Paywall 2.0: Rationing Immediacy of Access to Drive Newspaper Subscriptions Rather Than Quantity

Here is my suggestion for those in the Newspaper industry mulling over new revenue models. Firstly forget about charging for News. It is a commodity. Try to make money off the ads surrounding the news. Analysis however is different. Some newspapers, such as the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal attempt to drive subscription revenue by rationing either the length or the quantity of free articles. However, there is another dimension that can be rationed, that I believe is more appropriate. That is immediacy of access.

It could work like this. Step 1. When a punter comes to a newspaper website and wishes to see an analysis piece, display a portion, say 25% of the article without asking for an email address. Step 2, if they wish to see the remainder, ask for an email address and display it. Step 3, if they wish to see another article, display the initial 25% but this time, when they ask to see the remainder, invite them to subscribe but tell them that they will receive an email link to the article for free, say five minutes later. Step 4, if they ask to see other articles in a defined period of time, repeat the process with ever lengthening time intervals. At some point, the user will decide that not waiting an hour or two for access is worth the price of the paper.

The beauty of this approach is that it overcomes the problem of newspapers hiding their light behind a bushel. The best advertising for the quality of the analysis in an article, is of course the article itself. The pay first, look at the quality later approach, is self defeating. A newspaper has to rely only on the quality of its brand (or a convoluted free trial period) to entice usage. With this approach, the article is always available to the user, albeit time delayed, so the user does not moan about paywalls, and gets to appreciate that quality analysis has a value.

A value that should be paid for.

Considering that most other models have not worked, it might be worth a shot.

Shane

How to Make All World Cup Matches Knock out While Still Guaranteeing a Minimum of Two Games to Each Country

Okay so the world cup has got to the interesting bit – the knock out stages and I have started watching. All the meaningless tedium and those nil – nil draws are over and every match is win or go home. Imagine if the World Cup could be like this right from the first match.

Well here is how it could be.

Step one, increase the number of teams to 40. The opening round then consists of 20 matches between these 40 teams. This gives us 20 winners who automatically qualify for the next round and 20 losers. The losers then play off in a “repechage” ( I borrowed the word from rowing). This consists of 10 matches between the first round losers. The winners of these matches go forward to the next round to give a total of 30 going through with 10 hoping for a wild card slot. There are two wild card slots required to bring the numbers in the next round up to 32.  One of these wildcard slots is reserved for the hosts should they need it. They simple take the slot if they lose either of their first two matches. In this way the hosts are guaranteed 3 matches. The remaining wild card slot (or 2 if the hosts do not need the benefit of it) goes to the first and second round losing team with the best record as determined by a formula.

A simple formula would be the number of points won by the team based on performances in normal time. IE, a country that goes into extra time twice in the first two matches would have two points. Goals scored would then be used as a tie breaker.

Naturally, if you lose your first match, you are more likely to face a strong team in the next round.

So what are the advantages. Well here is my cut.

1.       - An extra 8 countries in the world cup.

2.       - Total matches reduced from 79 to 61.

3.      -  Best case is only 6 matches required to win the tournament, down from 8.

And best of all, no draws. Every match has a winner – and the stakes are much higher. After the frist match, if you lose, you are most likely to be going home.

Shane

Apple Co Founder Solves Problem of Lack of MultiTasking and Poor Battery Life on I-Phone

No not Steve Jobs, the other one, Steve Wozniak, affectionately known as "Woz" To quote:-

WOZ: By the way, I solved the problem of battery life and [the lack of] multitasking on the iPhone.

Interviewer: Really?

Woz: Yeah. I just have two iPhones, so if the battery runs down on the first one, I can use the other. And if I'm talking on one, I can use the other one to look something up. You would not believe how much use I get out of that.

See

http://www.newsweek.com/id/235567

US Overtook Russia as Worlds Largest Gas Producer last Year

Two interesting articles on Shale Natural Gas which is a new method of extracting Gas from Shale rocks via process called "Fracking".

Apparently the US overtook Russia as the world's largest producer of Natural Gas and it promises to make the US energy self sufficient for the next 100 years.

Articles from The Economist and The Financial Times,

Imagine turning your Nokia Phone into a WIFI Router - For Free.

Sounds incredible, but that is what you can do with Joikuspot. (www.joikushop.com)

I just downloaded it, installed it in 2 minutes and had my laptop on the web straight away. There is a premium edition for 9 euros.

Strikes me that this is an excellent corporate solution for companies wondering what is the best way to give their employees laptops mobile internet access.

S