Newspaper club membership, anyone?

For the past year now, newspapers in the US have been facing tough times as print advertising revenues dry up. Some have had to close down while others have downsized considerably.

Many are now looking towards the Internet for their salvation, but how to make money through the Internet? Online subscription is one way but very few companies have managed to make that work. Online advertising is another but those usually are not enough to sustain operations.

The New York Times, which itself is facing hard times, is in the midst of finding a business model that make it less reliant on print advertising as a revenue source. Amongst the options it is considering are subscription plans that charge readers for access to its content.

The company has been there before, with a scheme called Times Select where readers paid for access to opinion columns, online exclusives and archives. That scheme lasted for about two years.

 Now, it is looking for a new scheme that could be based on either a metered model or a membership model.

The former allows visitors to view a certain number of stories free before a request to sign up for a paid subscription appears. The latter gives special offers and privileges to those who pay but the content is largely still free (there will be however, some exclusive content).

New Media guru Steve Outing thinks a pay wall would fail but he likes the membership concept. However, based on the sketchy information about a Times membership that has emerged, he is not impressed with the offering.

“If all that’s included in the memberships are newspaper- and website-related goodies, I predict failure,” he said. “Yes, paid memberships must include news premiums: access to special content; access to select forums and discussions with NYT journalists and/or news sources; free news phone applications that for others cost a few bucks; free admission or preferred tickets and seating to NYT lectures and events; and even the inevitable Times coffee mug and free online crosswords subscription.”

Outing believes the most important part of a newspaper website membership program is a package of ongoing discounts vouchers and special offers from newspaper advertisers involved in the program.

If the membership has enough free-stuff and discount value, he says, many people will become members simply because of that. While this might not sit well with the traditionalists who want people to become members because of news-related stuff, Outing says you need to offer such goodies in order to build a significant membership base that amounts to a new revenue stream.

“And if the Times gets a ton of members wanting deals, not news, so what?” he asks rhetorically. “They’ll get the extra news premium goodies. If they don’t use them, or even if they seldom even visit NYTimes.com, their money can go toward paying the Times’ wonderful editorial staff.”

Outing suggests that advertisers should be persuaded to take part in the member discount program as part of their overall ad deal with the newspaper for its print and online offerings, so there's a wide variety of discounts and deals to be had.

“A paying member can get one free meal when another is purchased once per month at a selection of participating restaurants,” he says. “If our hypothetical newspaper membership is only US$10 a month, it's a no-brainer that you buy a membership if you like to eat out.”

This is a fresh and innovative approach and it’s a perfect example of thinking out of the box. Most New Media business model ideas that get bandied about inevitably involve access to some kind of exclusive content online. Here, Outing is suggesting offering tangible goodies that newspaper companies are well-equipped to facilitate.

So, yes, offer some niche and exclusive content. But also, as Outing suggests, learn to sell something else to support the journalism.

Oon Yeoh is editor for New Media at The Edge Malaysia. He invites you to follow him at www.twitter.com/oonyeoh.