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Winstgevende autosport-content op het web? Zelfs autosport.com geeft het op!
Autosport.com is weer gratis, her en der wel met wat beperkingen. Belangrijkste is dat het nieuws voor iedereen weer bereikbaar is. Volgende mail lag in de bus.
Quote:
Dear Mark,
I would like to take a moment of your time to bring to your attention
new developments on autosport.com, which will take effect as of
September 7, 2006.
Following lengthy research, and after hearing what our subscribers and
website visitors have to say, we have decided to make changes that
will ultimately improve your subscription service.
THE CHANGES IN A NUTSHELL:
1. No advertisements for subscribers
As of September 7th, we will remove all advertising from the entire
autosport.com website. As a subscriber to autosport.com (and provided
you are logged in), you will see NO advertisements across the site,
whether on the homepage or elsewhere.
2. The latest news will become free
At the same time, users who are not subscribed to autosport.com will
be able to read news from the past 30 days without the need to
subscribe - but with increased advertising (including full page entry
ads and pop-ups).
The following services will become available for free:
1. News from the past 30 days (with ads);
2. Low resolution (1X) photos in the gallery (with ads).
The following services remain subscription-only:
1. The Weekly Journal
2. High resolution photos
3. Ask Nigel
4. Full GP timing data
5. The F1 Testing Centre
6. The entire FORIX website
7. All archived content
8. Handheld version
9. WAP version
10. Newsletter service
11. My autosport.com
THE REASONS BEHIND THIS CHANGE:
There seems to be a consensus that autosport.com has become the best
F1 and general motorsport website. After the Autosport/Atlas F1
merger, we have created a content website that is unrivalled by any
other in speed, reliability and quantity.
But in becoming successful, we have peaked in subscription sales
following the websites' merger, which means any future growth will be
by nature slow and minimal.
So the best autosport.com can do now is break-even (and we're not even
there yet), leading in turn to editorial stagnation. This means we
will never be able to expand our service or invest in new - and more
costly - forms of content. We will never be able to improve.
In reviewing our business model, two facts of life constantly
resurfaced:
1. News will always be available elsewhere for free.
Back in May 2001, when the Atlas F1 website switched to a subscription
model, I wrote the following in reply to the frequently made comment
that "no one will pay for news":
"It's true: F1 news is not unique. We can argue about whether our News
Service is better than others, but the bottom line is, you're not
being asked to pay for a news website - because Atlas F1 is not just
that.
I don't know ANY other F1 website that offers a weekly magazine,
high-res images AND full lap times from all the races. So there's
unique content for you right here. And, if you purchase a
subscription, we'll throw in as a bonus free access to our News
Service and Daily Grapevine..."
This remains all the more true today, five years later. And,
ironically, the better we are in our news service, the more other
websites copy from us.
So autosport.com can break any number of news stories at any given
time, but within minutes these stories will appear elsewhere. And as a
matter of fact, too many websites nowadays resort to using
autosport.com as their "news agency" - and make money from users who
read "our" news on their web pages with their ads.
2. Subscribers do not accept paying for web pages with ads.
It simply doesn't work. The claim that readers accept paying for a
newspaper with ads doesn't apply - because ads in a newspaper are not
animated, flashy, or obtrusive in any way. Ads on an Internet website
- especially those that are financially lucrative - are by nature
obtrusive and therefore annoying to potential and existing
subscribers.
So, in light of the above, we have reached the conclusion that we must
separate our content to free access with ads, and a subscription
service with no ads.
In reviewing what we should make free, we used a simple rule of thumb:
What is available elsewhere on the Internet should be free: we will
simply offer it with better quality than others. This includes current
news reports (from the past 30 days) and low-resolution photos in our
gallery.
What is unique to autosport.com should remain available only to our
subscribers. This includes the Weekly Journal, FORIX, high resolution
images, Ask Nigel, the full archive, GP lap times - as well as our
newsletter, My autosport.com, PDF, WAP, and handheld tools. Moreover,
subscribers will enjoy a completely ad-free website.
After a year of research, discussions, consultations and debates, we
are convinced that this is the way to move forward.
Thank you for your time and continued support, and please don't
hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
Best wishes,
Bira
Biranit Goren
Editor-in-chief, autosport.com
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Betalen voor autosportcontent op het web? Nee, dat is (nog) niet de kip met de gouden eieren geworden.
__________________
Confidentiality Notice: This communication and any accompanying attachments contain confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose. This communication is private and protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby respectfully notified that any disclosures, copying, forwarding or distribution, or the taking of any action based on the contents of this communication is strictly prohibited.
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09-09-2006, 23:20
