Nine passes left to attend the Digiday Publishing Summit
Digiday+ Research: A third of publishers never discount subscriptions
This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
In the face of an economic downturn and the flurry of the holiday season, holiday sales are rising to the top of both consumers’ and businesses’ minds — and even publishers’ subscriptions businesses aren’t immune.
Digiday+ Research surveyed 73 publisher professionals this month to find out more about how publishers are handling subscriptions, specifically when it comes to discounts leading up to the all-important holiday season.
Digiday’s survey found that publishers are fairly evenly split when it comes to bringing in revenue from subscriptions: Almost exactly a third of publisher pros each said they get a large portion of their revenue from subscriptions (34%), they get a small portion from subscriptions (32%) and none of their revenue comes from subscriptions (34%). All in all, two thirds of publishers get at least some of their revenue from subscriptions.
Of those publishers who do make money selling subscriptions, Digiday’s survey found that a full third never offer subscriptions at discounted prices. To be exact, thirty-two percent of publishers said their companies never discount their subscriptions.
Meanwhile, most of those who do offer subscription discounts do so throughout the year: Just shy of two-thirds of respondents to Digiday’s survey (62%) said they discount their subscriptions throughout the year.
And it turns out that subscription discounts are most decidedly not tied to the holiday season: Only 2% of publishers told Digiday that they only discount subscriptions during the holidays. And fewer than a quarter (21%) said they offer discounts throughout the year, with deeper discounts coming during the holiday season. In comparison, about twice that percentage (41%) said they offer discounts at similar rates regardless of the time of year.
More in Media
Substack creators attribute their boost in subscribers to the platform’s community tools
Substack’s ongoing efforts to win over creators by becoming a community platform are winning over writers who value being part of a vibrant creative community.
Media Briefing: Here are the hurdles to Perplexity’s pitch as the publisher-friendly LLM
Publishers are cautiously optimistic about Perplexity’s new revenue share model, but remain concerned about issues of adoption, payment terms and transparency.
How Gabriella Gomez built a six-figure career on TikTok Live without signing sponsorship deals
Top U.S. TikTok Live star Gabriella Gomez has made livestreaming on TikTok into a lucrative career — without relying on brand partnerships.