With the success of Caliphate, we can expect to see more premium audio offerings from The Times, and other publishers. While they have experimented with subscriber-only audio benefits, such as live shows and an anniversary celebration of their hit show “ The Daily“, this podcast was the first time they experimented with early-access for subscribers. Finally, the podcast was released just after app changes meant the team could actually push early episodes to subscribers within the Times’ app itself. Secondly, each episode ends on a cliffhanger, a motivator for listeners to subscribe and get early access to the next episode. Firstly, it highlights what The New York Times does best: extensive (and expensive) reporting spanning continents. This podcast, the first narrative nonfiction series from The Times, was selected for the early-access strategy for a few specific reasons. Early episodes were available on the Times’ website and app. They also stand out for how they’ve faced the technical challenge of offering subscriber-only audio content, rather than relying on third-party services, the team runs their own backend to deliver the shows via an Amazon server.Įarly-Access: A s part of its retention efforts last year, The New York Times offered episodes of its podcast “Caliphate” a week early to subscribers. With over 80,000 listeners for its free shows, they also have 10,000 listeners paying £5 a month for extra audio content. Subscription: The Anfield Wrap is a Liverpool-based podcast company, with a sizeable portion of its audience paying for monthly subscriptions. David Stern, Slate’s vice president of product and business development Podcast business models Listeners develop strong habits around their podcast apps, and are unlikely to use a second or third app just to get access to bonus content or ad-free versions of one or two shows. We think people want to continue using their existing podcast players. Until recently, it has been very difficult for publishers to offer premium audio while still allowing listeners to keep the habits they had already formed around audio. We know how important habit formation is in any retention strategy, and this holds true for audio as well. But the pivot to paid is more than just direct reader revenues, it also includes listener revenues. We’ve said before that 2019 will be the year more publishers “ pivot to paid“, meaning prioritising direct reader revenues over advertising or other revenue streams. Now five years in, we are seeing a shift in the core business strategy for many podcasts. These early podcast efforts were all mainly advertising driven, with some also soliciting donations via Patreon or other platforms. We can look back at 2014 as when podcasts really entered the mainstream public conscience, with the premiere of Serial, the founding of Gimlet, and the launch of Apple’s first standalone podcast app. ![]() Join us all year as we dig deeper into the financial impact audio can have for publishers. We examine this shift, the technical solutions available on the market, and best practices from successful premium podcast strategies. Following in the footsteps of many publishers who are focusing on a “pivot to paid” this year, some podcasts are also offering subscriber-only, or early access, to podcasts. In the second article for our “ Business of Audio” series, we are taking a look at the changing business model for podcasts.
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