Many media companies have become aware of the great potential that lies in ePaper data, and one such example is Danish newspaper Børsen who’s currently exploring ways to amp up their data setup.
Back in 2015, Børsen conducted a thorough reader survey among the readers of the print paper, and they compared this with the ePaper data. This gave them a clear indication that the reading patterns of the ePaper and the print paper are closely comparable.
Since then, the ePaper measurement metrics have only been improved - most recently with zoom tracking in the replica edition. That’s why Børsen’s Head of Media, Jørn Andresen, wants to put the data collected through the ePaper. more actively into use.
“We strive to do more in terms of engaging the segment of subscribers that don’t use our products, e.g. by sending them emails. It’s extremely crucial that we utilize the user data more offensively, and we are invested in doing so” says Jørgen Andresen.
“In addition, there is also the part about our journalists which is a bit trickier. Once we’ve fine-tuned our data setup then we can start refining our journalism based on the data. By changing priorities, behavior, article placement etc. And ultimately, how we write our stories” he says.
It’s a prerequisite that all the data are condensed into something manageable and interpretable. That’s why Børsen is currently collaborating with Visiolink on an Engagement Studio dashboard which provides an overview of the article performance in the ePaper. And this may very well prove to be a proper game changer, Jørgen Andresen states:
“Engagement Studio will be used to assess whether the curated content is the right selection, if it has the right length, if it’s placed correctly, and all these sorts of things. At Børsen, we have three different lengths on our articles – A, B and C. And it would also be interesting to see, based on zoom and clicks, how much the different articles are being read, and whether we make too many A’s or C’s” he says.
Børsen’s Head of Media is positive that Engagement Studio will have tremendous impact once it’s fully implemented in the newsroom.
“We want to use it a couple of times a week in relation to our internal critique. The management will use it strategically, and our journalists needs to use it to analyze their articles, for instance if an article is doing better or worse than articles with the same placement in the newspaper would normally do. I see this being used on all levels of Børsen, and our people should use it on a daily basis preferably” he states.
Børsen company subscriptions
There’s a saying that there are always two sides to every story. And this case is no exception. Jørgen Andresen explains that, apart from the fact that they want to put the user data more actively into use, the user data is actually already fundamental for the way that Børsen invoice their company subscriptions.
A Børsen company subscription gives employees access to all of the Danish newspaper’s content – that being their website borsen.dk, financial sub-site Børsen Pro, and the Børsen ePaper. One way would be to set a fixed price for these subscriptions, but instead Børsen bill the companies based on how and how much their employees use the subscription.
“We track the employees’ usage patterns and report this back to the companies in order to determine how much they will be invoiced. Which of our platforms the employees use, and how often they do it, affects the amount on the invoice” explains Jørgen Andresen.
With the status as Denmark’s leading business newspaper, inarguably, a Børsen subscription is a must-have for many Danish companies. So, it’s no surprise that company subscriptions account for a substantial part of Børsen’s revenue, and the
Børsen ePaper is »twice as valuable«, as Jørgen Andresen puts it, in regard to the valuation of their different products.
“The ePaper plays a significant role in the way we invoice the company subscriptions since it’s a very popular platform among the subscribers. This puts huge emphasis on the need for a reliable tracking setup around the ePaper” he says.
Jørgen Andresen points out that even if a company’s employees turn out to be the history’s heaviest Børsen users, their bill will never increase with more than 30 percent.
