I have worked for most of 14 years in businesses founded on business-critical content with embedded analytics to enable more informed decision-making. See my LinkedIn profile for a list including Bloomberg and internet.com.
This week's Advisen report on the expected $3.6b D&O loss from subprime has been an important story for insurance professionals globally. It's not a matter of if, but when, the tide will turn in the insurance cycle and Advisen has proprietary data sets which enabled the prediction.
We charged for the report ($200 for customers, $500 otherwise) and this has led to an intensive review of how we charge for our content and analysis. Advisen's is a blended model meaning that there is free, ad-supported content and we have password-protected content.
Taking stock of where consumers are willing to pay for content, the most notable story is whether Dow Jones' WSJ.com is to remain a subscription service. See a post with interesting comments here.
First, Dow Jones made their editorials free (opinionjournal.com) while charging smaller fees for certain columnists. Second, in Davos Rupert Murdoch confirmed that there will still be subscription-only WSJ.com content and that, in fact, subscribers should expect a price increase.
While only 4% of Dow Jones' revenues, WSJ.com annual revenue is around $75m, the envy of internet content publishers. Estimates are that WSJ page view traffic would have to increase anywhere from 3 to 12 times to replace subscription revenue with advertising revenue (Lehman Brothers analysts said 2x-3x while Bear Stearns said 12x). Also, while traffic would certainly increase, the impact on the massive print revenues are what keeps WSJ.com for subscribers only (for now).
Search guru Danny Sullivan blogged (here) about how WSJ has (knowingly?) allowed access to subscriber-only content via Google News.
The New York Times gave up on its online subscription product Select awhile back and according to Eliot Pierce, Vice President, Strategy & Operations there, the Online Grey Lady has never looked back. Real Estate classifieds and advertising are strong. These are different content offerings, the WSJ boasts some of the best reader demographics available to advertisers.
Here in the UK, the Financial Times just announced a blended model for FT.com where "casual readers" get free access to 30 stories/month. And, oh by the way, FT content is no longer included in Factiva's subscription fees, it's now a big premium (see post here).
The Street.com and Bill O'Reilly.com both offer premium subscribers additional content and also online chat access to Bill and to Street.com analysts like Jim Cramer.
On the other hand I worked for Alan Meckler long enough to hear his many arguments about why subscription models don't work (this was before he built an images business). Certainly search engines don't find password-protected content, depricvng publishers of valuable traffic.
While business models and consumer take-up vary, there is one irrefutable truth: If you have content that is business-critical, consumers will pay for it. Our subprime report is a good example.
Showing posts with label alan meckler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alan meckler. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Friday, 7 December 2007
Small Businesses & Web 2.0
Alan Meckler posted yesterday about the over-hyping of Web 2.0 citing a good story on internet.com about how small business owners need to have clear ROI before engaging in blogging, wikis, social networking, etc.
The report covered in the article says that these small business owners are twice as likely to care about e-mail newsletters and having quizzes and calculators on their site rather than blogs or wikis or social networking.
I will need to read the report to see if the businesses rely on internet marketing or if their web site and internet marketing are not core.
We're forming our 2008 marketing plan at Advisen and determining exactly where some Web 2.0 products could help. Our goals are to deliver great content to new and existing readers and to drive them to consider the advisen.com premium product as well to deliver a higher level of customer service by informing our clients about new information and analysis that is relevant to their book of business. We want to do this with technology versus more staff.
Advisen's #1 marketing tool is a series of vertical e-mail newsletters and Advisen has had great marketing success with topical surveys so we have some of the "web 1.0" bases covered.
In terms of web 2.0, I started this blog in large part to learn how blogging has helped other businesses and to show our team that it is not too difficult. We launched one in 2004 that covered the Spitzer investigations into the insurance industry and I'm very pleased to see that our developers have installed new software and that we will launch a new blog soon, likely to cover the developing subprime story for commercial insurance professionals.
I'm particularly delighted that they built the blog into the advisen.com navigation like our newsletter so that with the first release of the blog we will not only show in natural search engine resuls but also drive interest in our premium subscription offering.
If I've learned anything from Alan it's that you can't be all things to all people, small businesses can become bigger businesses by publishing vertical content. We are betting that social media can generate additional vertical content and help achieve our goals for growth and a higher level of service to premium customers.
The report covered in the article says that these small business owners are twice as likely to care about e-mail newsletters and having quizzes and calculators on their site rather than blogs or wikis or social networking.
I will need to read the report to see if the businesses rely on internet marketing or if their web site and internet marketing are not core.
We're forming our 2008 marketing plan at Advisen and determining exactly where some Web 2.0 products could help. Our goals are to deliver great content to new and existing readers and to drive them to consider the advisen.com premium product as well to deliver a higher level of customer service by informing our clients about new information and analysis that is relevant to their book of business. We want to do this with technology versus more staff.
Advisen's #1 marketing tool is a series of vertical e-mail newsletters and Advisen has had great marketing success with topical surveys so we have some of the "web 1.0" bases covered.
In terms of web 2.0, I started this blog in large part to learn how blogging has helped other businesses and to show our team that it is not too difficult. We launched one in 2004 that covered the Spitzer investigations into the insurance industry and I'm very pleased to see that our developers have installed new software and that we will launch a new blog soon, likely to cover the developing subprime story for commercial insurance professionals.
I'm particularly delighted that they built the blog into the advisen.com navigation like our newsletter so that with the first release of the blog we will not only show in natural search engine resuls but also drive interest in our premium subscription offering.
If I've learned anything from Alan it's that you can't be all things to all people, small businesses can become bigger businesses by publishing vertical content. We are betting that social media can generate additional vertical content and help achieve our goals for growth and a higher level of service to premium customers.
Monday, 19 November 2007
Facebook as a business debate
Two people I respect greatly have recently commented about Facebook and really all social networking. Eliot Pierce who has been a force for good at NY Times Online says he's in the "Facebook is not a business" camp.
Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, blogged about about it here pointing out that value will be in vertical social networking (see my earlier post about sphinn). Alan has made a number of fortunes by providing targeted information to niche audiences and brokering this audience to relevant sponsors. I suggested to Alan that he should start or buy a site that would appeal to interactive marketers who are beginning to include social networks in their media buys (agencies are assigning full-time specialists to them). Generally Alan is skeptical about the true (and long-term) value of generalist sites like Facebook.
Have a look at the discussion thread following a post by Fred Wilson which reinforces Alan's point.
There is no seamless approach to anything these days. Key to technology project success is proper stitching of the seams based on thoughtful planning. The same will hold true with social media - it will be the social middleware that will enable vertical communities to reach outside "the club" as needed. How the middleware providers make money while the networks own the page views is beyond me at this point.
Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, blogged about about it here pointing out that value will be in vertical social networking (see my earlier post about sphinn). Alan has made a number of fortunes by providing targeted information to niche audiences and brokering this audience to relevant sponsors. I suggested to Alan that he should start or buy a site that would appeal to interactive marketers who are beginning to include social networks in their media buys (agencies are assigning full-time specialists to them). Generally Alan is skeptical about the true (and long-term) value of generalist sites like Facebook.
Have a look at the discussion thread following a post by Fred Wilson which reinforces Alan's point.
There is no seamless approach to anything these days. Key to technology project success is proper stitching of the seams based on thoughtful planning. The same will hold true with social media - it will be the social middleware that will enable vertical communities to reach outside "the club" as needed. How the middleware providers make money while the networks own the page views is beyond me at this point.
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