A while back, Levitt wondered why the Wall Street Journal charges for its online version while other papers generally offer their content ice for free. Sure enough, we have an answer. Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has an editorial in today’s Journal (available for free!) titled “How to Sink a Newspaper.” It offers a detailed explanation of the print/online dynamic and makes a strong case for subscription-only sites.
Most striking is Hussman’s statement that, while newspapers generate between $500 and $900 in annual revenue per print subscriber, an average news site generates just $5 to $10 annually per unique visitor — though, of course, there’s the fact that putting your content online can heavily increase your overall readership. Meanwhile, his correlation between offering free-access web sites and falling print subscription rates seems to skirt the other possible causes of circulation decline (such as the argument that print itself is in trouble). Still, Hussman makes a good point: especially when advertising dollars are concerned, Web sites and newspapers are very different animals.
(Hat tip: David Ozburn)
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Hey,
I jus finished reading freakonomics a day back…ohhh n i loved the book
Ive always wondered if Steven levitt could sort of get some freakonomics underlying rationale done for salaries of top Wall street banks headhonchos as compared to sportsstars and celebrities…jus find the topic very interesting
It may not be the right post 2 put my comment…but its a post on WSJ and i thought i might as well put it in here
Hey,
I jus finished reading freakonomics a day back…ohhh n i loved the book
Ive always wondered if Steven levitt could sort of get some freakonomics underlying rationale done for salaries of top Wall street banks headhonchos as compared to sportsstars and celebrities…jus find the topic very interesting
It may not be the right post 2 put my comment…but its a post on WSJ and i thought i might as well put it in here
this math seems very off to me. i would expect a news site to generate at least $5 to $10 per day. (i work in online advertising.)
this math seems very off to me. i would expect a news site to generate at least $5 to $10 per day. (i work in online advertising.)
per unique visitor, that is.
per unique visitor, that is.
yoshimi, where is this $5-10 coming from if I don’t spend that much across all news sites I visit? I don’t think I am that unrepresentative.
Regardless, the logic of the article is pretty lame. No matter how little revenue online advertising generates, it is hard to believe it can’t make up the difference of a few percentage points between the Little Rock paper and the Columbus paper.
yoshimi, where is this $5-10 coming from if I don’t spend that much across all news sites I visit? I don’t think I am that unrepresentative.
Regardless, the logic of the article is pretty lame. No matter how little revenue online advertising generates, it is hard to believe it can’t make up the difference of a few percentage points between the Little Rock paper and the Columbus paper.