This story on Newsday’s efforts to attract subscribers to its newly-pay-walled website a truly shocking fact:
That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez when a reporter asked how many people had signed up for the site. Mr. Jimenez didn’t know the number off the top of his head, so he asked a deputy sitting near him. He replied 35.
Michael Amon, a social services reporter, asked for clarification.
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“I heard you say 35 people,” he said, from Newsday’s auditorium in Melville. “Is that number correct?”
Mr. Jimenez nodded.
Wait. There must be a zero missing in there. Either that, or the Newsday folks have so badly over-estimated their ability to find subscribers that’s the company is being confronted by a cost/benefit ratio that makes legendary cinematic bombs such as Heaven’s Gate and Pluto Nash look like sound (even spectacular) investments.
The web site redesign and relaunch cost the Dolans $4 million, according to Mr. Jimenez. With those 35 people, they’ve grossed about $9,000.
In fundraising terms, that works out to spending about $445 to make a single dollar. Not promising. Of course, let’s remember that we’re talking about a company being run by the family that has turned the New York Knickerbockers into a bloated, costly laughing-stock. Maybe this is really just a strategy by the Dolans to get the New York folks talking about their magazine, rather than their NBA franchise.
In fairness, there’s a caveat that suggests there may be a bit more to this story than just a “Chicken Little” moment for Old Media: “Anyone who has a newspaper subscription is allowed free access; anyone who has Optimum Cable, which is owned by the Dolans and Cablevision, also gets it free. Newsday representatives claim that 75 percent of Long Island either has a subscription or Optimum Cable.”
My favorite industry reaction thus far? Definitely Newsweek’s Twitter feed:
