necessitated publishers takeit
moreandmoreseriously,”hesays.
“But I guess consumer
attitudesisprobably themost
importantone.WhenI joined,it
wasstillverymuchinthisera
wherethe generalexpectation
wasthatcontentisfreeonthe
internet.
“WhereasI thinkduringthelast
fewyearsthere'sbeenincreasing
recognitionthatyougetwhatyou
payfor,andthere'sa difference
betweena blogger,a freenewssite,
anda subscriptionnewssitewhere
the investmentinhighly
trained,highlyquali-
fied,experiencedjour-
nalistsisjustona dif-
ferentlevel.”
Asa signofthisnew
strategy, the metrics
publishersfocusonhave
also shifted. Previously,
publisherslookedatfigures
suchaspageviewsandunique
visitorstoprovea largeaudience
to potentialadvertisers. Now,
there’sa greaterfocusontime
spentontheir sites—a better
measureofhowlikelysomeoneis
to subscribe.Speaking to the
industry last year,NewsCorp
Australia’schiefoperatingofficer
forpublishingDamianEaleshigh-
lightedtheimportanceofcaptur-
ingpeople’sattentionforlonger.
“In our business, wesee a
strong correlation between
engagement and churn,” said
Eales.“Itis sostrongthatbringing
membersbacktoourcontentjust
oneextradayeachmonthreduces
churnbyonepercentagepoint.”
Australianpublishershavebeen
increasingdigitalsubscribersunder
this newmodel.Nine’spapersThe
SydneyMorningHerald,
The Age and The
AustralianFinancial
Review, grewtheir
digitalsubscriptionsrev-
enuefrom$64.1millionin
2018 to$70.6millionin- During the same
period,digitaladrevenue
alsoincreasedto$65.1mil-
lionfrom$55.9million.
At the same time,
Nine’sprintsubscrip-
tionrevenuedeclined
by $2.1 million to
$153.9 million in
Averagedailypaid
circulationforThe
DailyTelegraphPaidsubscribersforTheDaily
TelegraphandTheSunday
Telegraph (print and digital)2019 167,785 87,
2018 192,007 114,
2017 237,000 122,
Figure 4:
http://www.adnews.com.au|March 2020 19