Fifteen Paths to Paid Online Content

March 8 - March 9, 2010

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Featured Discussion Leaders

Paul Anger Vice President & Editor, Detroit Free Press

Bill Baird President, Baird Direct Marketing, Norwalk, CT

Kurt Lozier Senior Vice President, Digital Media & Product Management Dow Jones Local Media Group

Arnon Mishkin partner, Mitchel Madison Group

Patrick Scanlon Interactive Media Director, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Matt Thompson Editorial Product Manager, Project Argo, National Public Radio

The program: Publishers are actively exploring many new directions they can take with monetizing digital content from online subscriptions to e-papers to highly targeted premium hybrid products. This seminar draws on original API/ITZBelden research and focuses on 15 of the most promising paid online content models being considered and implemented by organizations inside and outside the industry. Innovative companies are employing strategies as diverse as partnering with niche players, delivering content on new devices, packaging content for the greatest appeal to key audiences, and creating new revenue platforms for which content is the key component. From real-life case studies, participants will learn techniques for assessing their digital audiences and best practices in online registration, pricing, branding, and sales and marketing effectiveness and opportunities.

Who should attend: Newspaper executives, online/digital directors and others responsible for developing content-based e-commerce, online content, technology or marketing/brand strategies and growing revenue across digital platforms.

Seminar members can purchase the API/ITZBelden report, “Practices and Profiles in Paid Access,” a $500 value, at a discounted price of $300. This Insight Report includes case profiles, audience analysis, emerging benchmarks, payment and transaction structures, and insights into subscription bundling and the impact on advertising, market share and competition.

Schedule

Monday, March 8:

15 Paid Access Models
API Associates and research partners Greg Harmon, CEO/Managing Director, Belden Interactive, and Greg Swanson, CEO, ITZ Publishing, present original API/ITZBelden research, analysis and case studies on paid-access models for large and small newspaper companies. Compare your online strategies to those of the most successful paid-access sites. Are you setting paid-subscriber goals high enough? Are you charging less than subscribers are willing to pay? Are you creating “roadblocks” to accessing content? The answers may surprise you.

Profiles and Practices in Paid Content
Industry leaders, representing large to small enterprises engaged in emerging paid access models, will participate in a candid, face-to-face discussion about what’s working and what’s not at their companies. 

• Paul Anger, editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press, will discuss the company’s “hybrid subscription model” of limited home delivery of the newspaper, full access to an online e-edition and e-reader distribution. Initially working with the acclaimed design firm IDEO, the company is pursuing an aggressive overall strategy to leverage cross-platform content delivery models. 
• Patrick Scanlon is interactive media director of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the nation’s first metro paper to move from thinking about paid online content to venturing into the marketplace with the magazine-style, members-only Web site PG+. He’ll talk about strategy decisions, content selection and plans for the future.
• Kurt Lozier, Senior Vice President, Digital Media & Product Management, Dow Jones Local Media Group, will talk about small and medium-scale paid access strategies at Dow Jones Local Media Group newspapers.

Journalism People Love

• Matt Thompson, award-winning online writer/producer and incoming Editorial Product Manager at National Public Radio, will talk about the value people attach to content as well as his new role in developing topic-focused local news sites for NPR member stations. (Those of you who've been around awhile will remember him as the voice of EPIC 2014, the future history of news.)

Tuesday, March 9:

Marketing Paid Content

• Bill Baird, President, Baird Direct, will present new ways to take your paid access program to the next level. Find out new ways to enhance your online subscription marketing, proven strategies to improve conversion rates and lifetime value, and smarter ways to maximize your online publishing revenue.

Winning Your Brand Back from the Web

• Arnon Mishkin is a partner with Mitchell Madison Group, where he consults for media companies on improving legacy businesses as well as making the internet profitable. He'll talk about the meaning of your brand - and how you can maximize the brand value of your content show across all products and platforms. (You may have seen his "Leading Voices" column on paidContent.com)

The Particulars

Please read:
:: API's Registration, Tuition and Hotel Policies
:: Special requirements for international members

Tuition: $695

Hotel/Meal Package: $490 (includes Internet and all hotel taxes).
This charge is in addition to the tuition fee.

Location: Reston, Virginia - The seminar begins at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 8 and concludes at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9

(This seminar has already occured)