Digital Subscription Systems in the Face of COVID-19 Crisis: the Case of ‘El Mundo’

Tripodos, number 47, vol. 2 | 2020 | 87-101 Received: 28/04/20 ISSN: 1138-3305 Accepted: 17/06/20 87 Digital Subscription Systems in the Face of COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of ‘El Mundo’ Enrique Canovaca de la Fuente Rovira i Virgili University (Spain) Tripodos 2020 | 47 VOL. 2 Tripodos The aim of this article is to analyse the Voz de Galicia’. The reader becomes an impact of COVID-19 on the income alternative to lessen advertising losses models of the Spanish general inter- at a time of global transformation of est press through an in-depth analysis the industry towards reader-revenue of the case of ‘El Mundo’. This article models. Long-term consequences of a shows data about the decline in adver- probable economic recession once the tising, both in printed and digital for- pandemic effects are reduced are also mats, during the first quarter of 2020 considered in the analysis. The article and, more specifically, during March. It also outlines some key points to ensure also reveals that the media platforms the viability of newspaper publishers, with a previously implemented sub- such as investing in journalists with scription system have gained a signif- relevant sources or profiles that know icant number of new registrations. Not how to manage new digital businesses. only is ‘El Mundo’ an example of this trend, but also other newspapers such Keywords: COVID-19, press, business, as ‘Eldiario.es’, ‘Ara’, ‘La Razón’ or ‘La subscriptions and advertising. he Spanish press industry is currently suffering the failing incomes in advertising caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, joining the gradual decline Tin ads investment and print distribution due to the financial crisis a decade ago. Digital subscriptions are increasingly becoming a solid alternative to reduce endemic losses in the sector by means of payment walls, in generalist and regional pressrooms, or membership models. Both legacy players and digital natives face the transformation of their business to focus on the user rather than captu- ring quantitative traffic, with the aim of gaining greater economic independence from large advertisers, public administrations, and tech giants. Changes towards reader-revenue business models are still at an early stage in Spain, unlike the United States or other northern European countries, therefore ENRIQUE CANOVACA DE LA FUENTE 88 the economic impact of COVID-19 can have more serious effects. Even though newspapers are obtaining record traffic data, they are not able to monetize it through digital advertising, so their main revenue system is put in jeopardy. However, those media that had already implemented a payment system will be able to compensate for the drop in advertising and reduce downsizing, in addition to positioning itself as a relevant brand at a time of great informative interest. This article studies the effects of the pandemic on the revenue model of the general interest press in Spain and reflects on the possibility of accelerating the implementation of digital subscription systems. To do so, numerous examples Tripodos 2020 | 47 VOL. 2 Tripodos from international and Spanish media are mentioned and the case of El Mundo is deeply analysed as the first major generalist pressroom of Madrid to adopt a digital payment model in October 2019. Moreover, data of negative economic impact in advertising and an increase in the average income of the digital user are shown in an interview with the Chief Digital Officer, Vicente Ruiz. The research also includes qualitative assessments of the operation of the Premium pro- ject and reveals internal organizational changes aimed at perfecting a business that focuses on the reader. The first part of the article contextualizes the evolution of the business model of the press in the last decade and the economic consequences of COVID-19, be- ing the advertising hiatus and the approval of downsizing the main issues to be studied. In the second part, the immediate effects of the pandemic on the media with payment systems —an exponential increase in the number of users— are discussed, as well as the debate generated around the issue of free-access information in a health emergency situation. Finally, the results of the analysis of El Mundo and the conclusions are presented. THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC The vast majority of generalist press publishers in Spain have tried to compensate for the losses caused by advertisements and the distribution on paper over the last decade, by implementing a model of massively attracting the audience with free access to digital content of poor value (Casinos, 2013; Bassets, 2013; Casero-Ripollés, 2014). The user has not been the goal for the media, although the strategic positioning on the Internet rests on the activity of the readers themselves (Orihuela, 2015: 91). Now, given the examples of international success and the growing difficulties in monetizing the millions of unique users through advertising, due to the drop in prices and the strong competition with tech giants (Fisher, 2017; Bell, 2017), digital subscriptions have emerged as an alternative source of economic income. The new scenario requires the media to provide valuable content (Canovaca, 2019) and work to regain credibility from society (Rusiñol, 2013; Jiménez, 2019), since the public distinguishes between trivial and relevant information to their daily lives (Schrøder, 2019). Although Spain already had numerous examples of digital subscription systems, such as Eldiario.es, Vilaweb, Ara, the regional newspapers of Vocento, La DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION SYSTEMS IN THE FACE OF COVID-19 CRISIS: THE CASE OF ‘EL MUNDO’ Razón or El Español, the major players had not foreseen their implementation 89 until the end of 2019 —the case of El Mundo— or during 2020 —El País, El Confi- dencial, ABC or La Vanguardia—. Therefore, COVID-19 has come at a time of economic fragility for the pressrooms, with downward paper advertising and more difficulties to monetize digital formats. The pandemic has fully impacted the transformation of the old business model. The virus has had double consequences for Spanish press publishers. First- ly, digital newspapers broke their audience records during March. According to Comscore data, La Vanguardia consolidated its leadership with 28.4 million unique users, followed by El Mundo, with 27.34 million, El País, with 26.56 mil- Tripodos 2020 | 47 VOL. 2 Tripodos lion, and ABC, with 25.41 million. In situations of risk to human life, citizens place information as a key activity (Casero-Ripollés, 2020). In addition, digital media has the highest volume of news broadcast, according to the quantitative study carried out by Lázaro-Rodríguez and Herrerra-Viedma (2020) on the cover- age of COVID-19 in Spain. At the same time, the research conducted by Masip et al. (2020) reveals how an increase in the frequency of consumption takes more place among those users who previously consulted news regularly. Therefore, these are more predisposed readers to perceive media as valuable, a necessary step to create a subscription. Secondly, there was a 27.8% drop in advertising investment in the Span- ish media during March, compared to 2019, from 376.6 million euros to 271.9 (Cano, 2020b). Infoadex shows worse data for printed newspapers —with a loss of 48.20%— and better for digital media —while in January and February they registered positive figures, the following month they had minus 14.50%—. So, the calculations made by i2p (2020) indicate that the advertising investment in the pressrooms was that of 77 million euros in the first quarter of the year, 23.2% less than in the same period of the previous exercise. Again, the drop for digital media is more subdued, with a year-on-year drop of 4.8%. In April, still in severe confinement, the study by Arce Auditsa, published by Prnoticias (2020), indicated a drop in advertising revenue of 12.64% on the Internet and 46.72% in the press. The data for the sector is negative but not as much as it was expected at the beginning of the pandemic, when the president of the Association of Information Media, Antonio Fernández-Galiano, feared losses up to 80% in March and 50% in April (Querol, 2020). However, the Spanish Association of Periodical Publications Editors (AEEPP), the Association of Information Magazines (ARI), the Association of Professional Press and Multimedia Contents (Coneqtia) and the Association of Cultural Magazines of Spain (ARCE), representing a total of 1,500 publications, fear a future negative impact of 250 million euros due to the fall in sales, diffusion, advertising, organization of events and content production (Dircomfidencial, 2020a). First, the closure of the activity of advertisers is the reason to understand the described trend. According to IAB Spain, 71% of them attributed the decreases in advertising investment between March 23 and 29 to the reduction or suspension of sales and to economic uncertainty. The second reason is the blocking of any term related to the virus by advertisers (Hagging and Patel, 2020). Therefore, the record inventory of page views put up for sale by the media in programmatic platforms was useless in terms of economic profitability. It seems logical that the ENRIQUE CANOVACA DE LA FUENTE 90 media focuses all their informative attention on COVID-19, but brands prefer not to associate themselves with content that describes deaths, the collapse of the health system or acute personal crisis. The prospects for advertising are not favourable. According to a survey carried out by the International News Media Association (INMA), cited in the report El impacto de la pandemia en los medios (Cerezo, 2020), the editors forecast a global decrease of 30% for the second quarter of 2020, from 20% for the third and from 15% for the fourth.

Load more