In order to survive in the modern marketplace, publishing companies both large and small need to practice almost constant innovation to remain financially viable.
Whether yours is a large for-profit Fortune 500 company or a small town non-profit weekly newspaper, you simply can’t afford to only rely on your existing monetisation strategy. Anyone in the publishing industry knows that it’s hard work to create great, compelling content. What’s even trickier to perfect is writing great content whilst simultaneously running a successful business.
However, there is revenue to be gained out there – you just need to know how to tap into it.
In this blog, I’ll be looking at 8 tips that will allow your publishing enterprise to generate revenue and secure your long-term future.
If you’re ready, let’s get started.
1 Paywalls
Over the last decade or so, the publishing industry has seen many companies like Handelsblatt in Germany or Wired Magazine using paywall-based services.
Whether put into place as a soft paywall where access to articles is provided in exchange for registration or a hard paywall that requires a paid subscription, significant revenues can be generated in this way.
Other options are available, such as metered paywalls that allow a particular amount of articles to read per month for a set fee. You’ve also got new trends such as data-driven paywalls that utilise A/B testing to ensure that the most appropriate type is in place for the target audience.
Essentially, get the blend right and you’ll see, as did the data analysts at the Economist, publishing companies can gently and successfully encourage readers to pay to read their content.
Another natural consequence of this is that the content provided is seen by the reader to be exclusive and of premium quality. But Paywalls are just one effective way to monetise your publishing business.
2 Subscriptions
Another monetisation channel to generate revenue is via subscription services, which as you imagine, allows the reader to access your content for a regular fee. This umbrella term covers a few different models, each with their own benefits. They are:
Corporate Subscriptions: This variety of subscription is perhaps the most widely used online and it involves a set monthly fee, whereby the subscriber can access as much content as they like. It’s the model that platforms like Netflix and Spotify use.
Selling on 3rd Party Sites: Another profitable route to take is to sell the services of 3rd party sites via your own. When done correctly, this can appear as a seamless transition from your services to a strategic partner, so long as the services offered are closely related to your own.
Micropayments: A further subscription model exists in the form of micropayments that enable readers to only pay for what they read. After loading up credit onto their account, your subscribers read the articles they want, with the cost being deducted from their balance.
Historically speaking, news has been seen by readers as something they’re not willing to pay for. But times have changed somewhat in recent years, and subscription models – and there are many more besides these – are becoming much more popular with publishing companies and readers alike.
3 Digital advertising
When the internet was young back in the early 2000s, banner ads were everywhere and they were an effective way to sell goods and services…at the time.
Fast forward to modern times and these banner ads are just viewed as an irritation, meaning that you’re not only wasting your advertising budget, but you’re also annoying your readers.
Modern publishers can still use digital advertising, but it needs to be done a bit differently. More suitable digital advertising options now include:
Content Recommendations: An effective method of encouraging your readers to read more is via content recommendations that are based on metrics such as your past reading subjects, authors and genres. Using platforms like Outbrain, Taboola and Revcontent, you can guide potential readers to exactly the kind of thing they like to read about.
Native Advertising: Another modern paradigm in online advertising is native advertising, which can be really profitable when used correctly. What will usually be created in this scenario is an article that is paid for by the provider of the service or product – the advertiser – and presented as an editorial. Just be sure that you clearly display the fact it is native advertising or it can come across as disingenuous.
However you look at it, digital advertising is gaining popularity all the time, in fact digital advertising spending rose by 13% in the UK in the first half of 2019 illustrating the fact.