In the news: A recent Digiday.com piece explores how publishers might capitalize on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is here to stay, and Time is among the first publishers to test the waters. Last week, reports Kayleigh Barber of Digiday, the publisher started accepting 31 different types of cryptocurrency from subscribers. “Current subscribers will not be asked to switch to the crypto payment options, according to Maya Draisin, svp of progress marketing,” says Barber “Instead, this method allows her team to introduce the Time brand to native crypto users and give them accessible payment options. She hopes it gives current subscribers that are ‘crypto curious’ an entry point to see crypto usage in a real-world application.”

The move comes with a unique set of risks. The cryptocurrency market tends to be volatile; Barber cites the recent $10,000 plunge Bitcoin recently took in a single week. But Time seems willing to take that risk and others. Barber says: “Time is also investing in crypto by growing its technology team under chief technology officer Bharat Krish. Since joining the company a year ago in May, the team has more than doubled to 40 people, many of whom do not come from traditional media backgrounds, but from companies like Uber, Google and Amazon.” Read more here.

Also Notable

Tribune Publishing Bid Hits Snag

Billionaire Stewart Bainum Jr. has just over a week to resubmit his bid for news publishing giant Tribune, reports Rick Edmonds this week on Poynter.org. But Bainum faces a steep obstacle in his quest for investors, says Edmonds: “No one seems to want to buy the Chicago Tribune,” the company’s largest newspaper property. If Bainum is unsuccessful in his bid, Tribune will go to hedge fund Alden Global Capital for a reported $630 billion. And, per Edmonds, time is running out: “There is no formal deadline for a counterbid, but [a] source close to Bainum said that, practically, a deal would need to be completed by the end of next week if it is to be considered.” Read more here.

US Daily Print Titles Hit Hard by Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt some resounding blows to daily print publications in the US. Earlier this month, William Turvill of the Press Gazette reported on some of the more notable losses last year. USA Today print circulation fell by 60 percent after the country went into lockdown last spring, says Turvill. (In other news, the newspaper just launched a paywall on its news content this week.) Other major newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal also saw falling circulation in summer 2020. “On average, the largest ten weekday newspapers in the US experienced a circulation fall of 20% in the six months to September 2020, Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) figures show,” reports Torvill. Read more specifics about how each of the major newspapers fared here.

Hearst Dives into Data Journalism

Data journalism is on the menu at Hearst. Evelyn Mateos of Editor & Publisher discusses in a recent piece how the publisher is structuring its efforts: “Currently, Hearst has a Central Interactive Team (or DevHub, for short), which is operated out of the San Francisco Chronicle. The team of seven is under the leadership of Tim O’Rourke, director of product and strategy. It ... creates interactive graphics, data-driven stories and visual projects for all five of Hearst’s newspaper markets in San Francisco, Houston, San Antonio, Connecticut, and Albany, N.Y.” The projects have been largely successful -- enough so that Hearst is poised to hire 15 data journalists, reports Mateos. Read more here.

Reuters Launches Paywall

This month, Reuters started putting news content behind an online paywall, reports Kim Lyons of The Verge. “[Reuters] will let users read five stories a month for free and plans to charge $34.99 a month for a subscription,” she reports. The paywall comes as part of a larger revenue strategy by the news outlet. “Reuters said it generates half of its revenue from its largest client, the financial data firm Refinitiv, and also makes money from online advertising,” Lyons says. “The company says it has redesigned its website with a ‘professional audience’ in mind and plans investment in segments like legal news and live streams of its event.” Read more here.

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Conducting a self-assessment to determine where your ad strategy may be coming up short.

By William Dunkerley

Having the prerequisites for effective ad sales is very important in producing good results. Last issue introduced three:

Essential Prerequisite 1: Your publication must be effective at generating sales or other benefits for its advertisers.

Essential Prerequisite 2: You need to have expert knowledge of the marketplace you’re selling in.

Essential Prerequisite 3: Within your market, you need to know what the various product or services categories are and the relative amount of ad dollars being spent in each.

In line with that, we presented a method for assessing the marketplace by analyzing ads run by your competitors. See the graphic representation of a sample analysis here.

Now it's time to do the same analysis on your publication, a self-assessment. Are there categories in which your sales are strong? Are there other areas where the competition is getting a larger share of the business?

If so, there are usually two major factors that explain that. One is that you may not be focusing sufficient sales attention to advertisers in that category. The other is that your magazine may perform poorly for those advertisers.

Fortunately these are both things you can influence. If your sales force is just not spending enough time on advertisers in a certain category, bring that to their attention. If they are having any difficulty penetrating that segment, listen to their experiences and work with them on problem-solving.

But if those advertisers are using other publications instead of yours, the problem is more complex. To understand that, it's good to review the basics of publishing economics. For that purpose I like to use a life cycle analogy: the life cycle of the advertising dollar, which is illustrated in the following sketch:


The economics of successful publishing.

You'll see that it starts at the top with a group of companies who are the advertisers. They spend dollars to advertise their products or services.

A publication receives this advertising revenue and, with it, develops an editorial product. The publisher then circulates that product, the publication, to readers.

The readers buy the publication out of an interest in its content. They read the publication. While doing so, they see the advertisements and, in turn, purchase products and services from the companies that advertise.

The companies receive revenue from these sales. Their businesses flourish. They continue to spend money advertising. And the cycle starts all over again.

This is a simplified model, but it makes an important point: Success comes from the advertising dollars successfully passing through the various stages.

What if it doesn't? Any number of mistakes can cause advertising dollars to leave the cycle and not complete it. When that happens the economic vitality of the cycle is lost.

Writing for the wrong audience, selling space to the wrong advertisers, marketing subscriptions to the wrong readers -- all these can interrupt the cycle and spell economic disaster for the publication.

The self-assessment described earlier will tell you if part of the problem lies in your publication's content mix. The other part concerns whether the acquisition of new readers is being properly focused. Indiscriminate reader acquisition can result in creating an audience that is not going to be responsive to your advertisers. And that's the point of this article: When you attract new readers, it is very important that you attract the right ones.

Next time we'll look at research techniques that can give you insights into your readership. With those new perspectives you can plan a course for acquiring readers that will produce good results for advertisers, and make your publication a must-buy.

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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During this time of crisis, we stand ready to answer privately any specific questions our readers may have, time permitting. You can contact us at:

crisis-help@stratnewsletter.com

When the national health crisis subsides, publishers unfortunately should not expect to easily resume business as usual. Economists are predicting tough times ahead. In addition, the impact of the crisis may well result in different expectations of us on the part of our audiences. STRAT will provide a series of articles to help you all through the period of recovery and readjustment.