Are monthly subscribers worthless?

Monthly subscriptions may be largely worthless for many publishers, FT Strategies argued last week. The subscription consultancy published an analysis of one of its client’s data and suggested that offering short-term subscriptions at aggressive discounts is not an effective way to maximize revenue in many instances. Publishers optimizing for revenue instead of simple subscriber volume would be better off pushing audiences to longer terms instead, it said.

The analysis sparked conversation among publishers. Some observers said the churn data in the case study seemed extreme compared with other benchmarks published by organizations such as INMA and technology vendors such as Piano. “Churn indeed makes annual contracts more valuable than monthly contracts, but monthly contracts are far from worthless, at least for most news brands,” argued INMA’s researcher-in-residence, Grzegorz Piechota.