A New Exploration Of The Profit Model Of Paper Media Beyond The "paywall"

Under the impact of the Internet,the decline of traditional profit model includes the decline of both advertising revenue and distribution revenue.Newspaper media is immersed in management predicament for a long time,the industry is carrying on the exploration of new profit model unremittingly all the time.So far,paid subscriptions,or paywalls,have become the media of choice.However,with the development of practice,the industry has increasingly realized that the scope of subscription is limited,and is not yet mature.At this time,after the implementation of the Membership system of The Guardian,the news spread frequently and achieved phased results.The emergence of membership in the newspaper industry has provided a new way of thinking for the paper media to explore new profit models.Membership has also been introduced in droids in many media outlets.In fact,membership is more disruptive to journalism than paywall.Traditional newspaper profit model is subscription and advertising,"paywall" design ideas in fact some follow the traditional profit model of subscription ideas.But the rise of the Internet has changed subscription channels.Membership creates new revenue streams and a new revenue stream.It is no longer just about content,but about charging for services.Its operation idea is becoming more and more enterprise,which is the real sense of the new profit model for print media.Although modern membership system has been popular in Europe and The United States since 1980 s and 1990 s,it has been introduced to China and has been widely seen and developed in other industries.But for the news industry,the development of membership has only just begun,and there is still a long way to go.This paper takes the membership system of the Guardian as the main research object,and uses case study method,existing statistical data analysis method,and indepth interview method to discuss the core issue of "how the Guardian achieved such a breakthrough in the stage of turning loss into profit by implementing the membership system".This paper will be the Guardian’s membership as the main research object,through the case study method,both the statistical data analysis,depth interview method to explore "How should the domestic print media operate when implementing the membership system " or "the implementation of the membership of the Guardian can bring what enlightenment to Chinese print media" the core issue.In order to explore this core issue,this paper will start from the reasons for the implementation of membership system of the Guardian,the specific operation of the implementation of membership system,the specific results after the implementation,and the reference value for Chinese media to explore the new profit model.This paper has consulted many authoritative reports,and the data of the reports show that the decline of traditional profit model is not only local but global,and the global media are exploring new profit model.The hope,by common agreement,is that news users will pay for it,in the hope that it will increase their revenues to compensate for the sharp decline in advertising and distribution.After the exploration in recent years,the global news user pay has increased,but the growth is extremely slow.The payment phenomenon of paper media in developed countries is relatively common.In the choice of payment mode,subscription is the mainstream,and Britain,as one of the developed countries,is no exception.Happily,in addition to the subscription system,there is also a new profit model into journalism--membership.Up to now,membership system has been implemented by many media and gradually attracted more and more attention of multimedia.The Guardian is one of nearly 20 foreign media outlets that have adopted a members-only system without a paywall.A review of a number of announcements and news stories on the Guardian’s website reveals that the Guardian has been forced to launch a pay-for-news scheme in the face of the threat to its survival.However,since the founding of the Guardian,the newspaper has always adhered to the policy of "independent and open",while the profit model of "paywall" is contrary to the concept of "open",which makes it impossible for the Guardian to implement "paywall".But rejecting the paywall means one less revenue stream than the peers.And the Guardian’s plight is not to be underestimated.It must find a new way out.After some exploration,the Guardian took a different approach by choosing membership as the main body of its news subscription plan.The Guardian first launched the membership plan in 2014.At that time,there were few print media that implemented the membership system.Without any previous reference,the Guardian introduced the membership system into journalism,which did not copy other industries,but innovated according to the particularity of the media industry and itself.The theoretical basis of membership is relationship marketing.Through the dual innovation of content and mode,the Guardian can establish and maintain relationships with more readers and improve their loyalty.The innovation of the model is embodied in the charging model of the freemium service.The free product can attract more readers and create a relationship with more readers.The value-added service can deepen the relationship with readers.Content innovation is manifested in special customer value design,including providing members with knowledge-based services and the opportunity to participate in media-related activities.The combination of knowledge-oriented services and the high-end attributes of Guardian readers can attract readers.Media-related activities include activities and opportunities for members to get close to the media and news.First,members are allowed to understand the media industry and news production process,and second,users are encouraged to participate in order to promote the common progress of the media and the society.Compared with non-peers,this model breaks through the "about price and quantity" of "merchants get repeat purchase rate and customers get preferential price",and emphasizes more user participation compared with peers.In a word,the Guardian’s knowledge service makes its members feel useful and interesting,and the participation in media-related activities makes them feel meaningful.The Guardian membership system makes users experience useful,interesting and meaningful,and wins users’ trust and sense of belonging.However,the basis behind this special customer value design is extremely conventional: to meet the needs of the audience as much as possible,to maximize the use of media resources,and to enhance the development prospect of media through membership.Based on the analysis of the Guardian’s annual report in the past ten years and interviews with the Guardian’s leaders,this paper finds that the innovative membership system has brought about an improvement in the Guardian’s profitability,including the continuous reduction of operating losses until they turn into profits and the progress of the digital transformation.However,this does not mean that we can copy the same.After all,the news system,industry and readers in foreign countries are quite different from those in China,so we are faced with many challenges.After in-depth interviews with several domestic media leaders,this paper summarizes the following challenges that domestic media will face if they want to implement membership system: users’ awareness of payment is low,and media itself is good at the production end.In recent years,the reform is still in the production end,and user research is far from enough.However,the periodical success of the Guardian membership system also brings new hope for the transformation of China’s print media: membership system can also be used as one of the main profit models of media.Although there are many difficulties,they are not insurmountable.The Guardian’s message is to strengthen user research and design for precise and appropriate customer value.Whether it is advertising revenue,subscription revenue or membership revenue,it is necessary to deepen the understanding of users and build a clear user portrait to better grasp users.Only on the basis of fully understanding the user,can we design accurate and appropriate customer value design,so as to further carry out relationship marketing.