PageSuite & MPP Global have joined forces to provide an overview of some of the most interesting examples of product diversification from leading publishers around the world presented in their most recent webinar.
The webinar looked to explore both traditional, and more emerging revenue streams. There have been several studies and articles showcasing how products are being repackaged or tailored toward specific devices or consumer behavior. Elsewhere, in order to generate uptake, brands are leveraging current reader data to build a nontraditional product, such as apps or physical products, to either boost engagement, open up revenue streams or tap into newer audiences.
The poll question ‘what is your biggest supplementary revenue stream’ was asked to identify which of these additional revenue streams is more popular amongst a large and captured audience of publishers.
Out of 70 attendees, PageSuite & MPP Global obtained a poll response rate of 72% with the following responses as their biggest drivers of supplementary revenue:
- News apps or websites 21.4%
- Spin-off brands 11.9%
- E-Paper 33.3%
- New print Product 14.3%
- eCommerce or physical products 19%
Ana Lobb, VP of Media and Publishing states that “the key to the future of supplementary revenues lies in innovation, diversification and breaking the traditional subscription mold. Companies must build on brand engagement with personalized digital experiences, create diversified portfolio of products to suit all demographic, run many incentivization offers, launch, test, optimize, listen to their readers, ask, test, refine, make data actionable, select tools that empower sales, marketing, and product teams to innovate and experiment”.
Ben Edwards, SVP of Business Development co-presented the webinar with Ana Lobb added; “ePaper will always appeal to a sizeable digital audience and with continuous improvements to our platforms aesthetic, increasing functionality & accessibility, it’s a great time for publishers to maximize the opportunity.”
“For too long publishers have over-spent on expensive solutions that don’t deliver revenue-generating or highly-engaged audiences. ePaper resonates strongly as paid-for content and is almost too simple for some digital executives to appreciate as a way to hold or upsell to valuable subscribers and advertisers.”
The case of international vs. regional/hyperlocal brand attempts in driving new subscription revenue and the various business models and PageSuite & MPP Global technology case studies were also presented throughout the webinar. Ben also discussed how they’ve recently seen more publishers incentivising readers into purchasing a subscription. For example, GQ Magazine launched a subscription box containing male grooming products.
State of Digital Publishing has only found WAN-IFRA and Reuters Institute being the other credible providers of a publisher supplementary revenue model study, so it is encouraging to see an increasing source of studies which can provide more real lif examples of how publishers are implementing subscription models to drive revenue.
MPP Global intends to run the poll again next year to gauge how strategies have been evolving.