To pay or not to pay?
In a week that saw believers in paid-for content win a debate against the ‘freemium’ model, Apple’s new Newsstand service has been praised for helping drive publisher revenues and subscriptions.
If you offer content to someone for free, chances are they’ll take it. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t pay for it – or maybe a better version of it – but who doesn’t want something for nothing?
Apple’s Newsstand encouraged me to download magazine and newspaper apps that I probably wouldn’t have considered otherwise. And if the content is good enough, I would consider paying for the full/premium version of it. It is pretty simple.
The PPA debate this week on the motion “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money”, saw David Hepworth, former editorial director at Emap and now founding partner of Mixmag publisher Development Hell, arguing that the advertising-backed free model is not sustainable.
Hepworth said providing quality content for free created a “false paradise”; while Phil Hilton, editorial director at ShortList Media, argued against him that “free content is morally and socially better for the country than paid-for content.”
Hepworth’s team won the debate. But surely we should be questioning the motion. There is an obsession about content and how for 300 years creators of content have been rewarded through copyright law and agreement. The internet has changed this and strong lobbies exist to try and rectify it. However, I like to think of content as bricks and the product being the house. I believe consumers are more inclined to buy a product rather than a piece of content priced competitively in pennies.
And it’s true, businesses need to create other revenue streams, we all know that. But as consumers, we’re not going to all jump at the chance to pay for something that we’re used to getting for free.
James Cridland wrote an interesting blog this week on the latest RAJAR figures, explaining that broadcasters need to remain patient when it comes to increasing the take-up of digital radio. Surely the same applies for getting people to pay for content? Softly softly catchee monkey.
Apple’s new Newsstand service – available on the iOS5 upgrade – does this perfectly. It gives you a bit and makes you want more. More that you would pay for.
Exact Editions says downloads of freemium sample editions jumped by 14 times in the few days after Apple released Newsstand, while some titles’ actual sales have more than doubled (paidContent.org).
Future Publishing, meanwhile, claims that container apps for its titles were downloaded two million times in three days and has reported that consumer spending has increased. “Future has sold more digital editions in the past four days through Apple’s Newsstand than in a normal month,” according to CEO Mark Wood.
It just goes to show that if you present products to consumers in a way that makes it really easy for them to find the content that they want (and maybe even the stuff they didn’t know they wanted) and pay for it, they just might take you up on it!
MediaTel Group is hosting a Future of Consumer Magazines event on 18th November to discuss these very issues. To find out more or to book a ticket, click here.