$345 for the online product

Not sure this would work so well in a large market, but it is an interesting case study.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214607

 

The wonders of not giving away your product for free. What a revolutionary business concept.

 

I worked with a marketing director in another line of work who was adamant with the execs that we not give away our product for free. "If you give it away for free, you are telling your customer what value you place on the product." He insisted on a token purchase, two-for-one, something, anything, so that the customer had to dip into the wallet.

Smart man. After a horrible year (the year he took over), we had record sales for two years running, until he moved on to a better-paying gig.

I'm not surprised Newport is showing an upturn. The readers place a value on the product, and buying the print over the online is a bargain. They're saving money on their purchase! What a concept!

 

We did this at my shop a few years ago and the people thought the publisher was nuts (but the motive was also to keep print circ numbers high ... but we also used somewhat questionable means to keep them high).

 

Interesting move, but I would be very hesitant to assume that what works financially in Newport, Rhode Island would work anywhere else.

 

The people subscribing to the paper aren't your sterotypical Newporters.

 

Newport puts out a solid paper (from what I've seen of it when I used to live there). That this works is no big surprise. Find a niche (I.E. cover things no one else does--sorry, Sox fans) and do it well and people will pay for it.

 

I'm not assuming anything, but what is there to lose by trying? Circulation? Advertising? Jobs? Oh, right, we've already lost those.

 

The paper is, IMHO, the best in the state - ProJo has turned to a piece of garbage and no other paper has the resources Newport does.
Newport has tried a lot of new approaches and has hit every time.
The question is - how many smaller, local papers will go this route now.

 

Well I know of one chain of weeklies that should ...

 

Hard to see this working in a really competitive market. To me, a reasonably priced online option is more feasible in the long-term ... no matter how good your print product is, you'll always have readers who are conditioned to get their news online. That group will only grow over time, too.