A Message from George Pavlovic, Vice President of Sales
Dear Friends,
Welcome to our first newsletter of the New Year! On behalf of the information commerce team at Macrovision®, I hope this issue finds you well and provides you with relevant information to help you drive your business.
Recently, I was named vice president of sales, information commerce, after several years as a member of the sales team. I’m really excited about the opportunities that our access control and commerce solutions bring to the information publishing community, and I'm here as a resource if you’d like to learn more.
There have been many other exciting changes at Macrovision over the past few months. We just announced our plans to launch a new Customer Advisory Board to further increase communication with current customers and incorporate direct feedback into upcoming versions of our solutions for information publishers: RightAccess and RightCommerce.
In addition, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing customers find success online (FT.com Claims Big Traffic Growth On Access Model Change) and get recognized for their efforts (SIIA CODiE Award Finalists Announced).
We’re also developing strategies and resources to help you maximize the value of your digital content operation (Key Performance Indicators to Monitor When Merchandising Digital Content, Integrating RightAccess with Web Analytics Tools).
Our goal continues to be meeting the needs of information publishers with innovative solutions that both increase the value of your content and optimize the revenue opportunities that the digital world has to offer.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes,
George Pavlovic
Vice President of Sales, Information Commerce
Macrovision
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In the News
Outsell Estimates Information Industry Grew to $381 Billion
In January, global research and advisory firm Outsell, Inc. released its “Information Industry Market Size and Share Rankings: Preliminary 2007 Results” report which includes estimates on 2007 revenue and 2006-to-2007 growth of the information industry and its segments.
In the report, Outsell estimates that information industry revenues grew 5.3 percent to $381 billion in 2007, slowing from a 6 percent growth rate in 2006. The report also includes:
- Preliminary revenue and growth rates for the total information industry and its top 20 companies;
- Preliminary revenue and growth rates of the top 10 leaders in 10 industry segments;
- Commentary on the trends driving growth in each segment;
- Insights about segments ranging from Search – which continued to prosper as Google™ remained the top company in the information industry – to the News segment, which experienced negative growth in 2007; and
- Outsell’s top 10 predictions for 2008.
Outsell maintains and continuously updates a database of over 6,000 publishers and information providers worldwide and uses a supply-side methodology to size the information industry. Click here for more information.
SIIA CODiE Award Finalists Announced
The CODiE Awards celebrate achievement and vision in software, education technology and digital content. Presented by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), these awards represent a peer-reviewed honor in the industry.
We’re thrilled that several RightAccess and RightCommerce customers are finalists
in numerous categories, including:
- Best Course/Classroom Management Solution
- Best Instructional Solution for Students at Home
- Best K-12 Enterprise Solution
- Best Medical and Health Information Product
- Best Online Consumer Information Service
- Best Online General Reference Service
- Best Online Professional Financial Information Service
Winners will be announced at the SIIA CODiE Awards Gala taking place May 20, 2008 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, in conjunction with the all-new conference, SIIA NetGain: the Convergence of Content & Software. The black-tie optional Gala includes a cocktail reception, dinner, awards presentation ceremony and the famous “Afterglow Party” featuring live music.
Click here for a complete list of finalists and more information about the CODiE Awards.
From paidContent.org: FT.com Claims Big Traffic Growth on Access Model Change
The number of people registering with FT.com “went from 200 to 400 a week up to between 15,000 and 17,000 a week” since introducing a new access model in November, FT CEO John Ridding tells Portfolio. “We’ve been very encouraged by the numbers. The page view numbers are knocking on the door of about 10 million a month, 100 percent change.” Last audited ABCe figures for FT.com in Q1 2007 showed 5.35 million unique monthly users.
In a partial lowering of its pay wall, FT.com now allows readers coming in from blogs and other aggregators to read five stories a month for free and another 30 for free upon registering with the site; after that, it’s pay-up time. Ridding: “The idea is you’re constantly funneling (subscribers) through, and we’re not sure yet how the old subscribers will react, but so far so good.” Why did he buy Money-Media this month? ”It’s digital, and we want to get bigger in digital.”
Click here to access the complete article at paidContent.org.
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White Paper
Key Performance Indicators to Monitor When Merchandising Digital Content
Information publishers and online service providers who sell access to premium content – whether text, audio, video or software (SaaS) – are subject to the same core growth tenants. Ways to increase revenues or margin include:
- Increasing the number of customers they sell to
- Increasing the frequency or number of products that customers buy
- Increasing the average dollar value per sale
- Increasing the effectiveness by which they do business
Paid content providers likely have one or both of the following types of customers: transaction customers (one-off buyers) and subscription or contract customers. Consumer sites typically sell subscriptions online, while many high-value business-to-business providers have a higher-touch sales model which requires contract negotiations and invoicing.
So what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should information publishers and online service providers be monitoring on an ongoing basis?
In the coming weeks, Macrovision will be offering “Key Performance Indicators to Monitor When Merchandising Digital Content,” a white paper that will expand on the growth tenants listed above and offer the KPIs that can help you maximize revenue.
To receive a copy of the white paper as soon as it’s available, please contact us.
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Industry Events
Buying & Selling eContent (BSeC) 2008
April 13-15 / Marriott Camelback Inn/ Scottsdale, AZ
Macrovision is proud to sponsor the Buying & Selling eContent (BSeC) conference which will be held April 13 to 15 at Marriott's Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona. For nine years running, BSeC has given content industry executives and solutions providers the chance to build valuable relationships, as well as explore potential partners and deals, in a breathtaking setting.
This year’s program will offer thought-provoking sessions and additional opportunities to explore timely topics with peers and associates. Working daytime sessions allow participants to interact through formal talks, facilitated conversations, group discussions, private meeting breaks, and informal mixers.
Click here for more information about Buying & Selling eContent.
EPublishing Innovation Forum 2008
May 7-8 / Marriott Regents Park / London
Macrovision is a platinum sponsor of the EPublishing Innovation Forum, a leading European conference focusing exclusively on innovative solutions to digital publishing challenges. Kate Collins, Macrovision’s director of product management, will speak to this topic at the event, tapping her extensive experience in the industry and with Macrovision’s information publishing customers.
The two-day EPublishing Innovation Forum will address new technologies and business models, as well as user needs and expectations, in a way that can help you increase profitability, win new customers, and build a community while protecting existing revenue streams.
Attendees are expected to include business executives from publishers active in the digital space, such as directors and vice presidents of strategy, business development, marketing, sales, partnerships, licensing, or digital strategy; as well as CTOs from publishing companies, senior editorial personnel, consultants, analysts, venture capitalists and more.
Click here for more information about the EPublishing Innovation Forum 2008.
SIIA NetGain: The Convergence of Content & Software
May 18-20 / The Palace Hotel / San Francisco
Organized by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), the SIIA CODiE Awards Gala is held in conjunction with the SIIA NetGain conference, which brings together East Coast media titans and West Coast software gurus to address the promise of convergence.
The lines between software and content have been blurred beyond recognition, but many companies still struggle with how to take advantage of this increasingly important mash-up. With the growing recognition that convergence is now do-or-die, SIIA NetGain will provide the insight, the tools, and the relationships to not only survive, but to thrive.
- Learn how ISVs can enrich their products with the content that customers demand, and how media companies can make their content come alive through software applications.
- Build relationships that can make effective convergence a reality, providing the enterprise with access to applications and content anywhere, anytime and on any device.
Click here for more information or to register online.
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Customer Corner
New Customer Advisory Board
We’re excited to announce that, this summer, we’ll be launching a new Customer Advisory Board for RightAccess and RightCommerce users. With quarterly conference calls and in-person events, members will have multiple opportunities to provide feedback directly to the product management team and exchange best practices with fellow customers.
If you’re interested in joining or receiving more information about the new Customer Advisory Board, please contact us.
Integrating RightAccess with Web Analytics Tools
In the last issue of this newsletter, we shared with you strategies to integrate RightAccess and RightCommerce with different infrastructural applications, including content management, accounts receivable and other mission-critical systems.
Now, you can also integrate RightAccess with Web analytics tools, such as WebTrends® and Coremetrics™, to gain a more accurate picture of who is accessing your content, and to what extent. The steps are simple:
- In the RightAccess system, create a unique user for each individual or institutional user, or group of institutional users. (For individual users, credentials are typically username/password or token; while institutional or groups of users can vary from username/password, token, IP address to referring URL.)
- If you’re using the RightAccess Web Adapter, enable it to record the unique ID of the user or group in the Web server logs. (If you’re not using the Web Adapter, the unique ID should be added to the URL which will be recorded in the Web server logs). You can also use JavaScript™ tags instead of Web server logs by simply passing the unique ID through the JavaScript tag.
- Within the Web analytics tool, use the unique ID that has now been collected to query the RightAccess database for any other metadata associated with the user (e.g., company, address, job function, etc.).
- Take the resulting data and create reports, which can be extremely useful in future marketing and engineering endeavors.
The main benefit of integrating RightAccess with a Web Analytics tool is to transform anonymous or aggregate data into specific information on a user or group. Common reports can include “power users” and “power companies,” and can provide more information about popular areas of your site, specific users and groups, and customer trends.
Please note that some corporate privacy policies will not allow you to track usage in this way. We recommend consulting your legal team to understand your limitations, if any, prior to integration.
For more information about how to integrate RightAccess with Web analytics tools, please contact your account manager.
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