Re:The subscription-pocalypse
by notacoward on Monday January 28, 2019 @07:54AM
(#19017061)
> most people paid money to subscribe to newspapers and magazines?
To a few. Many cities had multiple newspapers, but very few people subscribed to more than one or to any other city's. Now the industry seems to expect that people will shell out for many more separate subscriptions.
> people were subscribed to a daily paper, 1 or 2 monthly magazines
One difference is that broadcast news was most people's primary source of news for a long time, and it was free. Also, people could buy one issue of a newspaper or magazine, at any box or news stand or grocery-store checkout line. No need for a subscription. No need to pay that ongoing cost, either in terms of money or in terms of risk for personal-data compromise.
The subscription model as it commonly exists - separate, permanent, all or nothing - is going to kill its users. Shared subscriptions ("5 stories per month on any of these sites") are going to be an absolute must. Limited-duration subscriptions will probably be necessary too. A single story is too granular, but single-week or single-month might work.
I'm sure the papers have done their own analyses and concluded that those approaches would bring in less revenue. That might even be true, if they consider their own subscription in isolation and only in the present day. The problem is that "subscription fatigue" is a problem across many subscriptions and is going to become worse over time. If their models don't account for that, their models are broken.
To a few. Many cities had multiple newspapers, but very few people subscribed to more than one or to any other city's. Now the industry seems to expect that people will shell out for many more separate subscriptions.
> people were subscribed to a daily paper, 1 or 2 monthly magazines
One difference is that broadcast news was most people's primary source of news for a long time, and it was free. Also, people could buy one issue of a newspaper or magazine, at any box or news stand or grocery-store checkout line. No need for a subscription. No need to pay that ongoing cost, either in terms of money or in terms of risk for personal-data compromise.
The subscription model as it commonly exists - separate, permanent, all or nothing - is going to kill its users. Shared subscriptions ("5 stories per month on any of these sites") are going to be an absolute must. Limited-duration subscriptions will probably be necessary too. A single story is too granular, but single-week or single-month might work.
I'm sure the papers have done their own analyses and concluded that those approaches would bring in less revenue. That might even be true, if they consider their own subscription in isolation and only in the present day. The problem is that "subscription fatigue" is a problem across many subscriptions and is going to become worse over time. If their models don't account for that, their models are broken.