Want to offer a special introductory rate for students and educators? Superfans of your local football team? People who’ve hit your paywall five months running? You now can through the App Store on iPad and iPhones.
Instead of taking 30% of new subscribers’ payments, it’ll take 15%. The money’s welcome, but it’s also a reminder of how little control publishers have over the terms they get from tech giants.
When McClatchy declared bankruptcy in February, its debts were crushing, but its operating numbers weren’t so bad. But the coronavirus ripped away more than a quarter of its revenue in just a few weeks.
A focus on big-swing stories and “high-intensity, highly fraught journalism” let the magazine put up traffic and subscription numbers more expected from a top national newspaper.
Two companies with similar editorial values and brands that mostly complement instead of overlap. This is the kind of smart merger we should see more of.
While local newspapers play the 2019 Consolidation Games, the national dailies are busy with the Great Digital Subscriber Race — and making sure they have the right teams and tech in place to win.
We will all benefit if the Los Angeles Times becomes a West Coast counterweight to those dailies in New York and D.C. But it’ll take a bigger investment in reader retention to get there.
“My team believes that by investing in the subscribers we have and making the subscription experience better and better, we’ll be able to help all parts of the subscription business.”
Lee and Sarah Guinee, Meena. "The New York Times has signed up a lot of subscribers. Here’s how it plans to keep them.." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 17 Apr. 2018. Web. 21 Mar. 2023.
APA
Lee and Sarah Guinee, M. (2018, Apr. 17). The New York Times has signed up a lot of subscribers. Here’s how it plans to keep them.. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/the-new-york-times-has-signed-up-a-lot-of-subscribers-heres-how-it-plans-to-keep-them/
Chicago
Lee and Sarah Guinee, Meena. "The New York Times has signed up a lot of subscribers. Here’s how it plans to keep them.." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified April 17, 2018. Accessed March 21, 2023. https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/the-new-york-times-has-signed-up-a-lot-of-subscribers-heres-how-it-plans-to-keep-them/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/04/the-new-york-times-has-signed-up-a-lot-of-subscribers-heres-how-it-plans-to-keep-them/
| title = The New York Times has signed up a lot of subscribers. Here’s how it plans to keep them.
| last = Lee and Sarah Guinee
| first = Meena
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 17 April 2018
| accessdate = 21 March 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Lee and Sarah Guinee|2018}}
}}