Fact is, paid
content's doing just fine
Never mind all the talk of free, ad-supported content
By Heidi Dawley
Feb 6, 2008
It wasn't exactly the Berlin Wall falling, yet it drew huge amounts of attention. It was the speculation, fed by Rupert Murdoch himself, that The Wall Street Journal's web site would go free once he took control of parent Dow Jones.
It certainly made sense. Over time more and more paid sites had gone free, AOL being one famous example.
But now it turns out that WSJ.com won't go free after all, or that's the latest word from Murdoch. Some content will be free but the site will remain largely walled.
That's not all that surprising. While in fact a number of sites have gone free, paid content is not going the way of the Berlin Wall. In fact, its future looks brighter than ever.
What is happening is that the whole murky issue of what people will pay for versus what they expect for free is being sorted out.
We know folks won't pay for information that's free in lots of other places.
They're also not inclined to pay for the pleasure of reading someone else's opinion, as The New York Times learned with its failed Select paid content platform, which walled off some of its top columnists.
But folks will pay for information that's so specialized that it can't be found anywhere else. That's especially so for specialized information that generates revenue for the subscriber, such as hot tips on the stock market.
They'll pay for content they think is clearly superior, even where similar content is free. Case in point: WSJ.com.
They will also pay for proprietary data, such as profiles of purchasers of certain products or lists of subscribers to publications.
“For the general consumer, it is tending toward free,” says Robert Andrews, editor of paidContent:UK, a site covering the digital media economy. “But people who need critical business information, and have the financial resources available to pay for it, will put that money to a trustworthy source.”
In many ways, the model emerging for WSJ.com reflects this latest thinking.
In a chat with analysts just this week, Murdoch said WSJ.com would be a mix of paid and free, the free content being the sort of general information available in lots of places, or as he put it, "basically commodities that you can get free elsewhere."
But the rest of WSJ.com, the larger share, will continue as subscription-based.
But further, Murdoch told analysts, the company will be looking to launch other paid channels offering niche information, presumably with hefty subscription fees attached.
This emerging model gives WSJ.com the revenue of a paid site--around $60 million last year alone--plus the advertising the paid site generated, and advertisers pay handsomely for that audience.
“There is definitely space for the subscription model in the growing marketplace, and you can get much higher revenue from your ad space because you have deep understanding of the customer if they subscribe,” says Charlie Symmons, digital advertising lead in Europe, Asia and Latin America for Accenture, a consultancy.
But WSJ.com also gets the wonderful promotional value that comes with the flush of visitors to its free content, in addition to the advertising revenue it generates.
This is similar to the model recently adopted by the Financial Times. After considering going free, the FT decided to remain largely paid but allow casual users to view up to 30 articles a month at no cost.
Another area where people are willing to pay, as Murdoch suggests, is for micro-niche content, which is to say newsletters. The number of newsletters online has increased in the last few years, according to Paul Swift, editor of The Newsletter on Newsletters, and many of them are paid.
Indeed, for newsletters, the internet is a virtual gift, changing the economics of publishing in the publisher's favor.
Publishing online saves on postage, paper and printing and the labor that goes into mailing newsletters to subscribers, and those costs are hefty.
At the same time, fishing for new subscribers is lots cheaper and far more efficient, using search advertising, among other methods.
All this means that newsletters that could never have worked in print can do very well as online publications. They can make far more money from subscriptions than they could as free, ad-supported newsletters.
“One of the most common questions I get asked from new online publishers is how to switch from free to paid,” says Swift.
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Jan. 27, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.
NexTag was the No. 1 advertiser with 7.6 million impressions, followed by No. 2 Experian Group Limited at 5.9 million. With 34.6 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 AOL.com at 1.5 million.
Sessions per person per week were even to the previous week at 17, and domains visited per person were up one to 42. PC time per person slid down 1 percent compared with the previous week, to 18 hours and 24 minutes.
|
Top 25 parent companies
Through Jan. 27 |
|
#
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1
|
Google
|
85,707
|
62.3
|
0:35:47
|
|
2
|
Microsoft
|
84,456
|
61.4
|
0:48:18
|
|
3
|
Yahoo!
|
77,672
|
56.5
|
1:06:26
|
|
4
|
Time Warner
|
69,058
|
50.2
|
1:27:32
|
|
5
|
News Corp. Online
|
42,784
|
31.1
|
0:49:25
|
|
6
|
eBay
|
34,275
|
24.9
|
0:54:30
|
|
7
|
InterActiveCorp
|
30,567
|
22.2
|
0:11:46
|
|
8
|
Amazon
|
25,202
|
18.3
|
0:14:27
|
|
9
|
Wikimedia Foundation
|
24,669
|
17.9
|
0:09:55
|
|
10
|
Apple Computer
|
24,195
|
17.6
|
0:33:08
|
|
11
|
Walt Disney Internet Group
|
23,118
|
16.8
|
0:21:24
|
|
12
|
Landmark Communications
|
22,519
|
16.4
|
0:09:22
|
|
13
|
New York Times Company
|
22,424
|
16.3
|
0:10:04
|
|
14
|
AT&T Inc.
|
17,346
|
12.6
|
0:24:19
|
|
15
|
RealNetworks, Inc.
|
15,249
|
11.1
|
0:18:29
|
|
16
|
E.W. Scripps Company
|
14,903
|
10.8
|
0:06:15
|
|
17
|
Comcast Corp.
|
13,044
|
9.5
|
0:27:51
|
|
18
|
Bank of America
|
12,301
|
9.0
|
0:23:45
|
|
19
|
CNET Networks
|
12,296
|
8.9
|
0:06:59
|
|
20
|
United Online
|
11,918
|
8.7
|
0:29:50
|
|
21
|
Verizon Communications
|
11,521
|
8.4
|
0:21:15
|
|
22
|
Viacom Digital
|
11,357
|
8.3
|
0:25:52
|
|
23
|
Gannett
|
10,606
|
7.7
|
0:12:39
|
|
24
|
General Electric
|
10,566
|
7.7
|
0:08:25
|
|
25
|
Facebook
|
10,471
|
7.6
|
0:30:15
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online
|
|
Top 25 brands
Through Jan. 27 |
|
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1 |
Google
|
79,555
|
57.9
|
0:27:37
|
|
2 |
Yahoo!
|
76,897
|
55.9
|
1:06:39
|
|
3 |
MSN/Windows Live
|
61,871
|
45.0
|
0:46:18
|
|
4 |
AOL Media Network
|
56,349
|
41.0
|
1:36:01
|
|
5 |
Microsoft
|
53,806
|
39.1
|
0:21:59
|
|
6 |
Fox Interactive Media
|
36,476
|
26.5
|
0:53:42
|
|
7 |
YouTube
|
30,720
|
22.3
|
0:22:35
|
|
8 |
eBay
|
28,252
|
20.6
|
0:58:58
|
|
9 |
Wikipedia
|
24,669
|
17.9
|
0:09:50
|
|
10 |
Apple
|
24,195
|
17.6
|
0:33:08
|
|
11 |
Weather Channel
|
20,182
|
14.7
|
0:09:21
|
|
12 |
Amazon
|
20,060
|
14.6
|
0:14:09
|
|
13 |
CNN Digital Network
|
18,388
|
13.4
|
0:20:41
|
|
14 |
Ask Search Network
|
17,168
|
12.5
|
0:13:42
|
|
15 |
Blogger
|
16,064
|
11.7
|
0:08:36
|
|
16 |
Real Network
|
15,249
|
11.1
|
0:18:28
|
|
17 |
About.com
|
13,577
|
9.9
|
0:03:36
|
|
18 |
AT&T
|
12,134
|
8.8
|
0:30:41
|
|
19 |
Bank of America
|
11,896
|
8.7
|
0:23:55
|
|
20 |
Disney Online
|
10,486
|
7.6
|
0:25:32
|
|
21 |
Facebook
|
10,471
|
7.6
|
0:30:15
|
|
22 |
Craigslist
|
10,455
|
7.6
|
0:40:03
|
|
23 |
IMDb - Internet Movie Database
|
10,030
|
7.3
|
0:07:55
|
|
24 |
Chase
|
9,879
|
7.2
|
0:16:17
|
|
25 |
Comcast
|
9,773
|
7.1
|
0:34:50
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online |
|
Top 25 advertisers
(excludes house ads)
Through Jan. 27 |
|
#
|
Company
|
Impressions (000)
|
|
1 |
NexTag, Inc.
|
7,631,547
|
|
2 |
Experian Group Limited
|
5,936,656
|
|
3 |
Netflix, Inc.
|
4,650,588
|
|
4 |
Low Rate Source
|
2,677,735
|
|
5 |
InterActiveCorp
|
2,179,789
|
|
6 |
Vonage Holdings Corp
|
1,789,422
|
|
7 |
Countrywide Financial Corporation
|
1,487,327
|
|
8 |
Apollo Group, Inc.
|
1,266,080
|
|
9 |
Echostar Communications Corporation
|
920,223
|
|
10 |
AT&T Corp.
|
807,038
|
|
11 |
HSBC Holdings plc
|
795,381
|
|
12 |
eBay, Inc.
|
695,869
|
|
13 |
Scottrade, Inc.
|
621,985
|
|
14 |
Low.com
|
606,426
|
|
15 |
Verizon Communications, Inc.
|
528,794
|
|
16 |
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
|
479,852
|
|
17 |
Target Corporation
|
476,619
|
|
18 |
Citigroup Inc.
|
475,392
|
|
19 |
Wachovia Corporation
|
463,812
|
|
20 |
TaxACT
|
458,324
|
|
21 |
Intuit, Inc.
|
392,999
|
|
22 |
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
|
384,778
|
|
23 |
Fidelity Investments
|
364,762
|
|
24 |
General Motors Corporation
|
364,596
|
|
25 |
TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation
|
350,843
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service. |
|
Top 25 advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Through Jan. 27 |
|
|
Company
|
Impressions (000)
|
|
1 |
Yahoo!
|
34,632,002
|
|
2 |
AOL.com
|
1,522,971
|
|
3 |
MSN
|
1,447,277
|
|
4 |
MSNBC
|
976,087
|
|
5 |
MySpace
|
926,721
|
|
6 |
Comcast.net
|
617,949
|
|
7 |
eBay
|
610,261
|
|
8 |
CNN
|
561,151
|
|
9 |
The Weather Channel
|
516,283
|
|
10 |
NeoPets
|
497,590
|
|
11 |
IMDb
|
476,326
|
|
12 |
Home & Garden Television
|
473,756
|
|
13 |
FOXNEWS.COM
|
462,076
|
|
14 |
New York Times
|
458,570
|
|
15 |
Photobucket
|
354,373
|
|
16 |
NetZero
|
339,830
|
|
17 |
Juno
|
322,004
|
|
18 |
Facebook
|
311,362
|
|
19 |
Amazon
|
278,372
|
|
20 |
CNN Money
|
277,207
|
|
21 |
MyPoints
|
245,656
|
|
22 |
Excite
|
188,753
|
|
23 |
Drudge Report
|
168,336
|
|
24 |
EarthLink
|
163,396
|
|
25 |
ESPN.com
|
133,461
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service. |
|
Average use
Through Jan. 27 |
|
|
Current Week
|
Last Week
|
% Change
|
|
Sessions/Visits per Person
|
17
|
17
|
0
|
|
Domains Visited per Person
|
42
|
41
|
2.44
|
|
PC Time per Person
|
18:24:06
|
18:36:59
|
-1.15
|
|
Active Digital Media Universe
|
137,483,292
|
137,311,600
|
0.13
|
|
Current Digital Media Universe Estimate
|
220,170,642
|
220,192,326
|
-0.01
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online |
|
|
|
