Subscriptions

Limitations. Subscriptions isn’t for everyone.

• It is not for everyone. You cannot write generic content and expect people to pay. Subscriptions tend to work for work products. In fact, many successful subscription editorial products are professional work products that subscribers can expense to their employers.
• Plateau point. Given that subscription editorial products target niches. There tends to have an extremely limited TAM.
• Power law in each niche. Success isn’t normally distributed. In fact, success isn’t even 80:20 (Pareto) distributed, i.e., top 20% take 80% of the revenue. It is likely to be 99:1, i.e., 1% take 99% of the revenue. Hence, subscriptions tends to work only for the elite exceptions in every niche (speciality or focused). For example, The New York Times, Ben Thompson, etc.
• Subscription fatigue is real. There is an upper limit to how many subscriptions a person will get. Hence, it might be better to bundle up.

You’ll need to adapt as you implement the subscription revenue model. Subscribers give you time, attention and money. Hence, all your decisions need to answer what’s best for your subscribers! 

• On revenue diversity: You’ll need to work on your user experience so subscribers feel well served. Hence, indirect digital advertisements and subscription don’t gel well. To implement digital advertisement in subscription products, you’ve to serve premium advertisements that your audiences will appreciate. 
• On owned identity: Once you move to subscription, you cannot claim to remain “the paper of record”. Your editorial judgement will start reflecting the values of your subscribers.
• Who drives and amplifies: Once a simple subscription stack is in place, then the editorial team can directly serve value to the customer! Given that the drivers are the editorial teams and product and engineering can amplify their impact.