[ContentBiz] 5 Specific Ways Subscription Sites are Leaving Money on the Table

"[Joe Meth, head of the consumer portal SubscriptionConnection.com] estimates content subscription services online including niche b-to-b offerings may be as high as 2,500 by the end of 2004. In comparison, the print subscription newsletter industry has more than 5,000 titles and in 1995 was estimated to sell at least $2 billion in subscriptions per year, plus an additional $800 million in ancillary revenues mainly from list rentals and items such as special reports sold directly to subscribers. Now, almost a decade later, it's certainly significantly larger.

If you assume the two industries are fairly similar in terms of selling targeted high-value content directly to end users, this means there's plenty of room for the online subscription industry to grow."

Interestingly, there seems to be less new subscription sites being launched these days. Joe Meth also gets questions from angry customers who can't figure out how to cancel auto-recurring services.