March 7th, 2011
Financial Times Digs Gold Out of Data
The New York Times
For newspapers, connecting with readers is the ultimate challenge. At newsstands, many customers choose a paper only after they see the headline on the cover. The lady in hair curlers and a bathrobe might choose “Toe job to no job,” to cite a classic from the tabloid Sun in Britain, while the gent in pinstripes might be grabbed by something like “China to tighten screws on state companies,” in the staid Financial Times. Or vice-versa.
On the Internet, cozying up to readers is easier, because many of them willingly leave digital trails of their actions and preferences. Getting them to generate revenue is the challenge. But The Financial Times, the London-based business newspaper, has had considerable success at both of late, in part because it requires regular readers of its Web site to pay.
“We’ve moved almost from the dark ages to an age of enlightenment in terms of understanding our readers,” John Ridding, the chief executive of The FT, said last week as the paper’s owner, the British conglomerate Pearson, reported its financial results for last year.
When a reader signs up for an online subscription, The FT can track every click. That makes it easier to tailor content and new services to their interests. When customers let their subscriptions lapse, The FT can pursue them via e-mail and other means in an effort to get them to reconsider.
In businesses where getting to know one’s customers has long been essential, this might not seem revolutionary. But Mr. Ridding said improvements in collecting and mining customer data were a big reason digital sales accounted for 24 percent of The FT’s revenue last year, a big jump from 19 percent a year earlier and a considerably higher percentage than many other publishers can claim.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07iht-cache07.html?ref=technology