Subscribers to The National Business Review's paid website broke through the 8000 mark this week only a fortnight after Nielsen readership survey figures reported the paper's readership had also risen – up 3000 to 90,000.The new online numbers come
Subscribers to The National Business Review’s paid website broke through the 8000 mark this week only a fortnight after Nielsen readership survey figures reported the paper’s readership had also risen – up 3000 to 90,000.
The new online numbers come in the wake of a further 10% rise in the number of critical “domestic browser” numbers to the site, NBR 24/7, which are now reaching 28,000 a week.
Publisher Barry Colman said the growth numbers amid the economic downturn had been capped off by the signing off of bulk subscriber deals with the University of Otago and the University of Auckland last week. They joined the University of Canterbury which had signed up to the service last year.
He said the new numbers were growing evidence that the web was being used by business readers as a complementary service.
“The fear was that a big uptake in web subscribers would damage our print readership and there were near-universal predictions that the introduction of a paywall on our website would lead to a huge fall off in its hit rate. Neither doomsday prediction has happened,” he said.
NBR was gradually overcoming the preconception that its web content would be based on its print content, the common method used by other newspapers to provide their stories online.
Mr Colman said he believed this had hampered the growth of the website.
There was now growing recognition that the content of the two services served different purposes with completely different content, the website providing a 24/7 news service and the newspaper a weekly in-depth analysis and commentary of the country’s business affairs.
“Our biggest complaint was from people who thought they were being asked to pay twice for the same news,” he said.
Meanwhile, NBR had been consistently breaking stories other business sites didn’t have.
The rise in subscriber numbers reflected the focus on establishing NBR’s coverage as significantly superior to any of its mainstream rivals.
Online archived editions of NBR’s print publication are also now available to paid online subscribers – on a one week delayed basis.
The paid web service – which was only launched eight months ago – had been supported by major corporates and professional firms including AMP Capital, AWS Legal, Bayleys, Bell Gully, BNZ, Chapman Tripp, Colenso BBDO, Colliers International, Commerce Commission, Ernst & Young, Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, Grant Thornton, HSBC, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Minter Ellison, NDA Engineering, NZ Post, NZTE, the Reserve Bank, Russell McVeagh and Westpac.
The introductory rate for the pay service has been set at $89 for six months subscription, half the standard rate.
“Most businesses are opting to pay the full year rate when their first six month subscription period ends. I think this is the most significant evidence we have that the subscribers have tried it and intend to stay.
“We still need a lot more before we’re satisfied but we think we’re on the right track.”
Mr Colman said the new subscriber level was a mix of bulk corporate members and individual executives.
NBR was convinced the success of paid web services was critical in maintaining professional newsrooms when newspapers everywhere were shedding staff in the face of falling circulations and advertising revenue.
