Want to offer a special introductory rate for students and educators? Superfans of your local football team? People who’ve hit your paywall five months running? You now can through the App Store on iPad and iPhones.
Instead of taking 30% of new subscribers’ payments, it’ll take 15%. The money’s welcome, but it’s also a reminder of how little control publishers have over the terms they get from tech giants.
When McClatchy declared bankruptcy in February, its debts were crushing, but its operating numbers weren’t so bad. But the coronavirus ripped away more than a quarter of its revenue in just a few weeks.
A focus on big-swing stories and “high-intensity, highly fraught journalism” let the magazine put up traffic and subscription numbers more expected from a top national newspaper.
Two companies with similar editorial values and brands that mostly complement instead of overlap. This is the kind of smart merger we should see more of.
While local newspapers play the 2019 Consolidation Games, the national dailies are busy with the Great Digital Subscriber Race — and making sure they have the right teams and tech in place to win.
We will all benefit if the Los Angeles Times becomes a West Coast counterweight to those dailies in New York and D.C. But it’ll take a bigger investment in reader retention to get there.
Benton, Joshua. "The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 31 Jul. 2019. Web. 12 May. 2023.
APA
Benton, J. (2019, Jul. 31). The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved May 12, 2023, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/
Chicago
Benton, Joshua. "The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified July 31, 2019. Accessed May 12, 2023. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/the-l-a-times-disappointing-digital-numbers-show-the-games-not-just-about-drawing-in-subscribers-its-about-keeping-them/
| title = The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers — it’s about keeping them
| last = Benton
| first = Joshua
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 31 July 2019
| accessdate = 12 May 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Benton|2019}}
}}
