WIth the growth of the web in the late 1990s, many print publications created a web presence and tried to figure out how to make money on it.  Efforts to monetize (a great word if there ever was one) these web sites by selling advertising, subscriptions, or swag were only partly successful.  Eventually, many of the sites were used as ‘added value’ for print offerings, although a similar trend was playing out with television and radio.  Though all expect to be able to create a revenue flow from their online presence, it has been expected among many that simply convering the costs is the best that can be hoped for now.

Magazine and newspaper advertising has been shrinking along with the economy.  Not an unusual circumstance, but this time there is a difference because alternatives exist that were previously unavailable.  One option:  merge the print magazine with online added-value portion and charge a subscription.  Convert your present subscribers, and try to grab web site visitors.  Sell ads and make money on both the subscription and advertising revenue.  Its already happening.

Over at the ESPN sports network, the ten-year-old print magazine is about to be abandoned and merged with the online ‘added value’ version of same.  The difference?  The online edition will no longer be free, but rather available through subscription only.  Whether or not this will be successful is not clear.  Web users have gotten used to having information for free, and, while most are willing to wade through ads along the margin of the web page, they may be unwilling to pay for web content.  On the other hand, why should web publishing be and different from print in terms of the subscription model?  LL&M is near the end of its transition to full electronic mode (coming in December 2009) and even though advertising is not really part of the equation, the value derived from online publishing cannot be ignored.  A real webvantage (and isn’t it always the case that just when you think you’ve coined a cool new term, someone else already thought of it) is the added value of graphics, sound, video, clickable links.  It is like more for your money at the same price.

Newspapers are learning that you can’t aways survive by giving your product away for free, and that ad money won’t always cover costs of developing content.  Obviously, the who thing has quite a way to go before it is played out.  The case with ESPN’s online magazine will be an interesting test case.

Eric C. Shoaf

Editor, LL&M

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