1. READER REVENUE WHERE IS THE INUSTRY HEADING NEACE
MAY 2019
NEACE
1215 Hightower Trail, A-100
Atlanta, GA 30350

2. Evolution of paywall sophistication
One size fits all
Varied by geo or section
Dynamic based on business rules
Personalized based on propensity

3. WHAT IS THE RISK/REWARD OF A PAYWALL

4. Forecast tradeoffs of each scenario
STATIC
METER
CONTENT PREMIUM
INTELLIGENT BALANCED
Inc. Monthly
Page Views at Risk
1,171,534
3,499,579
1,122,239
Paywall Hits
50,084
1,116,050
48,228
Conversion Rate
0.37%
0.04%
0.36%
Inc. 12-Months
Total Conversions
3,468
7,582
3,486
Total Sub Revenue
$378,064
$829,161
$378,654
Ad Revenue at Risk
-$145,703
-$343,380
-$139,572
Net Revenue
$232,361
$485,781
$239,082
Opportunity Cost from Ad Lite
-$5,492
-$12,046
-$5,501
Dollar Tradeoff
$2.59
$2.41
$2.71
Net Revenue per Sub
$66.99
$64.07
$68.57

5. DIFFERENCES IN AUDIENCES REQUIRES PERSONALIZATION
Avg. Per User per Month
FLYBYS
STABLE USERS
ENTHUSIASTS
FANATICS
ALL USERS
6.9M
595K
340K
167K
PAGEVIEWS
1.4
7.0
14.4
100.7
ARTICLE PAGEVIEWS
0.9
2.6
4.4
27.2
VISITS
1.1
5.0
26.2
TIME PER VISIT
02:17
06:57
07:40
06:41
SCROLL DEPTH
28%
50%
52%
62%
AD REVENUE
$0.01
$0.05
$0.12
$1.08
UNIQUE DAYS
2.1
3.6
9.5
% KNOWN USERS 0% 2% 5%
38%
CONVERSION RATE
0.00%
0.22%
0.28%
0.73%

6. Propensity MODELS REFINE USER SEGMENTS6

7. ACTUAL CONVERSION VOLUMES BY SEGMENT

8. Customer lifecycle ALIGNS WITH SEGMENT
FIRST TIME USER
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
NEW SUBSCRIBER
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
engage, register, newsletter
acquire via paywall or
churn prevention, re-engagement, pricing

9. INTELLIGENT PAYWALL™ TOUCHPOINTS
FIRST TIME USER
On-site Welcome Messaging
On-site Soft Calls to Action
Newsletters
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
Soft Calls to Action
Registration for + Page Views
Subscription Offer
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
On-site Aggressive Calls to Action
Limit Access to Content
Off-site Offers (known users)
NEW SUBSCRIBER
Welcome / Onboarding s
Brand / Product Promotion
Education Prior to First Renewal
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
Timing-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Behavior-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Preference-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Lapsed Subscriber Messaging

10. INTELLIGENT PAYWALL™ TOUCHPOINTS
FIRST TIME USER
On-site Welcome Messaging
On-site Soft Calls to Action
Newsletters
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
Soft Calls to Action
Registration for + Page Views
Subscription Offer
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
On-site Aggressive Calls to Action
Limit Access to Content
Off-site Offers (known users)
NEW SUBSCRIBER
Welcome / Onboarding s
Brand / Product Promotion
Education Prior to First Renewal
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
Timing-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Behavior-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Preference-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Lapsed Subscriber Messaging

11. INTELLIGENT PAYWALL™ TOUCHPOINTS
FIRST TIME USER
On-site Welcome Messaging
On-site Soft Calls to Action
Newsletters
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
Soft Calls to Action
Registration for + Page Views
Subscription Offer
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
On-site Aggressive Calls to Action
Limit Access to Content
Off-site Offers (known users)
NEW SUBSCRIBER
Welcome / Onboarding s
Brand / Product Promotion
Education Prior to First Renewal
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
Timing-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Behavior-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Preference-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Lapsed Subscriber Messaging

12. INTELLIGENT PAYWALL™ TOUCHPOINTS
FIRST TIME USER
On-site Welcome Messaging
On-site Soft Calls to Action
Newsletters
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
Soft Calls to Action
Registration for + Page Views
Subscription Offer
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
On-site Aggressive Calls to Action
Limit Access to Content
Off-site Offers (known users)
NEW SUBSCRIBER
Welcome / Onboarding s
Brand / Product Promotion
Education Prior to First Renewal
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
Timing-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Behavior-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Preference-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Lapsed Subscriber Messaging

13. INTELLIGENT PAYWALL™ TOUCHPOINTS
FIRST TIME USER
On-site Welcome Messaging
On-site Soft Calls to Action
Newsletters
REPEAT MEDIUM PROPENSITY
Soft Calls to Action
Registration for + Page Views
Subscription Offer
ENGAGED HIGH PROPENSITY
On-site Aggressive Calls to Action
Limit Access to Content
Off-site Offers (known users)
NEW SUBSCRIBER
Welcome / Onboarding s
Brand / Product Promotion
Education Prior to First Renewal
RETAINED SUBSCRIBER
Timing-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Behavior-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Preference-Based Brand / Value Promotion
Lapsed Subscriber Messaging

14. A/B TESTING IMPLEMENTED
HIGH PROPENSITY
MEDIUM PROPENSITY
LOW PROPENSITY 5.
6. Soft 7. 9.
10.
11. Hard Wall
8. Soft
2. Soft
4. Soft 3.
1. Content Suggestion A B A B
1. Welcome Whisper
1. Welcome Whisper
1. Welcome Whisper
1. Welcome Whisper
2. Soft Newsletter CTA 2.
2. Content Suggestion
2. EDU
3. Hard Wall
3. Soft Newsletter CTA 3. 3. 4.
4. Soft Newsletter CTA
4. Soft Newsletter CTA 5.
5. Hard Wall 5.
6. Hard Wall
6. Content Suggestion 7.
8. Content Suggestion 9.
10. Soft Newsletter CTA
11. Hard Wall

15. TESTING IN PROGRESS B B A A 11,028 4,022 3,647 2,237 2,242 18,600
HIGH PROPENSITY
CART ABANDONMENT A B A B
TOTAL
Cookies
11,028
4,022
3,647
2,237
2,242
Modals
18,600
5,865
5,354
3,712
3,669
Conversions 23 10 3
Conversion Rate
0.19%
0.25%
0.27%
0.13%
0.0%
Visits per Cookie 2
Time per Visit
02:16
02:27
02:36
01:54
01:57
Ad Revenue
$826
$280
$257
$152
$139

16. MARGINAL EFFECTS OF ENGAGEMENT
Content categories and authors
(last 28 days)
Visits
(per week)
Days since last visit
Page views and time onsite
(per day/page)

17. PAYWALL HITS BEFORE CONVERSION
Over 80% of conversions occur by the 10th paywall hit.
6.8
On average, users hit the paywall almost seven times prior to converting

18. SUBSCRIBER ACQUISITION MUST BE HOLISTIC
The subscribe button and channels are equally important
The print product should be promoted proudly alongside digital

19. PRICING IMPACT BY ENGAGEMENT

20. WHAT CONTENT LEADS TO CONVERSION
Category
Page Views
PV with Path to Conversion
Paywall Hits
Conversions
Unique URLs
PTC / PV
PTC / URL
Crime
3,398,462
11,784
288,725
205
12,272
0.35%
1.0
News
846,627
2,129
61,205
120
3,757
0.25%
0.6
Politics
1,121,271
6,020
71,777
111
5,328
0.54%
1.1
Columnists
886,525
3,787
50,746
3,502
0.43%
Baseball
1,060,046
3,614
83,589 74
2,061
0.34%
1.8
Entertainment
1,051,370
2,987
47,259 71
6,183
0.28%
0.5
Football
971,367
4,815
103,240 70
1,922
0.50%
2.5
Opinion
281,260
2,209
24,797 62
2,500
0.79%
0.9
Community
430,391
2,127
33,426 61
454
0.49%
4.7
Sports
756,506
1,769
47,787 60
3,864
0.23%

21. DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS
Customer-level engagement detail (anonymous and known)
article page views, visits, time per visit, ad revenue, content preference
Conversion rate
by channel, product, audience segment, point in checkout funnel
Subscriber data linked to key points above (offline data)
retention, cost per acquisition, engagement, price, tenure

22. USER EXPERIENCE BEST PRACTICES
Site design, page weight, quality ad units
Reduce friction in checkout process
Newspapers should think of themselves as an ecommerce company with long term customer relationships
Use external platforms deliberately and on your terms

24. WHAT IS NEXT?
Digital revenue yield management – Managing customer lifetime value through personalized relationships = Mass Personalization; How do we monetize? Recursive prediction, testing and improvement of touchpoints – A/B testing, Validating predictions with observations; Machine learning/AI, Econometrics Product innovation – Content bundling and packaging to attract and retain subscribers. Article lifetime value. Subscription fatigue? Do not know yet

25. A HOLISTIC APPROACH WORKS BEST
Advertising $$ Subscription $$ Renewal $$ Retention $$ Print $$ Digital $$ Acquisition Retention

26. Mather Economics
1215 Hightower Trail
Building A, Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30350