07.23.09
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIBERS "TIPPING POINT" FOR RETENTION IDENTIFIED BY LEADING MARKET RESEARCH FIRM

Newspaper subscribers make “trade-off” decisions and all have a “tipping point” where they determine they will or will not subscribe. Understanding that tipping point, including content and pricing drivers, is the key to making decisions that stop newspaper financial hemorrhaging according to Jeff D. Brazell, President/CEO of The Modellers, a Salt Lake City based predictive modeling market research firm that has done market/consumer research for a number of the nation’s leading newspapers.

“The big news,” he says, “is that through advanced research methods, we can precisely pinpoint subscriber “tipping points” in each market. Once we understand the content drivers of subscription choice, we can play “what if” until we find the optimal combination that drives value. We can then maximize subscribership, find the right price that matches the value delivered, and provide the powerful intelligence to newspaper decision-makers that will allow them to stem the bleeding or even turn things around.”

“One finding that seems to be universal nationally is that subscribers are willing to pay more for newspapers that satisfy their informational wants and needs than they are currently paying,” Dr. Brazell reports. “Sophisticated trade-off research allows us to find optimal price points that consider both advertising and subscriber fees to maximize profitability.”

By discovering who the core loyal readers are and catering to their informational wants, interests and needs by implementing changes that meet those interests at a price that matches the value provided, a number of the nation’s print newspapers have made some astounding and resounding turn-arounds while others succumb or continue to reel from a numbing slide of readership, subscriptions and ad revenue loss.

A number of the nation’s leading newspapers have turned to a sophisticated, high-end predictive, “what if?” modeling research company to provide this critical decision-making intelligence.

The key value in this research, the newspaper publishers say, is to know in advance the results of many possible configurations of changed content and price before going to the risk and expense of making those changes. Publishers know significant changes must be made to maintain viability in the current dangerous and unfriendly business environment. With this unique research, they can play “what if” with numerous configurations of the variables and elements that impact the paper, and what subscribers will pay for each one, until they configure an optimum scenario and optimum price.

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