Bob Cox, Publisher, Winnipeg Free Press

Micropayments
One Year Later
Digital monetization strategy
To build an engaged audience monetized through
subscriptions, single copy sales, and advertising
One year in paid digital readership
Overall Circulation Up
Total digital and print subscriptions
January to March 2016
3%
Micropayment Sales
 265,000 articles purchased
 About 1,000 per day
 2,531 refunded – less than 1%
 42,000 stories sold at least once
 Average user spends $20 per year
Micropayments are the door to
Winnipeg Free Press content
15% of micropayment users
convert to all access digital at
$16.99 per month
Required registration has given us
much better marketing opportunities
We have created special e-mail blasts
to drive traffic
Digital audience is much more engaged
• Average page views per reader = 9
(up from 5.6)
• Average user durations is 11 minutes
(up from 5 minutes)
• Average active time per page is 73 seconds
(up from 50 seconds)
Top 10 articles purchased
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Accused killer of city teen makes court appearance
Police fear violent set-up in missing teen case, seek two witnesses
Social media judges Chase’s parents with appalling rudeness
High School teacher dies during field trip
Cooper Nemeth believed to have been killed within a few hours of
disappearance
‘Biggest, boldest development’ in city’s history
Notable eating spots fined or shut down
Internal probe begins after man shot by police at Grant and Kenaston
Pallister’s decision to mislead people about time spent in Costa Rica
is inexplicable
A chapter closes for Paul and Holly McNally, who created Canada’s
largest independent bookstore
Mistakes
Challenges
• Page view decline real (20 – 30%)
• Page view decline perceived – Resistance from
advertisers fear of declining or repeat
audience
• Counter: Largely an exercise in education,
we still have large audience and ample
inventory
Next steps
• New app aimed at specific slice of paid digital users
Next steps
Insider Advantage
New digital-only report aimed at specific
slice of business audience