Subscription Data Devaluation

By: Elizabeth Coffey, Marketing G2 Digital Marketing Specialist

Before the internet was even a glimmer on the horizon, in the golden age of print news, you could count on advertisers pouring money into the news industry’s coffers to have their ad placed next to an article covering news.

It was a symbiotic relationship in which advertisers could reach their target markets efficiently and newspapers could cover their overhead costs and turn an attractive profit.

Google and Facebook - Digital Disruptors

The dawn of the internet age changed all that, or, more specifically, the meteoric rise of two tech industry giants, Facebook and Google and their disruption of the way consumers had been previously targeted and marketed to on a global scale.

No longer did advertisers have to resort to generalized ads created for multiple demographics within a newspaper’s target market. They could delve in and target each individual demographic with marketing messages that spoke to their unique interests.

Highly effective, this disruption has left many news publishers struggling to keep up, to prove the value of their audience to advertisers. News outlets have been overwhelmed as advertisers move their dollars to the duopoly for the same reason publishers look to find eyeballs for their own content.

Move from Third-Party to First-Party Data

The third-party data that you get with non-registered, non-paying readers isn’t worth as much as the first-party data you can gather via the niche subscription micropayment targeting offered by Flittz.

Flittz is a program that allows readers from the sizable organic traffic you attract to buy an article that they’re interested in or multiple articles that they’re interested in around a specific topic (hockey or gardening for example).

Advertisers can then zero-in on the readers they want to reach, making advertising with your publication more attractive to businesses and the best news is you own all the data and can access it anytime to negotiate with current and new advertisers.

Tune in next week to discover how micropayments, mini-subscriptions, and an enhanced subscription funnel, through Flittz, can make you a more profitable news organization.

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