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Cable-style news bundles are spreading across Europe
Bundles are nothing new for publishers. Bundling, unbundling and rebundling seem to cycle every few years depending on various market trends. But with the sheer volume of publishers launching subscription schemes and paid products since 2020 now meeting challenging economic headwinds, it’s not entirely surprising that we’re back on the bundling bandwagon (one point here to Peter in the battle of the Nieman Lab prediction!)
For INMA, Greg Piechota looks at how publishers in five European markets are offering national and local news, magazines, podcasts and video with other benefits in super-bundles, bringing together anything from five to 90 brands.
As always there are risks and trade-offs with bundling content like this. At the moment though, retention is a top priority for anyone with a reader revenue stream, and bundle customers (as per the NYT’s experience) are usually more engaged than single-product customers.
Publishers: Steal these subscriber onboarding ideas
Something else that supports higher retention rates and average revenue per user is having a good onboarding experience! Poool has pulled together some top tips and examples for all sorts of publisher products, from newsletters to apps, welcome emails and navigation support.
The perils of launching a subscription product too early
I didn’t anticipate this being such a subscription-heavy issue but maybe I’m unconsciously avoiding all the AI stuff at the moment. Anyway, this piece from Simon Owens is based on his experience of launching a subscription product too early, and what others can learn from when he finally began to get it right.
The New York Times launches “enhanced bylines”
This is such a simple idea from the NYT to include just a short sentence or two about how the reporter pulled together a story. When we’re facing such enormous trust issues, small steps like this can make a big difference to helping readers understand how and why stories are being covered.
More from Media Voices
Read: How local media organisations can get started with AI
Deciding where to start, both with identifying use cases for AI in publishing and actual implementation, can feel overwhelming. From securing data sources to getting colleagues on board, here is some advice from those who have already taken the leap, in this extract from our Practical AI for Local Media report.
