Three top trends in content monetization for pulishers

In the last years, publishers have begun realizing that the key to successfully monetize their content is to experiment with different strategies and constantly evolve, due to various economic, social and technological reasons.

The last trends in the publishing industry are native advertising, subscription programs and premium paid content.

Native Advertising is a form of online contextual advertising that consists in posting advertising content within a coherent context with the article or a topic of a blog, even visually, to melt with the outline in which they are posted. It has now become a consolidated reality that will spread faster and faster.

A typical example of native advertising can be represented by the insertion of an advertisement of a driller inside an article that talks about DIY projects.

The ratio beyond native advertising is related to the flow of consumer thinking. A contextual advertising does not interrupt the attention of the reference audience, on the contrary, it should interest and involve more than traditional advertising. In an era where each of us is bombarded with advertising pop-ups, it is necessary to avoid communicating through invasive banners and adv, which do not produce concrete results in terms of communicative effectiveness and persuasiveness.

Subscriptions could be seen as a constant revenue because they generally require a medium or long term commitment from subscribers. Some of those prefer to pay for a single content or a micropayment when offered. This strategy has been particularly successful, for example, for streaming sites such as Netflix and HBO.

Offering premium content or service, where users can first sample subscription and get higher levels of access when they pay, is another relevant way to monetize the service. This model has been successfully used by Spotify and also many magazine publishers announced significant increases in digital subscriptions on mobile and tablets.

For a successful result, publishers should consider that subscribers are willing to pay for content not just when it is compelling, but they also require transparent and understandable pricing and billing models.