09

Nov

Shirky on The Times’ paywall

Fascinating blog has been posted by Clay Shirky entitled The Times’ Paywall and Newsletter Economics.

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/11/the-times-paywall-and-newsletter-economics/

It’s a very useful summary of what’s happened to date and the challenge facing News International which he describes as looking like ‘a referendum on the future’ of newspapers.

One particularly pertinent point is the following:

As of July, non-subscribers can no longer read Times stories forwarded by colleagues or friends, nor can they read stories linked to from Facebook or Twitter. As a result, links to Times stories now rarely circulate in those media.

I highlighted this at the time of the paywall starting as being something which may force PRs to consider other media for stories that they are looking to build awareness for across a broad audience. It remains true still today.

Shirky also suggests that The Times is becoming an online newsletter and goes so far as to suggest that it is an online newsletter for the Tories. I’m not sure I agree with this point.

Personally though I have found that, despite daily dipping into The Times site, I have come across little of value that I couldn’t find elsewhere.

However, The Sunday Times site is becoming a must log-in to of a Sunday morning, particularly its brilliant Culture planning tool!

924 days ago Short URL Comments

Digital/Newspapers

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18

Aug

News International Paywall To Expand

newmediaage and Marketing Week report today about the plans from NI for News Of The World to introduce a paywall in October, with plans for The Sun to follow. Details below…

Supporting this I have to recommend the cover story in today’s Marketing Week ‘The great media experiment’ which is an excellent read and a really decent summary of the different ways media owners are tackling the internet and evolving their business plans. The article’s full of great stats and is a very useful summary of what’s going on right now in many areas of the media owner landscape. It’s available online here – http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/in-depth-analysis/cover-stories/great-media-experiment-becomes-a-balancing-act/3017151.article if you have a subscription…

News of the World paywall planned for October launch

News of the World’s transition to a paid content model will hinge on exclusive video content, distributed across an overhauled site and app.

An introductory rate is expected for the first month, promoted via a high-profile marketing campaign.

Engine-owned WCRS, News of the World’s lead creative agency, and Glue Isobar are understood to be working on supporting campaigns, leveraging News of the World exposés.

Chime’s VCCP Search is also understood to have been appointed to work on a search strategy to drive subscriptions now that News International has withdrawn from conventional news search.

The move is an extension of News International’s paywall strategy, which has already seen The Times and The Sunday Times sites launch subscription models.

News of the World received 1.1m unique visitors in July viewing 14m pages for an average of 8.1 minutes a visit, according to ComScore.

In comparison, The Sun claimed 3.8m unique visitors with an average dwell time of 15 minutes, while online newspaper leader Mail Online claimed 8.9m unique visitors, with an average visit of 25 minutes in July.

The Times’ paywall came into effect on 2 July and although it has seen unique visitors almost halve since, according to ComScore, the decrease isn’t as drastic as some industry observers had previously predicted.

MediaCom managing partner Stefan Bardega said a subscription-only News of the World could be an attractive proposition for advertisers.

“One of the challenges around web and mobile for advertisers is that you can’t track between the two, unless users are registered across both,” he said. “What News of the World could offer is true cross-platform targeting, and that’s very interesting.”

Neither Engine, VCCP nor Glue was available for comment. News International declined to comment

1007 days ago Short URL Comments

Digital/Newspapers

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27

May

World Cup 2010 – The Media Fest Is Kicking Off

Having shown off its capabilities for the most reported on UK election of all time, the media’s attention is turning to the World Cup.

How the world has changed since World Cup 2006 – it’s an opportunity for the media to show off its shiny new capabilities once more.

It’s also an opportunity for PRs to make the very most of the engaging opportunities which are on offer.

That in mind, it’s time to take a look at some of the ways the media will be engaging with its audience during the summer’s biggest sporting event, based on a straw-poll here with the Braben media and sports PR team.

http://www.bbc.co.uk – World Cup 2010

I first saw this showcased at last month’s Sport & Technology Conference and it’s interesting to see how the various different content elements are being fully integrated into this central section.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/default.stm

Sunonline & The Sun World Cup App

The nations’ favourite football paper with a special section online and a World Cup app to download to boot, get stuck in!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/

ITV – new on-screen technology in the mix and lots of opportunities online…

Aside from Adrian Chiles joining the ITV team, the broadcaster is upping the ante on its technology that it will be using on-air and online. Full details here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/27/itv-world-cup-patrick-viera-francois-pienaar

The Times – http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/international/

If you haven’t already, get registered and track how The Times covers the World Cup before it disappears behind the pay-wall – this is the perfect time for the paper to demonstrate why its subscription online will be worth the money.

Fifa World Cup site: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/

Always worth checking out the official site around the major events as this will help you stay in tune with the ‘official’ agenda.

Telegraph.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/pick-england-team/7607233/England-World-Cup-squad-Pick-your-England-squad-for-the-World-Cup-finals-2010.html

The Telegraph continues to impress with its online offering and is heavily promoting its World Cup Squad selector currently.

Best World Cup ads

Hunting around for the best aggregator on World Cup ads, this looks like the best so far, so hop on to make sure you’ve seen the ads which will be setting the agenda over the coming weeks…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7745276/World-Cup-2010s-best-ads-Brazil-Beyonce-and-Little-Britain.html

Sportpost.com

This new sports social media site made by a bunch of sports-mad fans for a bunch of sports-mad mates is a useful place to tailor your online sports diet this summer to make sure you get everything you want.

http://www.sportpost.com/sports/football

For radio, we will, of course, be tuning into Five Live and probably putting our broadband connection under extreme pressure with live streaming of the games to all our Macs during the tournament…

Enjoy, cmon England and feel free to add any other faves…

1090 days ago Short URL Comments

Sport/World Cup 2010

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18

May

New-Look Times – Will It Justify The Pay-Wall?

The pay-wall is approaching… and the first-look articles about the new Times site are starting to appear.

To follow, two interesting articles on how the balance between the print version and online will work, where and how stories will sit in the rolling 24/7 editorial world we now live in.

http://www.journalism.co.uk/5/articles/538703.php

http://paidcontent.co.uk/image/set/times/

No doubt The Times (and its Sunday equivalent) will remain must-haves on PR targets for many campaigns. The decision to withdraw ABCe figures will make it harder to track how the site fares behind the pay-wall in terms of traffic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/apr/29/abce-paywall-times

But one thing’s for sure, the success rating will be tracked with interest by all interested parties in the media world.

1099 days ago Short URL Comments

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