Stay informed’, ‘become an insider’ or ‘drive change

Repackaging newspaper subscriptions in the digital age

Bibliographic Data

ID7478481
AuthorsEfrat Nechushtai (0000-0002-8750-6025, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, USA, corresponding author), Lior Zalmanson (0000-0002-9067-1224, University of Haifa)
Year2019
Volume22
Issue8
Pages2035-2052
Publication date2019-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1464884919847350
OpenAlexW2944903057
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited33

Subscription fees are an increasingly prominent revenue source for news organizations, challenging advertising as the primary business model for news. But when most online news remains available for free, how do publishers convince readers to pay? We examined how the 55 most-read US newspapers frame their value proposition when they ask readers to subscribe. Using the Meyer-Allen organizational commitment framework, we analyzed the informational, social, and normative elements mentioned in ‘subscribe now’ webpages. Every subscription offer referred to the informational value in a regular relationship with the newspaper, yet 62 percent also mentioned affective and community-based benefits in subscription, and 33 percent evoked normative and value-based benefits. Our data show that newspaper subscriptions are often promoted as a relationship with social and normative dimensions, rather than merely an information-based transaction – with some differences in the language used by newspapers of different sizes, ownership types, US regions, and local political orientations (‘red’/‘blue’ state). This work demonstrates the merit in analyzing promotional materials produced by news organizations to better understand both their strategies and their relationships with the communities they serve

Advertising · Business · Database transaction · Insider · Newspaper · Normative · Political science · Public relations · Revenue · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics · Law

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