.2 Percent ROI
2010-01-27
Posted by: badanov
The people who purchased the New York daily Newsday revealed three months after placing their news website behind a pay wall, they have managed a whopping 35 paid subscribers.
I don't know which suck worse: the .2 percent Return on Investment, or the $4 million price tag for the website redesign.
The problems for Newsday are only beginning. ESPN is at the leading edge of a trend where major media outlets are beginning to place on the web local startups meant to supplant local news outlets. So far ESPN has sports news websites for Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.
It is impossible for me to believe they do not have plans for any number of other cities, and that this new trend is just the tip of the iceberg. And only for the online advertising dollar.
And my guess is also that smart investors are looking for local startups to supplant local media, and preparing to invest in those startups, as long as they don't impose a pay wall.
The newspaper local to Oklahoma City has a pay wall now, but no word yet on how that is going. My guess it is probably going as famously as Newsday's.
At the moment, the newspaper's industry's mantra appears to be .2 percent ROI.
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