Read all about it!…online
Phil Cobb
Since the first day that Cobb Publishing took ownership of the Maryville Daily Forum, we have provided the majority of our content online at maryvilledailyforum.com.
We immediately formed an online and social media strategy and soon after, partnered with townnews.com to develop a more contemporary website and metered paywall.
Even though we were technically charging for our content, in reality, we really weren’t.
Readers could read multiple stories for free up to a point, and then view additional stories for free by creating a user account.
Beyond that you were required to buy an online subscription.
We have gradually tightened those numbers over time, but still today, you can read up to eight stories per month for no charge.
If you’re clever enough, I imagine you can get a lot more than that.
I never dreamed the website would be a significant revenue source at its inception.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to continue to give our product away for free.
But something told me that even though it went against every instinct of my being, we needed to do something online, even if it was wrong.
The thought was that we needed to be where our readers are, and more and more every day, our readers are online, primarily on social media.
Over the past four years, we have successfully used social media to direct readers to our website.
And now, finally, we may be starting to see some tangible results from what was mostly a blind leap.
The statistics associated with maryvilledailyforum.com are eye-opening — even mind-blowing.
We’ve been trying to process the information provided to us by our hosting company for quite some time now, because frankly, it’s unbelievable.
I’ll share some of the numbers with you:
So far this year there have been 484,446 visitors to our website.
Those visitors have viewed more than 2.3 million pages.
March was the most popular month, with 65,895 visitors.
On Sunday alone, we had 9,082 visitors.
The average number of visitors in a day to our website this year has been 5,747.
When we set our online subscription rates, we didn’t have anything to base them on, but over time we’ve gotten a much better grip on things.
So, now that we know what we know, we’re going to have a sale.
What was $55 per year, is now – for a limited time — only $29 per year.
See, I’m realizing that if the newspaper is going to survive in an online world, the revenue is going to have to shift from an advertiser-supported model to a reader-supported model.
Print has always survived off advertising revenue and still does today, but at least for now, that type of revenue doesn’t translate to online.
As the numbers show, there is a tremendous amount of demand for timely, factual, local news.
What’s great about delivering news through the website is that you don’t have the costs associated with printing and mailing a newspaper.
By the way, it’s insanely expensive to print and mail a newspaper.
The main problem with online delivery, however, is that people traditionally haven’t been willing to pay for news online.
It might sound crazy, but I’m banking that we are reaching the end of that phase.
Thank you, fake news.
That’s why we’re making an online subscription to maryvilledailyforum.com more affordable than ever before.
Not only is it better for us, it’s better for our readers.
You don’t have to wait for the newspaper to come.
At 12:01 a.m. each day, you can log on to your account and read that day’s newspaper.
And you don’t have to be at home.
You can be anywhere in the world with internet access and read today’s Maryville Daily Forum.
You don’t even have to be in front of a computer.
Another statistic for you: 59 percent of our website traffic is of the mobile variety, meaning that people are reading on their tablets and smart phones.
It gives a whole new meaning to taking the newspaper with you.
It’s fast, it’s true, and it’s relevant to you.
And it’s a whole lot less expensive.
Phil Cobb is the owner and publisher of the Maryville Daily Forum and The Post.
