Month: December 2022

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Will you be returning to an office next year?

Return to the office for my agency will be in early January. We have to be in the office three times a week, it’s mandatory for us to show up those three days. Remote work has been good for mental and emotional wellbeing but you can’t help but see the negative impact on the output within agencies generally. 

How so? 

In a typical season, we have five, six, seven pieces [that are standouts]. Maybe Wieden + Kennedy made something, maybe TBWA, maybe Droga, maybe one of the smaller shops or Goodby Silverstein & Partners made something. Someone is always making cool shit but we’re so starved for work that is cutting edge. The industry has taken a swing down. With a recession coming, my guess is that everyone will try to save their jobs by proving that advertising still gets it. For the work, I think it’s good to return to the office but I have a child so I’m not thrilled to leave the house. But that’s what a job is… it was never supposed to be roses.

We’re in a difficult economy now. Do you think that’ll have an impact on the return to office, maybe more people willing to do so? 

I think it depends. The natural reaction would be that people are wary of the situation they’re in so they’ll grudgingly start to go back to the office. At the same time, I know people who are looking for new jobs because their agencies want them back in the office. The best agencies, the agencies we all want to work for, whether you like them or not, they all want butts in seats. If you choose to walk away from the situation, it’s because your focus is different. Not everyone is in advertising to make level-setting work. If you choose to go work at some quiet agency that allows you to work remotely because that’s the stage you’re at, I completely understand that. And being a parent, I completely understand the decisions people make.

People didn’t stop working while working at home. Why do you think agencies want people back in the office?

We can look at the award shows before the pandemic and during the pandemic. Agencies are having a very obvious dip in output. A lot of agencies that every three months or six months would be like, ‘hey look at what we’ve done’, aren’t doing that now. People can try to say that it’s budgets but money was thrown back into the market three months into the pandemic. I was on a shoot early on in the pandemic. A different type of client arose, a client that was benefiting from [people’s changed behavior] because of the pandemic like the pharma clients, household goods, etc. but the output wasn’t as good.

Why’s that?

As an industry, we’re very privileged. Almost every other industry is back in the office. There are just a few industries where everyone is working from home. Is it really working for your company? I get to make breakfast, lunch and dinner, do my laundry, hang out with my partner but am I at the top of my game? I haven’t worked on anything notable recently. I have no drive to work on side projects. If we were in the office, I’d find something to work on because the environment [would make me]. Getting up in the morning, having a routine, commuting, getting on a train, going into your office, seeing people, that’s all stimulus. Seeing people have experiences can feed our work. It’s that time you spend not being active and thinking about your work that you come up with your best ideas. Time will tell [if the return is what we need]. Let’s check back on the work in six months.

The environment prior to the pandemic in offices was difficult for many. It’s easy to see why people would want to continue working remotely.

The environment in the U.S. in advertising has been really toxic. People felt like they had to stay in their offices and it has been a lot of pressure on people. We cannot deny the negativity that comes with being back in the office and butts in seats mentality. But you being at home, the other extreme doesn’t make it better either. We are just making work. We’re not making the best possible work we could make because people are able to sign off. They’re just submitting the 10 ideas they have to submit. 

But in an office, maybe you’re going to lunch with your partner and you see something that impacts the 11th idea. It’s about finding that 11th idea. That’s not to say work more but that the best ideas are when you [aren’t expecting it]. If you stay within one environment you are not leaving that environment, you’re not stimulating your brain to wander beyond that environment. 

Is being remote impacting team work?

It’s undeniable that team spirit is down in agencies. People are used to being around each other. The agencies have gone remote and there’s less of a bond. It changes how you brainstorm. Relationships with coworkers are different when — it doesn’t even have to be an office but when you see each other physically. There is a different emotional bond that’s created. This is a very egotistical industry. Until we’re able to strip away those walls, I don’t think we’re getting the best from each other. 

Do you think having a hybrid environment will actually get back to some of that better work? 

Yes, 100%. That’s looking at it from a work perspective. As an individual, working from home is best. I think that’s why agencies are offering a hybrid with a few days in the office and a few days at home. 

What do you hope happens with the return to office? 

I think people should embrace the uncomfortable more often. And corporations should continue being flexible because when the individuals that work for them have better mental health, the work goes easier for everyone.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is one of your resolutions for 2023?

My business resolution is to really lay the groundwork for an ad experience that is unique and different and exciting and engaging for both marketers and our members. I think we have a real opportunity to start something new while building on the foundations of a lot of great businesses that have come before us.

But when I think about what Netflix can be in the future, particularly with our engaging content and huge moments, I think about things like the Super Bowl, where people tune into commercials on purpose because of the high quality [advertising] that goes along with the high quality content, and really lay the foundations for something exciting and different that Netflix might be able to do in the same vein, where members are eager to see the ads because they’re relevant and engaging and, again, treated with the same high quality that our content is.

What do you plan to do to fulfill that resolution?

It’s a crawl-walk-run approach, as we’re calling it — as everybody says, I suppose. But really, what we launched with at the outset was essentially six months after we announced that we were doing an ad-supported launch at all. So what we launched with at the outset with 15s and 30s isn’t representative of our long-term ambitions necessarily. But getting those basics right is really important. So focusing on a lot of the year on ensuring that we can get those basics right, that we can deliver value and incremental audiences and earning our right to build more and more creative things as time goes on. And so I think that’s the important part. 

In order to do that, we’ll want to continue to double-down on our partnership with Microsoft. They’ve been remarkable, getting it from nothing to where it is today, in six months launched in 12 countries. And then hiring a world-class team not only of sales talent but also product talent, as well as our partners in things like communications and marketing. And then, of course, client-facing experience team members to ensure we’re giving the best service that we can while we take their feedback and listen. That will be really important, especially in the early days, to host things like client councils and have one-on-one meetings and to do road trips like the one I’m about to embark upon, to really hear from the advertising community what it is that they want. Balancing that against the member experience and working with the teams here that has executed on member experience so well for the last 25 years.

With New Year’s resolutions, there are always obstacles to staying committed to those resolutions. If the resolution’s to lose weight, then there’s ice cream in the freezer–

I’m kind of a Dorito’s gal when it comes to that problem, but I hear you.

And so what do you see as the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ll need to address to fulfill this resolution and remain committed to it?

I think the biggest obstacles will actually be a temptation to rush into that perfect experience without laying that foundation first. I think it’s really important that we remain committed to getting things right, like measurement, delivery, all of those basics. Making sure we have the reporting necessary for advertisers. Making sure that the member experience is good, that we have the right balance of advertising to content, that it’s relevant not only to the content but to the members themselves. 

And there will be a temptation, particularly because we are 25 years old and as a large as we are, to rush to the end-states, which I think can lead to mistakes across the board. And just to really maintain that focus and patience, despite getting a lot fo excitement and pressure from the external world to do something totally crazy and different right at the outset.

Do you have any work-related resolutions that are more industry-wide as opposed to Netflix-specific?

Yeah, I do. I think it’s really important that, in the TV space in general and connected TV in particular, that we all together continue to iterate on the experiences around things like frequency, cross-platform measurement, making sure the same person is not seeing that same ad over and over and over again, which surveys will tell us is particularly annoying and will turn people off from the entire industry. 

And then I think even zooming out a little bit from there, in macro-economic times like the ones we’re facing right now, I think there’s a real temptation to deviate from what an overall playbook was when the macro-economy was better. And for the entire marketing industry, it’s times like this where marketing budgets tend to get cut or those deviations from the plan revert to flight to safety. And I think we were in this period for so long of innovation and excitement in the whole industry, with new formats [and] new platforms, I hope that everyone remains resolute in continuing to innovate through even the hard times and — every company included here — not just rip up the whole playbook because things are different than they were a year ago at this time, but to truly iterate step by step by step into making sure that people make it through this time but also continue to innovate on the customer experience broadly.

Do you have any non-work-related resolutions for the new year that you’d like to share?

I would like my next-door neighbor to finish construction so that I can get out of this room, which is the only quiet place. But yeah, I do. I think that, like many people, that COVID period was a period of self-reflection, not only of what life can be like when you worry about people that you love, like my parents who are getting older, and making sure they remain a priority, even thought life is getting back to busy. 

And then similarly for myself, I used to be on the road 200 days a year — probably will get back to that, most realistically — but I was able to pull a lot of things into the period that I wanted to do before. I’ve been putting off a shoulder surgery for 10 years, for instance, and was able to get that done and do the physical therapy and cook for myself and work out every day and the kinds of things that are challenging to do when you have a crazy busy life. And my resolution for myself is to remember all of those things that make the right people priorities and the right activities priorities and don’t forget to take care of myself every once in a while and maybe take a nap on Saturdays.

A nap on Saturdays alone is a great resolution.

Maybe take a nap on Saturdays. I’ll add it to the “hope so” pile.

“We hired J.P. Morgan [Chase] and Lazard to help us in our efforts a couple months ago. We’re actively out in market looking at acquisitions to make,” said Group Black co-founder and CEO Travis Montaque in the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast.

During the interview, Montaque laid out how acquiring a scaled media company would fit into Group Black’s strategy. The company’s strategy splits into three core areas: creating access to ad dollars and audiences for Black-owned media businesses; providing infrastructure — such as Group Black’s own ad exchange — for those businesses; and investing in growing Black-owned media businesses. 

But, you might be thinking, BDG, Vice Media Group and Vox Media are white-owned media businesses? Correct.

But they are also large, general-interest media businesses that have built up the means of distributing content to large, general-interest audiences. In other words, acquiring a media company of their scale would be an investment that would help to create access and provide infrastructure to help grow the Black-owned media businesses that Group Black supports, with Group Black among them.

“We are actively in market looking at scaled assets to acquire for the purpose of creating larger infrastructure for our collective to be able to grow their business. That growth means scaled distribution and other assets that will enable us to accelerate the reach and scale of Black-owned media overall,” said Montaque.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.

Securing commitments

We’ve gotten brands to commit over half-a-billion dollars to spend with Black-owned media and diverse creators in our first year.

The broadening of Black-owned

Black-owned media companies largely reach their own community. And that creates a situation where their market opportunity’s inherently limited. And so one of the things we are focused on is how do we enable an environment where these entrepreneurs and founders are able to distribute their stories and be a part of the broader narrative writ large.

Group Black’s ad tech stack

We’ve invested in putting our own stack together that allows brands to buy through our infrastructure, buy directly through our Group Black exchange, to our network.

Spending growth despite the economic downturn

I still expect to see growth in the category overall. The commitments aren’t going away as a result of a downturn. It might be 2% of $900 million versus 2% of $1 billion, but where we are today is so far below that where we should still see brands increasing their overall spend in the category overall.

Even before the pandemic, news publishers were thriving in a chaotic post-2016 political climate. Reader interest in current events was surging, with unique visitors to news sites climbing from 8.2 million in 2014 to 13.8 million by 2020, according to Pew Research. But after the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the rubber-necking that characterized the coda of the Trump presidency, pageviews began to fall back to Earth. 

With fewer readers to satisfy advertisers – who by the end of the period were already beginning to keep their distance from news publishers for fear of appearing beside brand-unsafe events – and the ebb and flow of advertising revenue made more acute by current recessionary fears, recurring subscription revenue has become more than appealing. It’s become vital. While subscriptions are certainly not a wholly new tactic for premium publishers rooted in print, the challenge of constructing the best digital offering to entice readers to open their wallets is now a near-universal one for many media execs previously unfamiliar with direct reader revenue. 

Against that backdrop, the Digiday Subscription Index seeks to examine and measure publishers’ subscription strategies across several different digital touchpoints in order to identify some common approaches and key tactics. Given the struggles currently being experienced by many news publishers, we chose to begin this research series by studying an editorially-selected group of the top news publications in the U.S. 

We’ll be expanding the Digiday Subscription Index by assessing common subscription strategies across other cohorts, like entertainment and lifestyle, in subsequent installments.

The Digiday Subscription Index collects data from a list of publishers across a set of dimensions that describe their approaches to subscriptions. The index then uses three main dimensions to ascertain a publisher’s offering and subscription priorities. Dimension scores are used for categorization purposes and do not reflect positive or negative performance, but instead indicate strategies. The dimensions include the following:

• The Digital Threshold Experience examines the layers and sophistication of a publication’s subscription setup and access. Subdimensions include: paywalls/barriers, non-member accessibility, onboarding and customer support.
• Member Benefits measures a publication’s benefits and determines the value offered by the publication after the reader subscribes. Subdimensions include: member exclusives, add-ons/gifts and other perks.
• Pricing and Plans gives a picture of a publication’s pricing structure and plan complexity. Subdimensions include: pricing, plan complexity and payment options.

As our analysis expands, the index will be grouped into cohorts. This report will focus specifically on 11 companies from our first cohort: news.

Digiday found four basic gating strategies that publications use for their subscription products. Listed below is a brief description of the strategies and the publications within the news cohort that use each strategy. 

Premium Gate

• The premium paywall model requires readers to subscribe to access premium or exclusive content. Non-exclusive content has unfettered access. An important caveat: A publication can determine that all of its content is premium and create a paywall that covers all content as a result.
• Included publications: Insider, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe

Metered Gate

• A metered paywall model allows readers to access any and all content, but only up to a certain number of articles. Once the reader exhausts the meter or reaches the threshold of free content, the publication requires the reader to subscribe to access more content or wait a period of time for the number of free articles to reset.
• Included publications: L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal

Hybrid Gate

• The hybrid model combines the premium and metered models. The publication will have both non-exclusive and exclusive content. Non-exclusive content is accessible up to a certain number of pieces and exclusive content is automatically placed behind a paywall and requires a subscription to access.
• Included publications: The New York Times

Philanthropic support

• Not a traditional subscription model, but prevalent within the news cohort, these publications offer free articles regardless of a reader’s subscription status. “Subscriptions” are marketed as recurring donations or monetary support for independent journalism and sometimes offer other benefits outside of article access, such as free physical gift with purchase or ad-free reading.
• Included publications: USA Today, BuzzFeed, The Guardian, Salon, Vox

Digiday’s analysis of pricing and plans gives us a picture of a publication’s pricing structure and plan complexity. Pricing, the largest component of this dimension, measures publishers’ base annual price for a subscription at the lowest tier, if tiered, in addition to their new-member discount. The other large component of the dimension, plan complexity, notes publications’ subscription tiering system and records the general makeup of each tier.

When it comes to price, non-philanthropically supported publications averaged an annual base price of $237.67. However, that annual price dropped significantly when new-member discounts were applied, with the average discount percentage at 60% and the average discounted price at $82.85. 

The pricing structure made sense when taking into account auto-renewal. All publications in the index have auto-renew set as the default option, indicating news publications heavily rely on the new-member discount to attract readers and then auto-renew at higher prices to increase lifetime value. Rather than setting their sights on larger short-term gains, the indexed publications have long-term goals for their subscription revenues. The lower initial price also helps expand the addressable audience for ads and other competing or complementary revenue streams, as it not only brings in direct revenue, but also expands circulation.

Within the price sub-dimension, The Washington Post has the lowest base annual price of indexed publications, excluding philanthropically supported publications, and offered the average new-member discount rate at 60% off the annual base. On the opposite end, The Wall Street Journal has the most expensive annual base price. Despite sitting at different ends of the pricing range, both publications were neck-and-neck in terms of plan complexity. The two showcase best in class examples of creating layers of content access, enticing readers to move through each layer to reach more premium tiers.

The Washington Post’s most premium tier gives readers access to e-books written by its journalists – a benefit not shared by standard tiers. More generally, the publication employs a premium gating strategy that features a total lock-out format, meaning all content on the site is treated as exclusive and sits behind a paywall. This strategy almost necessitates its low base pricing and high new-member discount. 

Essentially, paying a low price to get full access to content that would normally be completely gated is a clear, binary decision for a customer to make. This also allows the publication to create a steady revenue stream from subscriptions while still maintaining a large enough audience for ad impressions since the barrier to entry – price – is low for customers. This gives The Washington Post the ability to balance both revenue streams. 

The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, uses a metered gating strategy offering a select number of free articles to non-subscribers. After going through those, readers can register to create a free account to gain access to a few more free articles – essentially extending the meter. This pushes the reader further down the subscription funnel without jumping immediately to asking a reader to pay. 

This registration strategy offers two solutions: It increases total traffic to help support the publication’s ad revenue and the additional first-party data from free accounts is useful to the publication for honing its ad targeting or providing additional monetizable audience data points. 

While The Wall Street Journal has the most expensive base annual pricing, it also has the highest new subscriber promotion discount rate at 89.74%, again allowing the publication to gain more subscribers who will then auto-renew at the higher base price. And of course, expanding circulation with a low entry price will always support the ad business. Additionally, the publication offers different subscription tiers with access to additional member benefits at the higher tier.

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both take a tiered, complex approach to their plans, offering a higher volume of benefits at their premium tiers. But alongside their lower entry-level or new-member discount pricing, they both seem to prioritize access to the largest number of potential subscribers by offering affordable, more accessible ways to become a member – at least initially.

Within our larger member benefits dimension, the members-exclusive benefits sub-dimension tracks the content only available to subscribers as a way of measuring value added by the publication to its subscription package. The most common member-exclusive benefits (outside of article content) included an app, online events, podcasts and webinars. The least common were research-focused benefits such as research products (e.g. trends reports) and raw data. This trend could potentially be explained by the more general reader of most news publications preferring more accessible insights, seeking content in an already-distilled format. 

In that way, a publication’s array of member-exclusive benefits also reflects its target audience. The L.A. Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune are all more regionally focused publications that offer some of the fewest member-exclusive benefits in the news cohort, excluding philanthropically supported publications, while also having some of the most expensive base annual subscription prices, only surpassed by The Wall Street Journal and rivaled by The New York Times. 

Of the member-exclusive benefits offered, the benefits usually consist of member-exclusive discounts at affiliated stores and an app accessible only to members. With regionally focused content, fewer member benefits and a higher price point, those publications likely focus on a targeted editorial strategy where the articles they write relate heavily to their regional audiences – enticing a smaller potential audience pool through relevance and utility.

The L.A. Times had the lowest number of member-exclusive benefits in the regional grouping. Instead, it largely focuses on delivering local content. Recently, the publication launched a team called 404 that focuses on creating content on TikTok and Instagram. Samantha Melbourneweaver, The L.A. Times’ assistant managing editor for audience, notes that the goal of the team is to reach people who “don’t subscribe to the [L.A.] Times, don’t know about the [L.A.] Times, that are in L.A. – who are young and people of color and get their news on social media” – aligning with the focus of high-value regionally-rooted content to match its high base annual pricing. While the 404 team primarily focuses on creating digital content unfettered by the paywall, this content does influence and cross over to site coverage at times. 

The L.A. Times also offers events specifically geared toward local audiences, a member benefit in line with its editorial sections on food, drink and entertainment in the area, including a recent ranking of the best restaurants and drinks in the area for 2022. All of this content on local events and restaurants also counts toward the metered gating strategy. As with many of the other regional publications, the L.A. Times does prominently highlight these beats on the homepage and in the main navigation bar on its website.

While the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune use a metered gating strategy, The Boston Globe uses a premium gating strategy in the form of a total lock-out paywall. With its premium pricing, the publication also offers more member events and even includes an annual members summit. With high prices, select premium membership benefits and a heavy gating strategy, the publication similarly has to hyper focus on its regional market and create very relevant, useful content in order to drive subscription revenue, as digital ad revenue will likely remain relatively low due to lower traffic from the strict paywall. 

Both the L.A. Times and Boston Globe use similar strategies despite having different gating methods. The Chicago Tribune, however, uses a slightly different approach, with a higher base annual price and lower new-member discount rate compared to its competitors. Like the other two publications, the Chicago Tribune is regionally focused. It differs in strategy by offering a high new-member discount rate and, likely, relying on auto-renew at the higher base price. Overall though, with fewer member-exclusive benefits, regional publications focus on local audiences with content geared toward that extended community and an emphasis on saturating a smaller subscription market.

On the opposite end of the member-exclusive benefits spectrum, publications with a higher and more sophisticated number of benefits can use them to target specific use cases, often building their premium tier(s) around professional audiences. This strategy is in contrast to publications with a medium amount of member benefits, which usually focus on a wider audience of more general readers, such as The New York Times.

Based on their set of member-exclusive benefits, both Insider and The Wall Street Journal target professional audiences that need more business information to aid in decision making. Of the two, Insider offers a greater number of unique member-exclusive benefits. Insider also uses a premium gating strategy where the majority of content is accessible to non-subscribers, but it gates premium content that is the most pertinent to its audience. 

Within its portfolio of member benefits, Insider uniquely publishes member-exclusive research products, such as trend reports, and offers members-only access to data, such as raw data included in charts. This combination of premium content relevant to subscribers and research-focused benefits positions Insider’s subscription as an expert information resource. Member-exclusive research products were rarely used by other publications, setting Insider’s target subscribers apart from those of other publications in the index. 

Insider’s emphasis on research aims for a niche subscriber interested in in-depth news and, as its name suggests, insider information about trends and events affecting a key set of industries. It also sets up Insider to offer industry-focused events featuring said research or data, where the publication can gain revenue through both ticket sales and brand sponsorships and, depending on the event, provide member access. 

At the pinnacle of the members-exclusive benefits sub-dimension – at least in terms of the volume of offerings – is The Wall Street Journal. When compared to Insider, The Wall Street Journal goes slightly deeper in the targeting of some of its member-exclusive features by focusing on professionals specifically employed in the finance industry. Again, The Wall Street Journal has the most expensive base annual price, biasing its subscription toward those with means to pay for it, like its finance audience. By adding more member benefits for this rarefied group – like member-exclusive events and exclusive e-books that focus heavily on economics and finance – the publication adds further value to its subscription, helping to justify the high price point.

Of course, a focus on a specific audience is rarely an all-or-nothing strategy. By offering a higher volume of more targeted member benefits exclusively at higher subscription tiers, a publication can still benefit from access to the largest number of potential subscribers by offering lower, more accessible tiers with fewer benefits.

The digital threshold experience dimension measures the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of an existing gating strategy and non-subscriber engagement employed by a publication. Within the dimension, the higher the score, the more thorough and comprehensive the publication’s paywall and pre-subscription customer service tools. A thorough or comprehensive digital threshold does not necessarily mean that content is difficult to access. Instead, it looks at the build of the publication’s content access strategy, such as the number of free articles prior to subscribing or the number of steps in the subscription process.

A publisher with a comprehensive digital threshold has an existing gating strategy in place, a paywall that allows some form of non-member content access, a quick onboarding process and strong customer support during and after onboarding. The dimension comprises the following sub-dimensions: 

• Barriers: The depth and thoroughness of gating strategies.
• Non-member access: If and how readers can access content without subscribing. 
• Onboarding: How easily and quickly a reader can subscribe and get beyond the paywall.
• Customer support: Which customer support and retention features are available. 

Along their subscription journey, readers typically encounter the barrier and non-member access sub-dimensions first. The barrier sub-dimension looks at whether or not the publication has a gating strategy in place along with any messaging, such as CTA’s, within the paywalls. All non-philanthropically supported publications had a fairly standard overlay of some sort that blocked non-members from accessing content accompanied by a call to action. As a result, news publications scored very evenly here.

Publications varied their strategies the most in their approach to non-member access. Those that had a less comprehensive gating strategy immediately blocked readers from accessing content – a total lock-out strategy. This approach, utilized by The Washington Post and Boston Globe, can feel one dimensional since it only utilizes the basic functionality of a paywall. But it may be effective for publications that want to prioritize subscription revenue by emphasizing the premium nature of its entire offering. 

On the other side, the L.A. Times employs its paywall more deftly. The publication offers metered access to free articles for non-subscribed readers that resets after seven days – the shortest reset period of all news publications Digiday measured. (All others reset at 30 days.) The shorter reset time helps encourage more readers to return and, therefore, increases site traffic – an important aspect for the L.A. Times due to its reliance on a regional audience. The L.A. Times doesn’t have the deep national audience pool that The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times have to generate more impressions for advertisers.

The L.A. Times was also one of the few publications that offered additional free articles  – essentially a meter extension – to users who register for a free account. This “registration wall” tactic gives the publication access to additional first-party data that is collected in the sign-up process, which can then be used to bolster ad-targeting capabilities and serve more relevant content to its user base. In tandem with the previous strategies, the regional publication was also one of two that offered a one-step quick sign-in and account creation, using third-party options like “sign in with Google.”

Along with providing the L.A. Times with additional first-party data, the registration wall approach boosts advertising impressions. Layered over its short reset time, it’s clearly important for the L.A. Times to get as many users in the door as possible, potentially to allow its advertising business to continue to complement and support a somewhat region-locked subscription product.

Onboarding and customer service make up the other half of the digital threshold experience that readers encounter after paywalls. The onboarding sub-dimension mainly looked at the speed at which readers could finish the subscription process based on the number of steps on the subscription page. With all publications having between two and four steps for subscription, a  streamlined subscription process is table stakes. Most publications scored evenly for onboarding.

More variation was present in the customer support offerings, which looked at both acquisition and retention. All national publications – The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Insider – had feature frequently asked questions during the subscription process to help customers along the purchase journey. The FAQs were general, typically covering payment methods and cancellations. Interestingly, regional publications did not highlight this feature on the subscription page.

The New York Times scored particularly well in this sub-dimension and stands as a best-in-class example of using customer support as part of a subscription strategy. One point in its favor: The New York Times was the only publication that offered a dedicated support contact for subscribers. This strategy makes sense for The Times when looking at its complete digital threshold strategy, which centers on retention to ensure recurring subscription revenue.

The New York Times has a mid-level annual base price of $221 and a high new-member discount rate of ​​70.6%, offering a medium amount of member benefits. However, unlike its neighbor in the index, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times offers a single tier that gives access to all content and benefits. 

Compared to other indexed publications that used member exclusivity and tiered access strategies, The New York Times has chosen simplicity in its pricing and plans. The publication also offers a meter for free article access that resets every 30 days. Like the L.A. Times, this reset time provides The New York Times with non-subscriber traffic for advertisers every month. Unlike the L.A. Times, The New York Times can allow for a longer period before the reset due to its global appeal and its focus on its subscription product and the large scale it’s achieved  – currently 9.17 million subscribers.

In short, it can go “all in” on subscribers in ways other publications cannot. Overall, The New York Times focuses on an easy to understand offering with a thorough digital threshold strategy rooted in retention.

While philanthropic support is not a traditional subscription strategy, Digiday thought it fitting to cover the approach here briefly, as this was a fairly common strategy for reader-direct revenue within our news publisher cohort. Expectedly, within the full index, publications that were philanthropically supported deviated most in strategy across the three dimensions. 

Predictably, the philanthropic publications primarily focus on advertising and sponsored content revenue streams, as direct payments from readers are completely optional. Without a mandatory subscription offering, the publications do not require digital thresholds and give access to all readers, increasing site traffic. This strategy increases the opportunity for more traffic to content, which also increases the opportunity for other revenue streams to benefit, like commerce and licensing..

This is not to say, however, that they do not have strategies to encourage readers to contribute to an optional subscription program. BuzzFeed’s subscription page uses a similar strategy to those of some non-philanthropic publications. It prominently highlights two member features on its page: a physical gift with purchase and member-exclusive emails. 

Vox takes a similar tactic by offering member-exclusive newsletters. The publication focuses its language on donating to support independent journalism. Vox’s website states that “a gift of any amount helps keep Vox’s unique explanatory journalism free for all, and supports our mission to empower our readers through understanding. All Vox contributors get email updates with insights into how we do our work, the impact of our reporting and opportunities to get involved with our journalism and connect with our journalists.” Vox extensively highlights its mission statement to appeal to readers to donate. 

Another common strategy among donation-based publications is ad-free reading. Both USA Today and Salon offer that feature for subscribers. While articles can be accessed without a subscription, the two publications ease the reader experience by removing ads for subscribers. This strategy, similar to those of streaming platforms like Spotify or Hulu, gives an incentive for readers to pay for the service, but also allows the publication to continue to build out its ad revenue stream. USA Today in particular also offers a package with SiriusXM Streaming, similar to how some paid-publishers’ sites offer bundle subscriptions across publications. 

All in all, philanthropic publications primarily make money from ads. However, the group offers a good opportunity to look at publishers that draw from other strategies to build out a subscription base. The strategies employed can be seen as strong incentives for readers, since paying to read is optional.

Tiered plans often focus on accessibility through a low base price or high discount rate

• News publications with a high base annual price may compensate with high plan complexity, such as a high new-member discount percentage to attract consumers into auto-renewing at a higher rate long-term. 
• High plan complexity but a lower base price means the publication’s strategy is to offer a lot at the highest levels, but prioritize access to the largest number of potential subscribers through lower, more accessible tiers. 

Member-exclusive benefits determine the audience – and its scale

• With fewer member-exclusive benefits, regional publications focus on local audiences with content geared toward that group and an emphasis on scaling subscriptions with a geographically-limited pool of prospects.
• With more specialized member benefits, news publications that target specific – often professional – audiences are able to draw those types of readers into subscribing by offering relevant benefits that increase overall product value. 

Gating strategies affect revenue streams and diversification 

• Total lock-out gating strategies are effective for publications that want to position their total offering as premium, moving content behind paywalls to boost subscription revenue at all costs.
• Metered gating strategies can be expanded to provide publications with additional first-party data through free account registration. The additional traffic can also boost advertising impressions.

Publications with wide appeal need strong customer support – or scale

• Due to a lack of specialized offerings and focus on a wide, often global, audience, more general news publications require strong customer support to retain paying readers to keep subscription counts high – unless they have the scale to swallow subscriber churn.

Working with Flowcode positions Skkn by Kim for connecting “with our consumers, driving purchases and measuring the impact of the campaign with real-time analytics,” Kardashian told Digiday. The brand’s target audience for the QR code campaign is 18-to-55-year-old women who have an interest in skincare, beauty and fashion.

According to Kardashian, roughly 90% of the ad spend for the campaign is dedicated to streaming and linear TV, with the rest going toward out-of-home. With that said, it’s a 360-degree campaign that includes in-store, outdoor, TV and social placements, with the majority of the ad spend taking place on TV and digital channels, since those are the places Skkn By Kim’s consumers are spending their time. 

“Our goal with this campaign was to meet customers where they are to drive brand conversions and capture CRM for the brand,” said Kardashian.

In addition to the ad spot, the brand promoted its skincare through holiday pop-ups at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles last month to encourage shoppers to sign up to be part of Skkn by Kim’s community and get sneak peeks of new launches as well as exclusive benefits such as early access to new products.

For Skkn by Kim’s QR code campaign, recent privacy changes factored into the brand’s decision to partner with Flowcode. “Our trust in the privacy of Flowcode’s platform was a big factor in this partnership and they are the safest QR platform and the only GDPR and CCPA compliant company on the market,” Kardashian said.

When taking privacy into account, QR codes offer Skkn by Kim and other brands an effective way to experiment with how they reach customers. In fact, 45% of shoppers in the U.S. had used QR codes for marketing purposes within the last three months as of last summer, according to a survey by Statista.

“QR codes allow users to connect with brands they want to know better, and brands get access to the interested customers through pixels for Facebook, TikTok and Google ad retargeting,” said Lauren Petrullo, founder of digital marketing agency Mongoose Media. “It allows for personalized advertising when layered in with GeoLocation settings and customer data from purchases made in person and a week prior.”

As Skkn by Kim expands its product line in 2023, the brand is keen on entering new categories, as it did with its recent launch of home accessories with the goal of creating a seamless experience in which customers can purchase all of the brand’s offerings on its website. “We hope to continue to develop and expand our product range with expertly-crafted and universally-loved products that are performance driven and fill gaps in the market,” said Kardashian.

Before we look ahead to 2023 (our next Marketing Briefing will be out Jan. 2), we wanted to look back on the big trends of 2022. Read on below:

Flexibility amid economic uncertainty

Over the last few years, the marketing community has been dealing with uncertainty — when will the pandemic truly end and things get back to normal (if ever), when will we return to offices and with that more normal consumer behavior, etc. Over the last six months or so, that uncertainty has been more focused on the economy. The ups and downs of the market, the expectation for a recession the conflicting reports making it more difficult for marketers to read where people’s heads will be at and what they should be doing with their advertising — it’s all been uncertain. With that being the case, much of the second half of this past year has been about flexibility and tighter deal windows. That push for flexibility has been commonplace over the last few years and it’ll likely continue next year. 

Continued rise of TikTok

There’s no denying it — TikTok’s continued rise throughout 2022 made it the golden child of the platforms this year. Marketers moved the platform out of their experimental budgets to be a budget staple as they want to show up where consumers are spending more time, especially Gen Z consumers. That’s not to say that TikTok is without its problems — marketers have detailed issues with ad reps as well as complained about attribution issues. At the same time, lawmakers are considering banning the platform. Whether that comes to fruition, only time will tell, but TikTok is on marketers’ minds and informing how they are not only spending social media ad dollars but thinking about how they should make their ads.

Twitter insanity

TikTok wasn’t the only social platform to make waves in 2022. Marketers have had to keep a close eye on the behind-the-scenes (and no-so behind-the-scenes) drama of Twitter as Elon Musk took over the platform. It’s been a tumultuous few months, with advertisers pulling back spending out of brand safety concerns and a sense that Musk is using a trial by fire way of leadership with changes announced and reverted within a matter of days or even hours. It’s certainly been tricky for marketers and their social media managers) — some of whom have been called out by Musk — who are still spending on the platform.

Earned media

As part of the shift of focus to TikTok and the ever-changing social media advertising landscape, many marketers, especially those working on direct-to-consumer brands, have been beefing up their earned media strategies. Some marketers said they’ve done so as it’s been more difficult for brands to compete following the privacy shifts and iOS changes that they can’t simply rely on paid social ads to do what they need. That shift isn’t unique to 2022 but it has certainly ramped up throughout the year, with many marketers saying they are spending more time creating and beefing up their earned and organic media strategies to get in front of consumers more and more.

Gen Z 

For some reason, marketers tend to focus on the younger, up-and-coming generations in the hope that maybe if they’re cool with that generation everyone else will follow? Over the last few years, the focus has moved from millennials to Gen Z as millennials have aged out of being the youngest marketer demographic. (Why marketers have continued to ignore Gen X, we will never know.) With that being the case, if you asked marketers the reason behind certain strategies like pushing for more organic media strategies, working with influencers or spending more time on TikTok, the reasoning for much of that was that they were hoping to reach Gen Z. That will likely continue next year but it was certainly a focus throughout 2022. 

Metaverse, NFTs

Throughout 2022, marketers experimented with NFTs, the metaverse, Web3, etc. None of that is surprising — marketers are always looking for the next big thing and hoping to be one of the first brands to crack it. (Remember when they thought Clubhouse would be it?) The question remains whether NFTs, the metaverse and the overall push into Web3 will be actually worth it. Do people actually want to spend time in branded hang outs in the metaverse? Unless there’s something in it for them, the answer to that question is likely a resounding no. Marketers will have to continue to find ways to make their push into these newer spaces useful for consumers otherwise adoption will likely be minimal.

3 Questions with Kelly Higgins, CMO of Doremus+Co

Doremus+Co is a B2B advertising agency that’s part of Omnicom Group

B2B marketing seems to be having a “moment.” How can B2B brands, sometimes viewed as stodgier than B2C marketers, seize it?

This is a watershed moment for the industry. There’s just an undeniable influx of interest and investment pouring into the space. There [are] new dynamics. The pace of business is evolving so fast. The amount of change that’s happening in the way we live and work is happening. B2B is the backbone of a lot of that change. It’s putting an incredible amount of pressure on B2B organizations, brands, marketers and, as an agency, on ourselves as well, to be delivering the right talent, capabilities, resources, thinking and creativity to help have an impact in that environment.

What does B2B being the backbone of recent change mean?

Things are going to change more in the next few years than they have in the last lifetime. Behind that is really technology. You’re going to see a lot of B2B industries, things like advanced manufacturing, fintech, sustainability, supply chain and logistics. They’re only going to become more indispensable over time. It’s turning a lot of heads. How do you recognize that shift and the growing importance of those things? How do you think about defining your brand and the business in a world where the future is still very much undefined? It’s a really interesting challenge for brands and organizations to have to figure out. It’s getting a lot more competitive for specialist agencies like us as that starts to happen. People are really trying to find ways to capitalize on the growth moment. There’s this need for marketers and organizations, [who are] looking to capitalize on this growth, to understand and embrace the intricacies of B2B marketing and what it takes to succeed. 

What does this look like going into 2023 budgeting?

There’s definitely more flexibility and being nimble. But an agency, we also put our money where our mouth is. We know that in times of downturn it pays off to invest in your brand, to take big bets, to tinker, to try new avenues. We’re doing just that. Yes, the budgets are tighter, but that just means you have to get a bit more creative. There’s a lot of stuff happening right now. The rewards will be reaped by those who can recognize that shift, find some smart opportunities and take a big bet on those opportunities. — Kimeko McCoy

By the numbers

The future of advertising in the metaverse has yet to be determined. What has been determined, however, is how Americans feel about it. According to new research from market research firm, Reach3 Insights, at least 72% of consumers said that seeing a product in the metaverse would make them more likely to buy it. Find more details from the report below:

• 57% of consumers describe companies with a presence in the metaverse as “innovative”; 56% as “futuristic; 51% as exciting, rounding out to be an overall 88% net positive.
• 61% say seeing their favorite brand in the metaverse would enhance a positive perception of the brand.
• Some survey respondents consider brand presence in the metaverse to be “tacky” (3%), or just a trend (15%). — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“They can’t deliver. They don’t have enough inventory to deliver. So they’re literally giving the money back.”

— agency exec when asked about Netflix’s ad-supported tier as the streamer’s ad business is off to a slow start, per Digiday reporting.

What we’ve covered

• A bill to ban TikTok is gaining traction in Congress, and with some marketers
• How the California Privacy Rights Act reshapes U.S. privacy compliance in 2023
• Journalist Aaron Rupar on the ‘chilling effect’ of being suspended by Twitter