to be that paper, not any other, yet they all contain the same crap. If she only wanted the news then she could buy any paper, look online or whatever, but she won't. If she gets out late and her brand is sold out she goes cold turkey. The truth is I don't think the news actually interests her that much.

      In the UK (and I guess everywhere?), readers of different brands of newspaper stick together, all touting the same clichés against readers of other papers etc, boosting their egos and feeling superior about the 'tribe' they belong to and how everyone else is stupid or thick for essentially reading the same, barely factual, mis-informed crap as each other.

      Maybe I'm reading into this too much, but as someone interested in marketing, I'm seeing the news in a new light. I've always labeled it as just entertainment and that's what sells it. I'm now wondering it's not the entertainment but the kind of social grouping it makes people want to belong to, and that's the experience that the newspaper is selling.

      Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom View Post

      Yikes...The clock is definitely ticking on that business model. Sooner or later the non-tech-savy-newspaper-reading crowd that is paying the subscription fee is going to find Google news...
      I would have thought that everyone knew they could find the news for free online, but maybe not. Either way, like I've just said, I don't think it's the news people are buying.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2813195].message }}

Trending Topics