News Corp marks 100,000 digital subscriptions
News Corp Australia has told its staff it has hit reached a 100,000 paid digital subscriptions, following the introduction of a metered paywall in June.
Almost half of the 100,000 subscribers are made up of The Australian’s 45,000 digital subscribers but in an email to staff News CEO Kim Williams told his staff in addition to the 100,000 paid digital subscribers the company had had more than 300,000 people register their details under the news + brand.
“In addition to the 100,000 paid subscribers, we have had over 300,000 people register to use our metro sites since we launched our digital products with news+in May. This demonstrates progressive steady reliable connection with consumers,” Williams wrote in the email.
As part of the metered paywall, tabloid masthead readers are given five free articles a week before being required to register, then an additional 10-15 per week depending on which site they are subscribing with. The Australia retains a freemium where most articles are locked and while other content remains free.
In the wake of News’ move to the metered model on its tabloid websites some rivals said the move was about monetising consumer data than revenue from digital subscribers.
Williams did not address this issue but told staff:
“This is a moment for the company to celebrate. They are encouraging numbers which demonstrate clearly that Australians are prepared to pay for great journalism, well-argued opinion pieces and rigorous analysis…
“It is too early to declare success, as the challenge to transform our company into the most innovative and engaging media company it can be, is never ending. However, we are making encouraging progress. Onwards!”
Audited numbers for News Corp digital subscriptions are yet to be released.
Nic Christensen
So News has 100,000 readers over several mastheads?
Amazing!
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I think the standard news procedure is they get a spokesperson out. But I’ll save time and say 1) no, they have more than that and 2) read the article before posting.
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I’m not sure how well SMH is going. At the begining of the month I was told I had to subscribe to read articles ( after my 30 free articles for the month), but for the past week I have had unlimited access on all my devices once again. Got a feeling they need to get users up because advertisers are not getting results. Has anyone had any issues with shortfalls?
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100,000 readers for a company which owns 75% of the country’s newspapers? Hardly anything to be proud about. Brisbane’s Daily Sun had more than four times that number of readers when Rupert closed it in 1987 to buy the opposition Courier-Mail.
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100k, wow, i suppose?
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It must be 100,000 housewives wanting to know how to wash dishes (see Dr Mumbo)
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It will not be long till If you’ve got something to promote you’re better off giving an interview to a blog or a you tube channel.At least then anyone can access it.
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Has anyone stopped to think how many of those 100,000 are people who have signed up for their $1 for 30 days deal? As soon as they hike up the charge to full price, watch the number of current subscribers become ex-subscribers. The biggest problem with the internet is that everyone expects it all for free – don’t worry that wages have to be paid, shareholders have to be satisfied, managing directors have to have their perks . . .
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That number would double – it could even go well beyond 500,000 – if News Corp offered a pre-paid option via retail outlets, in the same way prepaid bus tickets are sold. Anonymously.
Reading the paper is a private pleasure for most people.
They do not want their reading spied upon by a virtual intruder, looking over their shoulder then capturing that information to be on-sold to anonymous 3rd parties.
That’s what happens when your reading activity is linked back to your payment/registration.
When this penny drops for News and others, billions of pennies will fall from the sky.
If they can just get past the idea of intrusive observation, their business model will work.
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Good thinking Mike.
But if they did that they would have to jack-up the price to pay the newsagents for their involvement. Once that happened less people would be interested.
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Both News and Fairfax are faking this. Both have huge problems in metro markets and neither has confidence in the product (nor should they).
Can someone pls focus on giving us some NEWS in our newsmedia? I’m happy to pay. Really.
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