Tuesday, July 19, 2005
New Religion News Blog
Our client, Religion News Service, has launched a blog, which can be found here.
As B or Not 2B readers know, Religion News Service is a secular newswire which covers religion as a news story, and earns its revenues by selling the right to republish stories in other media (we're syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, Canadian Press and self-syndicated to non-newspaper clients.) Our subscribers fall into several categories: consumer newspapers, other consumer media, religious media (newspapers and magazines) and websites. We also have a small and growing group of read-only subscribers, who see the service as a newsletter.
Over the past few years, RNS has faced many of the challenges that paid content providers face. Our subscribers are experiencing lower revenues, tightened news wells, and budget cuts. We've grown our revenues by focusing on leveraging the brand among our clients--we've launched a specialty press release distribution service, built our photo and image service, and have expanded our consulting practice (we consult with organizations who want to better understand how to cover religion as a news story, or better understand the implications of religion events on their businesses.)
And we've begun to offer more free content. This is the true challenge for us, because subscription revenues still constitute the majority of our income, and because we're essentially a b2b play--selling our services to businesses who then sell their services to consumers. We hope that the free offerings will drive more more subscribers, of course. And ultimately, we'd like to drive more general traffic to the website and to our feeds, though we have no intention of becoming a consumer play (Beliefnet has that market space well and truly locked up).
The RNS blog is a continuation of the free content tightrope we're walking. We're trying to make access to our free offerings more widely available, give a taste of the pieces we're working on which aren't free, and point to interesting quotes and pieces in other media.
Essentially, we hope the RNS blog will help build the community of religion writers, editors, media owners and religion professionals we already serve, which we further hope will help us build alternative revenues streams which will both leverage and support the core offering of the service--which is the best coverage of religion news available anywhere.
It's an interesting journey. If you have the chance to check out the blog, let me know what you think. And if you know anyone who'd be interested in seeing the blog, please point them to it.
Comments
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As B or Not 2B readers know, Religion News Service is a secular newswire which covers religion as a news story, and earns its revenues by selling the right to republish stories in other media (we're syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, Canadian Press and self-syndicated to non-newspaper clients.) Our subscribers fall into several categories: consumer newspapers, other consumer media, religious media (newspapers and magazines) and websites. We also have a small and growing group of read-only subscribers, who see the service as a newsletter.
Over the past few years, RNS has faced many of the challenges that paid content providers face. Our subscribers are experiencing lower revenues, tightened news wells, and budget cuts. We've grown our revenues by focusing on leveraging the brand among our clients--we've launched a specialty press release distribution service, built our photo and image service, and have expanded our consulting practice (we consult with organizations who want to better understand how to cover religion as a news story, or better understand the implications of religion events on their businesses.)
And we've begun to offer more free content. This is the true challenge for us, because subscription revenues still constitute the majority of our income, and because we're essentially a b2b play--selling our services to businesses who then sell their services to consumers. We hope that the free offerings will drive more more subscribers, of course. And ultimately, we'd like to drive more general traffic to the website and to our feeds, though we have no intention of becoming a consumer play (Beliefnet has that market space well and truly locked up).
The RNS blog is a continuation of the free content tightrope we're walking. We're trying to make access to our free offerings more widely available, give a taste of the pieces we're working on which aren't free, and point to interesting quotes and pieces in other media.
Essentially, we hope the RNS blog will help build the community of religion writers, editors, media owners and religion professionals we already serve, which we further hope will help us build alternative revenues streams which will both leverage and support the core offering of the service--which is the best coverage of religion news available anywhere.
It's an interesting journey. If you have the chance to check out the blog, let me know what you think. And if you know anyone who'd be interested in seeing the blog, please point them to it.
