Comments on: Pay wall games http://www.newsfuturenow.com/2010/01/paywall-tool/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed News transformation from the trenches Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:02:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: geordie http://www.newsfuturenow.com/2010/01/paywall-tool/comment-page-1/#comment-3 geordie Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:40:14 +0000 http://www.newsfuturenow.com/?p=14#comment-3 It'd be fun to be able to play with it a bit. Inspired by your work, I started to refine my own spreadsheet model, before I got sidetracked by a couple of minor emergencies like the wind that was ripping the siding of our building... I have no idea what the average unsold inventory is. I suspect there's tremendous variation, especially at smaller papers, where online sales expertise is scarce. There also can be a lot of variation even within a site, to the extent that the site allows targeting. At our site, for example, the obits page is generally sold out in at least one ad size, and we also get a lot of demand (oddly) for home page ads. We'll certainly be keeping those factors in mind as we tiptoe into paid access. It’d be fun to be able to play with it a bit. Inspired by your work, I started to refine my own spreadsheet model, before I got sidetracked by a couple of minor emergencies like the wind that was ripping the siding of our building…
I have no idea what the average unsold inventory is. I suspect there’s tremendous variation, especially at smaller papers, where online sales expertise is scarce. There also can be a lot of variation even within a site, to the extent that the site allows targeting. At our site, for example, the obits page is generally sold out in at least one ad size, and we also get a lot of demand (oddly) for home page ads. We’ll certainly be keeping those factors in mind as we tiptoe into paid access.

]]> By: Jonathan Stray http://www.newsfuturenow.com/2010/01/paywall-tool/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Jonathan Stray Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:00:43 +0000 http://www.newsfuturenow.com/?p=14#comment-2 This is a very intelligent response to the story. Thanks. The "unsold inventory cushion" is indeed an interesting point. I would be curious to know what the size of this cushion is on average. As for not modeling the effect of protecting print revenue, also a good point. I don't think that trying to "protect" a dying medium is a good long-term business plan, but I do understand the need to get the most out of it while it lasts. If you l like, I can check with my editor to see if I can open-source the thing and you or your flash programmer friend can add any sliders you like. - Jonathan This is a very intelligent response to the story. Thanks.

The “unsold inventory cushion” is indeed an interesting point. I would be curious to know what the size of this cushion is on average.

As for not modeling the effect of protecting print revenue, also a good point. I don’t think that trying to “protect” a dying medium is a good long-term business plan, but I do understand the need to get the most out of it while it lasts.

If you l like, I can check with my editor to see if I can open-source the thing and you or your flash programmer friend can add any sliders you like.

– Jonathan

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