For Immediate Release:

Friday, June 14, 2019

Featuring Facebook, Wired, Digiday, Foursquare and Bloomberg

TGIF. The weekend is almost here! We hope you’ll find something interesting in this week’s Five on Friday to keep you going until the end of your workday: Facebook offers new subscription tools for publishers through Instant Articles; the House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into big tech for possible antitrust violations; streaming video on demand services are expected to grow by 119 million in 2019; Wired tries a new tactic to let advertisers unlock access for readers; and Foursquare tells us to skip generic messages and develop a more personal relationship with customers instead. 

Facebook Expands Subscription Tools for News Publishers 

Last week, Facebook announced it was expanding support for subscriptions in Instant Articles to all eligible publishers. Through a tool that has been under testing for 18 months by 40 different publishers, publishers can set metered paywall parameters, allowing readers to view a set number of articles for free per month, or utilize a freemium model where some articles are open and viewable while others remain locked. Facebook said they will distribute news content free of charge and all subscription revenue will go directly to publishers. 

“Subscriptions in Instant Articles gives publishers full control of the relationship with their readers. Subscription transactions take place directly on publishers’ websites, which allows publishers to directly manage subscriber data, payments and pricing. From our conversations with publishers we know that providing this level of flexibility and ownership is crucial to the development of their subscription businesses,” said product manager Sameera Salari in a June 4 blog post.

Because a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work for every publisher, Facebook has developed a suite of products and programs that publishers can use to reach their goals. Some of the tools are focused on acquisition and include a new membership product in testing called News Funding, paid marketing tools, Facebook Analytics, and programs that will help publishers build subscription and membership offerings.

Retention-focused tools include the Welcome Screen and subscriber-only posts.  The Welcome Screen encourages new subscribers to follow a publisher’s Facebook page to see more of the publisher’s content in their News Feeds. This increased the percentage of new subscribers who follow a publisher’s page from 54% to 94% and it increased the articles read on Facebook by 40%.

Tribune Publishing was among the early testers of the new tools. Mark Campbell, chief marketing officer, said innovation has been the key to the company growing digital subscriptions and revenue and this included their use of Instant Articles.

“Audiences enjoy Instant Articles’ speedy platform, and we have realized monetization gains by using it with this new paywall. Broadly speaking, we at Tribune have benefited from coaching and collaboration on multiple Facebook projects like the Accelerator program, and will continue working with them to increase the number of people engaged with our journalism,” Campbell said.

For more information on Facebook’s new subscription tools for publishers, read Salari’s June 4 blog post, “Supporting Subscriptions-Based News Publishers.”

House Judiciary Committee to Conduct Investigation into Big Tech for Antitrust Violations

Last week the House Judiciary Committee announced it would conduct a bipartisan investigation into competition in digital markets by giant technology companies. The investigation will include hearings held by the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. This is the first time Congress has taken on an investigation like this.

While the June 3 news release did not name names, it did say the investigation would examine the conduct of “a small number of dominant, unregulated platforms” that “have extraordinary power over commerce, communication and information online.”

Congress will focus on three primary areas:

• Identifying and documenting competition in digital markets
• Examining whether dominant firms are behaving in an anti-competitive manner
• Assessing whether current antitrust laws, competition policies and current enforcement levels are sufficient to address current concerns

“The open internet has delivered enormous benefits to Americans, including a surge of economic opportunity, massive investment, and new pathways for education online,” said Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). “But there is growing evidence that a handful of gatekeepers have come to capture control over key arteries of online commerce, content, and communications. The Committee has a rich tradition of conducting studies and investigations to assess the threat of monopoly power in the U.S. economy. Given the growing tide of concentration and consolidation across our economy, it is vital that we investigate the current state of competition in digital markets and the health of the antitrust laws.”

Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) also commented on the pending investigation.

“Technology has become a crucial part of Americans’ everyday lives. As the world becomes more dependent on a digital marketplace, we must discuss how the regulatory framework is built to ensure fairness and competition. I believe these hearings can be informative, but it is important for us to avoid any predetermined conclusions. I thank Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, and Chairman Cicilline as we begin these bipartisan discussions,” said Sensenbrenner.

In a tweet, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shared her thoughts on the investigation:

The New York Times reports that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google won’t take the matter lightly. They reportedly spent a combined total of $55 million on lobbying efforts last year, doubling what they invested in 2016. As a reaction to the news, USA Today reports that the stock of each of the four tech giants has fallen since the news broke last week. We will keep you updated as the investigation unfolds.

SVOD Subscriptions to Grow by 119M in 2019 

Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access, WWE Network, HBO Now. With so many subscription-based streaming video on demand services available, it should come as no surprise that an additional 119 million new users will begin an SVOD subscription sometime in 2019. This will bring the current total of subscribers to 628 million. That total is expected to grow to 947 million by 2024, says Digital TV Research.

Videonet offered these additional statistics, per Digital TV Research:

• Gross subscription SVOD will grow by 86% from 2018 to 2024, from 508 million to 947 million, an increase of 439 million subscribers.
• Net subscriber count is expected to grow from 357 million to 531 million.
• The average SVOD user will pay for 1.43 SVOD subscriptions in 2018 and rising to 1.78 in 2024.
• Netflix is estimated to grow to 203 million subscribers by 2024, Amazon Prime Video will have 125 million, Disney+ will have 75 million and other services will have 255 million subscribers. The remaining 289 million subscribers will come from services offered in China, where Amazon Prime Video and Netflix are not available.
• China is the gross SVOD subscription leader; the U.S. is number two.

For additional SVOD subscription statistics provided by Digital TV Research, visit Videonet online.

Wired Tests Advertiser Sponsorship to Unlock Access to a Fifth Article

Wired magazine, a Conde Nast-owned publication, has proven that its metered paywall is a success, reports Digiday. The magazine’s experiments have helped Wired add 100,000 digital subscribers. Wired is about to test something new. Prior to June 1, Wired readers who do not subscribe can only read four articles per month. Thanks to a sponsorship by WeTransfer, readers will now be able to read five articles, at least for the course of the 30-day campaign. The goal, Digiday says, is to grow ad revenue while also boosting subscriber growth.

Site director Scott Rosenfeld said he expects that Wired will add another 104,000 digital subscribers this year, and that growth comes from business models and journalism working hand-in-hand. He told Wired that he is eager to see the results of the test, something new for the magazine.

“I’m as excited as you are to see how this goes. We did a lot of experiments that relate to this project, but we haven’t done any testing other than modeling,” Rosenfeld told Digiday.

Though I am a print subscriber, I never signed up for the digital version of Wired.com, so I thought I’d see what the user experience would look like. When I visited the site and opened one article, I received this message.

The branding of WeTransfer was a little odd, because when I clicked on WeTransfer right above the Subscribe button, it told me to leave and to go outside. It was an odd pop-up experience and I couldn’t really get a sense for who WeTransfer is or what they do.

On the other hand, the Wired subscription experience was pretty seamless. I got an offer for print + digital access for $10 a year, including unlimited, ad-free browsing, a print subscription and the digital edition of the magazine. I could also choose digital-only access if I want to save a few trees.

For more on this fascinating idea, read “One Year into the Paywall, Wired is Testing Letting Advertisers Unlock Access for Readers” by Max Willens for Digiday.

Skip Generic Messages – Nurture Your Customers Instead

Customers are smart. They know when they are receiving a generic mobile message from your company. If you want to keep them as a customer, take time to nurture that relationship by personalizing your approach with them and making sure they feel valued, says Foursquare. When you do so, your company could see a 10% to 30% increase in revenue and higher customer acquisition and engagement rates, reports Braze Magazine.

“To break through this fog of outreach, brands must demonstrate through thoughtful, relevant messaging that they can provide real value to the people they’re trying to reach. And to do that, you need personalization,” says Todd Grennan for Braze.   

Here are more tips for strengthening customer relationships through personalization:

• Leveraging knowledge of your customer through location – use this information to personalize your message (for example, if your customer doesn’t drive, don’t send them emails about day trips outside the region)
• Speak to your users as individuals, not as groups of customers
• Be transparent – tell users how you are using their data
• Ensure users that their information is safe and secure
• Create a simple privacy statement that explains your privacy policy
• Give your customers options for how many layers of security, and what types, they are willing to go through to keep their information safe

“At the end of the day, your relationship with your customers is the most important part of your business,” says Foursquare.

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