Confluence_banner April 2011
Greetings!

AMS Use and Satisfaction Study Goes International

 

In the fall of 2010, we fielded a version of the annual AMS Use and Satisfaction study in Canada, Australia and the UK.  Combined with the US study, we now have the most comprehensive picture available of the adoption of AMS products by associations.  Of the major US providers, only the iMIS product is marketed and used widely in all of these other countries, and is in fact, the leading AMS product in those markets.

 

However, adoption rates for commercial AMS product in these countries are low as compared to the US. For associations with annual budgets of at least $1M, more than two-thirds in the US are using some type of commercial AMS solution as compared to less than half in the other three countries. In contrast,  much larger proportions of these organizations use some type of custom system than is the case in the US. There is some evidence that this is changing and we expect penetration rates for commercial offerings to rise significantly over the next 2-3 years.

 

A summary report of the 2010 International AMS study will be available through the Lehman Reports website (www.lehmanreports.com) in May.

 

Mobile and the Travel Market

 

Projections on the impact of mobile on routine business tasks and operations continue to mount fast and furious.  This month, a new eMarketer research report shows that mobile device users of travel-based research will increase from 19.7 million in 2010 to 29.7 million in 2012.  Those booking travel will grow from 8.7 million to 15.1 million.

 

Growth of Mobile Travel Users 

 

The report, "Mobile Travel Takes Off: Emerging Trends and Best Practices for Marketers," covers the status of mobile usage throughout the market:

  • Consumers:  Using mobile devices to plan, enhance and manage their travel
  • Travel suppliers and agencies: Using mobile as a delivery channel
  • Travel marketers:  Raising brand awareness, delivering timely information and creating rich experiences via multi-channel mobile campaigns

 

 



When the New York Times Puts up a Pay Wall


Print publishers of every form and format watch intensely any time a publisher erects a pay wall around its content.  Now after great anticipation the New York Times has announced its own pay wall, to be erected on March 28, 2011.

 

New York Times logo

This one comes with an array of permutations and loopholes that show how The Times is wrestling with finding a value point while not driving away the majority of its 30 million monthly web visitors.  

 

The tiered pricing structure is based on a threshold of 20 pages/day.  Subscribers pay in four-week payment increments:

  • $15 for access to the Web site plus a mobile app (or $195 for a full year), 
  • $20 for Web access and an iPad app ($260 a year) or 
  • $35 for an all-access plan ($455 a year). 

The Times reported in its own article about the pay wall that it estimates 85 percent of its online readers will never reach the 20-article ceiling.   The remaining 15% who may pay something corresponds roughly to research from the Pew Research Center and Harris Interactive that found 18%-19% of web users have paid for online news.

 

Up to 4.5 million subscribers paying a $195 a year would deliver more than $800 million, not including the advertising that would come from serving the more "intense" readership that marketers believe are attractive to advertisers.  

 

New York Times Company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said when announcing the plan: 

 

"This system is our latest, and best, demonstration of where we believe the future of valued content - be it news, music, games or more - is going." 

 

One of the most interesting aspects of "where this is going," is how the plan handles visitors who arrive via Google and who will be subject to the 20-page-day threshold, versus those arriving from Twitter and Facebook, who apparently can waltz in and read as much as they want.

 

It looks like a back-stage pass for the generation that is loathe to read the news, but when it does prefers to do so after being alerted by a friend to a headline on Twitter or Facebook, which of course they see mostly on their mobile devices.

 

 

Tom Lehman

Lehman Associates
 

 

 

 

ASM 2010 Study 

 Download a summary of our 2010 AMS Satisfaction Study.

 

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