New Survey: Publishers Must Rebuild for Digital to Stay Relevant and Profitable

SOURCE: CloudSense

New York, NY – September 18, 2014 – The urgent need for US media companies to find new, compelling ways to attract digital subscribers and find other methods of monetizing content is highlighted by an extensive new survey by media sales and fulfilment software provider CloudSense. Only 40 percent of US consumers polled said that they currently pay for digital media sites providing content such as news, fashion, sports and business, even though 70 percent said that they had accessed online content that day.

The survey polled more than 2,000 US-based consumers on their media consumption habits. The objective of the survey was to provide a window into consumer media consumption across the US spanning different demographics to offer publishers and media companies’ insight on how people view subscriptions and paywalls.

On the whole, the survey demonstrated a reluctance to pay for online content, with only 24 percent of respondents prepared to subscribe to receive exclusive content of personal relevance or interest. In addition, only 11 percent of respondents said they were prepared to pay on an ad-hoc basis for similar content.

In the US, even though online is the preferred way (78 percent) to access a variety of content, nine percent ahead of television, it was surprising to note that more than half (59 percent) of respondents still gravitated towards print. Additionally, 35 percent of respondents paid for printed media over the past week, highlighting that print still holds value in the overall mix of media types.

“Print publishers need to think strategically about the future and transition their print following to digital,” said Rowley Douglas, Executive Vice President, CloudSense. “They have a large task on hand when it comes to monetising online media. Leveraging cross-media products rather than siloed sales is one way of making this conversion as is creating a positive online user experience and developing exciting, new reasons for readers to subscribe or make ad-hoc payments.”

The survey also showed that there was little sign that the behaviour of ‘digital natives’ would change the situation. The 16 – 24 age group were shown to spend minimal amounts purchasing online media content with more than half (55 percent) not paying for any digital media sites.

“Publishers need to act quickly and find their own winning formula otherwise consumers will turn elsewhere to competitors who have successfully made the shift to digital. The changes need to go deeper than the type of content and deals offered. Systemically, there needs to be a radical infrastructure transformation to allow enhanced agility. This will enable publishers to bring innovations to market faster which will help them rebuild their business to achieve the flexibility necessary to thrive in our digital world,” concluded Rowley.

About CloudSense

CloudSense is an award-winning global cloud technology company, providing platforms to enable media owners to transform for cross-media advertising and multi-platform sales and subscriptions. CloudSense helps accelerate the speed of innovation, improve efficiency and increase all media booking and content sales. Its success in doing this means it was placed 7^th in the 2014 Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 for fast-growing companies.

CloudSense has a strong heritage of working with media companies and currently works with different major brands including publishers, broadcasters, pure digital players and agencies.

The CloudSense Media Platform provides both media booking as well as sales and subscription products that cover the full lifecycles from pitch to invoice and sale to fulfilment respectively. It integrates into all key systems, enabling an enhanced experience, increased collaboration and accurate revenue forecasting.

This platform is 100% Salesforce native and delivers fast time to value thanks to lower upfront costs, fast time to implement, best-in-class usability and high availability from any location.

The company has offices in London, Leeds, Zagreb and New York and lists organizations such as the BBC, Top Right Group and the Financial Times among its customers. For more information, please visit www.cloudsense.com