Kerin O'Connor, founder and CEO, The Atlas, UK, took to the stage at the Indian Magazine Congress hosted by AIM (Association of Indian Magazines) to give media businesses tips to convert them into a subscription powerhouse.

He kicked off the talk by stating how subscriptions are built over time and stated that the subscription economy indel model is now at USD 2 trillion overall, which is 3.4 terms the size of the growth of an S&P 500 company.

“Media businesses thrive through subscriptions. It increased during covid and has seen no dip since. As media publishers, you can take advantage of this,” said O'Connor.

On the topic, O'Connor added, “Media publishers and benefitting because the world’s biggest companies have turbo-charged subscriptions and changed customer experiences.”

He also raised a bit of caution with an example of Peloton, an exercise bike equipped with internet-connected touch screens that stream live and on-demand fitness classes through a subscription service.

“Some of them (subscription services) were overhyped. Peloton reached a valuation of USD 36 billion at one time. Now, it’s down to 1.5 billion. That’s still a huge amount of money though,” he said.

He went on to add that there are more successes than failures and stated that 22% of Apple’s revenue now comes from subscriptions.

Subscriptions must matter to publishers

“If your content is good, you’ll make money,” said O'Connor as he addressed publishers of magazines among the audience.

He added, “Subscriptions give long-term relationships which allow profitable monetisation. This allows the sales team to have an occasional bad meeting with an advertiser.”

O'Connor urged publishers to put the subscriber and readers in the centre and stated that customer revenues are most consistent, sustainable, and manageable than other sources of audience monetisation.

He stated that while INMA (International News Media Association) predicts growth to slow down, but growth is still expected in digital subscriptions in revenue and models.

In 2023, 9% of the UK audience paid for digital news, and in the USA the number increased to 21%. 

Giving an example of a publication that’s worked the digital subscription model well, O'Connor shared that The Financial Times’ subscriptions account for 50% of its revenues.

While being bullish about the subscription model, O'Connor added that building subscribers takes time and building that recurring revenue profit requires patience.

Maximising subscription strategies

To maximise the subscription strategies, he urged publishers once again to keep in account the value of time. 

“First, take a deep breath as it takes time. Research is important. It helps remain relevant and meet your customer needs. It also helps prioritisation and making faster, more informed decisions. It helps gain competitive advantage, provide inspiration and support innovation, and develop more effective marketing and communications,” explained Connor.

Next on his list was the importance of segmentation as that helps make choices to maximise impact.

“The most valuable segmentation stems from understanding user needs and behaviours. For them to be truly effective, we need them to be measurable, distinctive, accessible, and actionable,” said O'Connor.

Explaining the difference between B2B and B2C, he said, “They have small but significant differences. When it comes to value per customer and purchase risk, B2B’s higher with a focus on Roi and LTV. He stated that while B2C has an average of 1 stakeholder in decision-making, it’s at around 4-8 for B2B. The sales cycle is shorter in B2C as compared to B2B and the decision making is emotional and swayed by storytelling for the former as compared to logical and swayed by facts for the latter.”

He signed off by talking about the pricing of digital versus print subscriptions. 

In the USA, the median print subscription price was analysed at USD 28.54 per month, as compared to digital at USD 9.02, which means that the latter is 1/3rd the cost of the former.