NewsBeat

July 2023 NewsBeat 21 Entertainment programs Magazine campaigns Digital sales drives Puzzle/comic guides Total audience initiatives Ask us about a custom program! organizations would make it difficult to cancel subscriptions. Churn is churn; even angry readers with a subscription still hand over their hard-earned money. Beyond an- noying two media observers, there is a real price to pay for displaying such short-sight- ed contempt for your readers. Effective alternatives Mather Economics, a consulting firm that works with news organizations on subscriptions and analytics, recently did an eye-opening case study with a major U.S. newspaper the company asked to keep private. According to the report, when the news- paper offered new digital-only subscribers the ability to stop their subscription online (rather than call a customer service agent), the restart rate among that group increased by 45% over a six-month span. There was also a 2.3% decrease in the monthly sub- scription stop rate. Instead of tricking customers into con- tinuing to pay, Mather suggests improving retention with engagement through dif- ferent touchpoints, including apps, email newsletters, notifications, and games and puzzles. It's also important not to confuse churn with price sensitivity because sub- scribers often cancel because the product is not meeting their needs, not because it's too expensive. "Publishers should make canceling a subscription as easy as it is to sign up for a new one," said Pete Doucette, Mather's senior managing director for strategy. "Best practice is to have a dialogue with the sub- scriber, through a rep or a chatbot, to see if other subscription packages may be a bet- ter fit for the subscriber. Once that process is completed and the subscriber still wants to cancel, a one-click option there makes sense." 'Click to cancel' proposal It seems like that's the direction the industry is headed, whether companies choose to or not. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a "click to cancel" provision that would require news organizations, gyms, video services and anyone else selling subscriptions dig- itally to make it as easy for customers to end their enrollment as it was to sign up. The agency logged over 17,000 com- plaints last year related to customers feel- ing tricked into paying for a subscription service or forced into a recurring payment, up from 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. President Joe Biden has backed the proposal, agreeing, "It shouldn't be harder to cancel a service than it was to subscribe for it." Some states — including California, Or- egon, Virginia or Vermont — have already enacted laws requiring companies to offer customers an easy and direct way to cancel their subscriptions. "Some businesses too often trick con- sumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn't sign up for in the first place," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement. The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn't offer subscribers an option to cancel online, but that appears to be changing soon. Rachel Ciampaglia, the Inquirer's director of sub- scriber engagement and loyalty, said they rolled out a seamless, user-friendly online cancellation flow for digital-only subscrib- ers as a test and will review performance results very soon. The Inquirer contacts new subscribers who have signed up with an introductory rate before the promo period is about to end, avoiding angering readers by blindsid- ing them with a rate increase they may have forgotten about. "Retention of any subscriber starts with engagement," Ciampaglia said. "As part of our engagement strategy, we contact digital subscribers who are about to roll off their promotional rate with content emails from their favorite topics or from our top editors to remind them of what their subscriptions include. This way, they want to stay when renewal comes up, even at a higher price point." Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor and writer for The Philadel- phia Inquirer. Reach him at robtornoe@ gmail.com.

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