How biz publishers are tying events to subscriptions

Lucinda Southern of Digiday looks at how some business news organizations are tying their events to subscriptions.

Southern writes, “Over the last few months, virtual events have been used as an incentive for people to subscribe to publisher paid-for programs. Since launch in April, Verizon-owned TechCrunch has hosted 10 members-only investor Q&A series events, Extra Crunch Live, via its subscription tier, Extra Crunch. Most of its 2020 events are for Extra Crunch members. Extra Crunch subscriptions have increased by 600% year-on-year, the company said. Elsewhere, publishers have moved more events online. Bloomberg Media’s newest virtual event, Bloomberg Reports which focuses on the impact of coronavirus, helps attract new subscribers. One subscription publisher is seeing strong subscriber participation in its virtual events series, many of who had never been to its in-person events before.

“‘With the huge success we’ve had with virtual events — over a quarter of a million attendees have tuned in from over 110 countries — we’ve realized that a significant portion of our attendees were not current NYT subscribers,’ said Jessica Flood, managing director, NYTLive. ‘We are working to engage that group over the long term in a variety of ways, including a new suite of subscriber-only virtual events launching in the coming weeks.’

“The link between in-person events and subscriptions has always been there but more dimly. Often, existing subscribers have exclusive or early access to events that get them closer to editorial teams or analysts. Online, this access can be done efficiently and at scale.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.