On Friday, Bo Sacks distributed Cosmin Ene’s article, “Subscription Cannibalization is here. Just not as you think.” Cannibalization is, of course, eating your own. Publishers often use that word to describe when a new, low-priced product undercuts the sales of an older, higher-priced product. As a general rule, I think fear of cannibalization is misguided….
My friend Paul Gerbino (of Triumvirate Content Consultants) promotes the idea of thinking of content as water, by which he means it will take the shape of whatever type of container you put it in, and needs to flow into lots of different nooks and crannies. I like that image. Content should be created with…
I’m toying with a few ideas about how to write an article in such a way that people understand what’s been written. I’m riffing off two things I read yesterday. The first was from a Brian Morrissey article about reducing friction, in which Brian pointed out that friction can be useful in some cases. For…
Customer retention should start immediately after the sale. This is true for e-commerce stores and for publishers, although in the first case it means repeat purchases while in the latter it means continuing a subscription. Some retention strategies are common to stores and to publishers. For example, both should … Establish a relationship immediately after…
At the MACMA Industry Days event last week, Lisa Pistilli interviewed Jim McKelvey. The conversation about the monetization of Jim’s “Invisibly” app is very interesting. (Use this link to watch the video.) I riffed on some of the issues in this issue of my podcast.
My friend Jeff Kobil sent me an interesting article that claims Google is going to start paying publishers for content. Whenever I see something like this, it reminds me of square dancing. Remember when the caller would say “hurrah, hurray, you’re going the wrong way”? This is why. Any time you let Google set the…
Bo Sacks’ email from last night picks up a good piece by Peter Houston, in which he summarizes some studies on reader needs. They include … Update me Educate me Divert me Give me perspective Keep me on trend Those are all good, but I would add one thing to that – save me some…
Elon Musk’s Twitter has labeled National Public Radio as “state-sponsored media.” NPR says it’s quitting Twitter because the label isn’t fair. Only one percent of their funding comes from the government, they say. Let’s think about that for a minute. If it’s truly only 1 percent of their funding, why not just forgo it? Why…
We overemphasize the part of our intellect of which we are consciously aware. We think of that as “me.” But that’s very far from certain. Most of what our brain does is inaccessible to our conscious mind — and I don’t just mean regulating our autonomic nervous system. A lot of intellectual and emotional processing…
Resolving identity can get in the way of your use cases and create a bad customer experience. In this presentation, which I did for the recent Martech conference, I discuss two frameworks and a few rules to help identify and avoid these problems. Two frameworks to harmonize identity and business needs This video is especially…
The April issue of The Krehbiel Letter urges publishers to focus on the reader. Here’s a quick summary of the articles in this edition. If you want your readers to have a good experience with your content, consider building a paywall. Ads are designed to distract the reader. Consider adding content recommendations to your site,…
When the kids try to convince lo-tech grandma to get a smartphone, they focus on the benefits. “You can see what your grandkids are up to and chat with us!” Once grandma gets comfortable with a smartphone, she wants more storage and processing power. Those are features. The rule I learned back in the 1980s…
That’s one of my favorite sayings, but it begs an interesting question. What does “perfect” mean? “Perfect is the enemy of done” should not mean, “publish that amateurish first draft.” On the other hand, if my kayak is in the middle of a school of fish, the perfect fishing lure is the one I can…
Summary: Speaking clearly goes along with thinking clearly, which is why you should avoid silly lingo and trendy words. I recently read this in a post on LinkedIn. “[M]edia organizations need to establish a relationship and give easy ways for the subscriber to stay connected.” Sorry to break it to you, but nobody in the…
Summary: Smart content recommendations can help your readers find the parts of your site that meet their needs. When you combine high bounce rates and high single-visit rates, most traffic on most sites is from “drive-bys” – i.e., the one-and-done visitor. Getting some of those drive-bys to stay for one more page view can make…