The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) appreciates the opportunity to submit comments on proposed rulemaking around cybersecurity audits, risk assessments, and automated decision making (ADM).
Brand Purpose, Price, Content Variation and Exclusivity Help Bring in New Subscribers
Through two years of reader research, The Atlantic determined that people who are familiar with their brand appreciate the content range that it offers. So in marketing emails to prospective subscribers, they emphasize that range. “The reader needs help me stay intentional in how we’re using our readers’ time,” said senior editor Isabel Fattal.
Why do people subscribe? One reason is to jump on a bandwagon such as ChatGPT. Another is if they like a product and want to get even more of it. Axios built a national platform with an elite audience—and then added a high-end subscription business, Axios Pro. Another reason is to get something they can’t get anywhere else.
In The Atlantic’s deep dive into their subscribers’ journeys, they found this: “Our data science team has seen that ‘lighter’ topics tend to appear earlier in a person’s path to becoming a subscriber, and that ‘weightier’ topics tend to be the reads immediately before a person makes a decision to subscribe,” they wrote. “We don’t lean toward one of these over the other; rather, it’s the overall composition of topics a reader spends time with that matters most in driving return visits and subscriptions.”
It’s not B2B, but the Press Gazette reported on a Yougov poll that surveyed American readers to see what makes them pay for a subscription. Lower price won out at 42%, followed by ad-free browsing (33%), exclusive content (26%), group subscription (23%) and better user experience (22%).
Asked what types of content are worth paying for, Americans answered: entertainment (movies, TV, music, etc. (41%), education/learning (31%), news (21%) and lifestyle – food, fashion, cooking, etc. (17%).
And factors that would make readers less likely to pay for a subscription include: high price (60%); too many ads (52%), poor user experience (45%) and lack of exclusive content (29%).
Here are more ways to help gain subscribers:
Embrace the state of the world—brand purpose matters. The Atlantic built on the success of Robinson Meyer’s climate change newsletter The Weekly Planet to introduce a slew of writer-driven subscriber newsletters. As organizations struggle to attract and/or maintain younger readers/members, 62% of marketers “at least sometimes change the tone of an email in reaction to what’s happening around the world.” Sustainability, DEI and climate change are all huge issues today, particularly for young people—83% of millennials say it’s important that companies they buy from also align with their values, and 73% of 35-54 year olds and 60% of 55+ year olds agree.
Know what you’re good at and market that. The Atlantic’s top-performing marketing emails list content examples that demonstrate their topic range: why Down Syndrome is disappearing in Denmark; “how American private schools became so obscene”; how testimonies from formerly enslaved people were almost lost; the dark side of houseplants; “why you should cancel Amazon Prime”; the case against America’s national parks. “These are just a few of the bold ideas you’ll find in The Atlantic…” the letter continues.
Help readers discover new ideas. “We’ve become collectors of stories about how The Atlantic has turned people onto unexpected areas of interest, including natural world phenomena, the history of public education in the United States, and the inner workings of the British royal family.” They also praise the ability of print magazines to immerse the reader “into a story on a subject you knew little about and adjacency (stumbling upon an unfamiliar topic).”
Give your audience a change of pace or pertinent distractions. “When they come to us, they’re not looking to zone out. They’re looking for novel approaches into big picture topics.” So while The Atlantic knows they’re not Saturday Night Live, they’re also not the Congressional Record. I noticed a crossword on their homepage today, articles on tattoos and the rise of gender-neutral names, and book recommendations. What do you have that offers your readers a “meaningful break”?
Become more innovative. Organizations report that they have taken initiatives to focus more on innovation. This has entailed focusing more on communication and collaboration (62%, up from 53% in 2020), providing encouragement to innovative employees (52%, up from 38%), and driving innovation from the top down (45%, up from 41% in 2020). However, only 20% of executives report that their organization has a process in place to encourage innovation and new ideas. More than half (54%) say they do not.
Personalize the experience. According to Litmus, 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences, and 83% of customers are willing to share their data to create a more personalized experience. That also means more segmentation. More than 65% of marketers are creating at least two versions of an email on average. Nearly 16% are creating four or more. “Run an A/B test with your subscribers, with and without personalization, then look at your analytics to see how subscribers engage with both emails,” they advise.
‘We Are Clear on Our Responsibility’; Publishers Set Course for Sustainability
“[Young people] want to align with brands that share a vision and a mission with them and they’re willing to pay more for that—and that’s where sustainability comes into play,” growth strategist Robyn Duda said last year. “If we don’t start doing it now, there’ll be a disrupter that comes in and turns things upside down.”
AI has been grabbing all the headlines lately, but a Washington Post front page this week surely caused eyes to widen: World Near Cataclysmic Threshold, U.N. Warns. “Beyond that threshold, scientists have found, climate disasters will become so extreme that people will not be able to adapt.”
Coincidentally—or not perhaps—today Questex “unveiled its roadmap to reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for both the company and its events.” Called Quest Zero, it will aim to “drive positive change across the communities it serves and live up to its mission to serve the communities that are helping people live longer and live better.” See their Quest Zero Visitor Tips here.
“Although we are a mid-market company in terms of overall revenue, we do have a significant business in the events industry,” Paul Miller, CEO, Questex, said in a statement. “We understand the economic and social benefits of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time, we are clear on our responsibility to minimize the climate impacts that the live events industry generates. Our team is passionate about this topic, we are proud of the strategies we have put in place and we are committed to transparent and accurate reporting.”
While AI users will have to ensure that diversity is accounted for, similar warnings have been sounded for sustainability. “We know that the journalism and information space as a whole is looking for spaces for sustainability, so if we don’t have unique and diverse voices in these rooms, how do we know what to solve for?” asked Sherrell Dorsey, founder and CEO of The Plug, last year. “How do we think creatively about the solutions on the table?”
Here are more sustainability initiatives among publishers:
Set goals. In 2021, Bauer Media published its Sustainability Playbook. Included are ways they are “Influencing Sustainability” in their Lifestyle, Outdoors, B2B Automotive, Fashion & Beauty, and Audio brands. “Sustainability has become a key strategic focus for us because we recognize the leadership role media plays in driving sustainable behaviors,” head of strategy Kaushala Ratnayake said. “Shifting towards a sustainable publishing industry is not something any company can do alone so we really invite this movement towards working with publishers that have clear sustainability goals and targets.”
Offer incentives. The American Chemical Society’s Scientific Advancement division is leading the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future Initiative. The multifaceted initiative will include a campaign promoting sustainability, increased advocacy for sustainability research funding, and expanded efforts to modernize the chemistry curriculum for 2- and 4-year colleges to include a focus on sustainability. There will also be a prize for international collaborations. “The impact that we’ll have is creating a future chemistry enterprise workforce that’s trained in sustainability concepts,” ACS COO LaTrease Garrison said.
Cut energy use in offices. Bloomberg Media has made the commitment to bring its Net Zero plans forward to 2025. Half of the firm’s existing energy already comes from renewable sources. Only 12.5% of its emissions come from publishing operations, but it is seeking a further 10% reduction in energy use across its offices and 5% in its data centers. The remote revolution may help this happen.
Assist journalists. The Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) is a new program at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Its mission is to help journalists and editors develop their coverage of climate change, and support leaders in identifying the issues involved in reporting on the climate crisis. The network is free to join and is open to working journalists, employed or freelance, covering any beat, not just environment and climate.
Reinvent and reimagine. “Reduce, reuse, recycle is no longer enough,” said Pum Lefebure, co-founder of Design Army and jury president at Cannes LIONS—an event focusing on key advertising trends and innovations that publishers need to know about. “We have to rethink, repurpose, reinvent and reimagine. We have to constantly set new standards for creative solutions.”
Create specific jobs. Recurrent—their publications include Popular Science, Field & Stream, Saveur, etc.—has three pillars on their homepage: Editorial First, Audience Obsessed and Sustainability Focused. “Coverage across Recurrent brands emphasizes products, technologies, and policies that could shape a more sustainable future, for the longevity of the planet and its ecosystems.” Last June they established two new roles—VP of sustainability and sustainability commerce editor—to solidify the company’s commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
Set ad guidelines. Conde Nast has new advertising guidelines in place as part of its sustainability commitments. It will now only accept ads from energy companies that promote renewable energy products. The company also aims to be entirely carbon neutral by 2030 and use only renewable energy in its offices globally by 2025.
‘People Want to Get Back to In Person’; An All-Star Events Panel Lights Up the Path Back
Jess Tyler of cannabis-niched MJBiz spoke about a couple that “decided to get married at our event this year. We did a whole feature on it, repurposed a lot of it for Valentine’s Day.” Marian Sandberg of Questex said it was “difficult to translate the way we produce our shows to a virtual event.” An all-star events panel at BIMS said that while the world certainly has changed, people’s desire to gather together has not.
A rock concert didn’t exactly break out during our recent Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) in Orlando, but we got close. In the middle of an insightful panel discussion on events, Sandberg, VP/market leader at LDI, DSE, XLIVE, Questex, asked if “anybody happened to be at Madison Square Garden in New York in June 2021?” It had been closed for over a year, and the Foo Fighters reopened it in grand style.
Then she quoted the lyrics from their song, Times Like These. “’It’s times like these you learn to live again. It’s times like these you give and give again. It’s times like these you learn to love again.’ They took 20 minutes singing it,” she told us. “’All right New York, we’re back!’
“Okay, replicate that on Netflix!” Sandberg said. “You can’t replicate things a certain way. Don’t we all want to be together?”
That sentiment captured the spirit of this all-star events panel—and conference: Yes we can do virtual events, and we’ll continue to do them to some extent, but people want to get back to in person.
“The substantial difference is the yearning to come back together,” said George Yedinak, co-founder and executive vice president, Aging Media. “We’ve rethought a lot of our portfolio [focusing on] what matters most to attendees, supporters and sponsors.”
Here are seven takeaways from this great panel.
Patience is needed. “Things are not going to be the same,” Sandberg said. “Look at how you are delivering things. People may not want to buy [an event registration] a year in advance. Maybe 6 months. We’ll hit our numbers, but it takes more work from the sales team.” “The sponsor and exhibitor sides came back quicker than the attendee side,” said Kerry Smith, divisional president, Access Intelligence. “People are waiting longer to get things approved. Companies are looking harder at everything… It was a nail-biter before and even more of a nail-biter now.”
Marketing has to change. “People are adjusting to their normal lives again,” said Jess Tyler, senior vice president, events and sales, MJBiz, a division of Emerald. “Companies are sending fewer people, forcing audience acquisition teams to find new companies, go deeper. They can’t rely on mass marketing. We have to fight harder for our audience’s dollars. ‘Do I really need to go to that?’ they’re asking… How we’re generating new audience [is huge]. We do a lot of lead tracking, free newsletters, asking ‘how do we get them from that to that?’” Added Smith: “We have invested in a robust audience development department to work with brand leaders and content people. Who do we have? Who don’t we have? How do we find them?”
Virtual can be monetized. “We tried virtual trade show floors, and our audience hated it,” Yedinak recalled. “We rebranded our virtual events to a webinar series. The mind shift has been impactful. Now the webinars are a kind of petri dish for the live events. Our virtual event webinar platform is key to where we’re going next. We’re able to charge fees to our vendor community. So they’re a money maker for us which not everyone can say.” Added Smith: “Virtual created a new pipeline for us, a conduit for people to come to us until we went back in person.”
The events themselves might have to change. “At live events now, people don’t want to be talked at for 2½ days,” Smith said. (Indeed, in our post-BIMS survey, 1½ days seemed just right for most people.) “We’re building white space into programs. Jamming as much content between 8:30 and 4:30 as we can but leaving more time for attendee interaction, especially with first-time people coming. [It’s about] creating beautiful experiences… We might do a talk-show format interview keynote instead of a presentation just to mix things up and make it more digestible.”
There’s no business like “show” business. “A large percentage are coming for the show floor experience,” Tyler said. ”We’re thinking a lot about creating meaningful connections. What is going to drive them to get there? What is it that they can’t get somewhere else?” Added Yedinak: “When we got into events, we wanted people on stage to build relationships. Then we figured out how to make revenue. We look at it as an integrated experience. A balanced attack has been effective for us.”
Be intentional about diversity. “It’s super important,” said Sandberg. “We start with intention. It’s a responsibility. We have a DEI committee, 10 or 12 of us. It creates a safe space for us to ask difficult questions—addressing stuff that needs to go to HR. We can speak sensitively to each other. But we have to take it to the next step. We’re partnering with universities to get with people at that level and make our company more diverse. The bigger the pool, the better talent you’ll get… We’ve created scholarships to enter different verticals.”
Reach out further. “It’s definitely intentional,” Smith said. “At Access Intelligence, when an HR manager position opened, we went to Black Progress Matters to identify a candidate to fill that role. She’s fantastic. She’s the first person who interacts with the people we’re recruiting. It signals maybe I can fit in with this company. It translates into our events; people are expecting to see diversity reflected in our speakers. The world has expectations now. We need to work hard to reflect what’s going on.” Added Tyler: “We talk about diversity on my team every day, in every conversation of planning.”
SIIA Letter on Maryland HB 901
I write today about HB 901. We appreciate the intent of sponsors to enact policies that protect Marylanders, especially children and teenagers but are concerned how the bill may impact Maryland schools and, more broadly, the rights of minors in the state. We are hopeful that policymakers will continue to work to refine language so all rights of Maryland children are protected.
Accessing educational information, along with things like news and entertainment, is a right established by Article 13 in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which is referenced in the preamble to HB 901. As the Convention states, a child “shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”
We are concerned that certain provisions in this legislation, as currently written, may unnecessarily prevent access to critical information and harm the well-being of Maryland’s children. Requirements to choose the well-being as defined by the bill versus other interests such as the right to access information may lead to businesses taking steps to mitigate legal risk and aggressively block online content no matter the newsworthiness, appropriateness, or educational value of the information.
In a worst-case scenario, Maryland’s children may fall behind other children in the country if they are left without access to factual information online to develop critical skills and knowledge to become fully engaged citizens after they turn 18. Skills for adulthood and the workforce require access to the internet and, while this bill attempts to foster the growth of an internet that does that, it unfortunately misses the mark.
