Subscribe
for just...
plus
From a trend perspective, the pandemic has been a huge learning opportunity. Trends have shifted, they have accelerated, but they have also exposed the flaws.
One of the areas where this is most pronounced is with the virtual event market. Before the pandemic, this wasn't really that big of a thing, but then, as the pandemic hit, it became the thing that everyone did and the market was swamped.
In comparison to not being able to do anything, virtual events have worked great, but for most publishers, virtual events have been a struggle. They don't work the way we think they do, and now that the pandemic is coming to an end, the longevity of this focus is not that clear.
I have already talked about this at length. Back in August 2020, I wrote the article: "2021 and forward: What is the future of events for publishers?" A few months later, in November 2020, Marcela Kunova from journalism.co.uk and event organizer of Newsrewired, and I wrote "Let's talk about publishers and (virtual) events in 2021 and forward".
Both of these articles are still highly relevant and outline some of the key problems we face.
However, the more I think about this, the more I see a need for something entirely different. Too many virtual events feel like we are trying to place a square peg into a round hole. It doesn't quite work, and the whole experience is a bit awkward. And we instantly run into big problems like very low attendance rates.
One example is from WSJ, where they have learned that they will only get a 50% attendance rate on average. So if 1,000 people signed up for the event, only 500 people would show up. But these are actually good numbers, I have seen many examples of numbers that were far worse, sometimes all the way down to a 10% attendance rate.
Another big problem is longevity. Almost all virtual events today have zero longevity, meaning that once an event is over, they are likely to get no more views from it (in any substantial way), even if they make the recordings available afterwards.
Register to try out Baekdal Plus completely for free for one week.
Baekdal Plus is your premium destination for trends and analysis for the media industry. Every year you get 25 reports about the future media trends, business and editorial strategies, monetization analysis and insights about how to use analytics specifically for publishers.
As a subscriber, you also get full access to all the Plus reports (more than 200) published over the past 8 years, as well as the ability to share what you read.
Yes, of course, please write to plus@baekdal.com and I will send you a regular invoice that you can pay via your bank. I will need your company name, address and VAT number (if within the EU). Also, please note that due to this process being manual, this will be for an annual subscription only.
Yes, please write to plus@baekdal.com for details. But for 25-99 users: the price is 20% off the subscription price ($79/year per user), 100+ users is a fixed price at $5,000 (for all combined).
Yes, please head over to Baekdal Media to read about consulting where I can help you with strategy reviews, trend and strategy reports, and strategic guidance for you media company or a specific publication.
How do we define relevance? We look at what people are doing.
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Climate change coverage needs a different focus, otherwise we lose our audiences
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Solve one problem, to solve all of them.
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Churn is something you have to manage long before people even subscribe
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
When publishers want to engage with their audiences, are they really unengaging them instead?
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Only about 15% of the public pays for news, so how we do convert the remaining 85%?
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Free for subscribers
...or full access for $12
Founder, media analyst, author, and publisher. Follow on Twitter
"Thomas Baekdal is one of Scandinavia's most sought-after experts in the digitization of media companies. He has made himself known for his analysis of how digitization has changed the way we consume media."
Swedish business magazine, Resumé
plus
plus
plus
plus
plus
plus