Rich Boehne is ready for scorn or doubt from other broadcasters in the face of his unprecedented TV paywall.
The president and CEO of the E.W. Scripps Co., which announced on Thursday that it would launch a digital subscription model around certain premium content at its WCPO Cincinnati site in January, says broadcasters' incredulity may be to his advantage.
"This is a very aggressive experiment, and I guess I'd be pleased if they're scratching their heads because that means that they're not going to compete with us in the short term," he says. "So maybe we'll get a good head start."The real question, Boehne says, is why other television stations haven't tried it sooner. "Especially watching what the nation's newspapers are doing, why in the world would we not give this a try?"Scripps' portfolio includes a number of daily newspapers in 13 markets that have already launched paywalls, so Boehne may be less averse than many to pull the trigger asking consumers to pay for something they're long used to getting for free.
"Scripps has a long history of being very entrepreneurial and risk-tolerant," he says.
But that risk is part of a much broader strategy, says Adam Symson, Scripps' chief digital officer, one that involves an entire brand proposition beyond just its digital platform.
"We believe that in order for a local brand to establish dominance, you have to play very hard where the consumer is going, and the consumer is going on to digital platforms," Symson says. He says the brand's very future, including the circulation levels of its newspapers or the ratings of its television stations, is predicated on the strength of its digital play in a given market.
And so, "in Cincinnati, we're certainly doubling down," he says.
"We call our whole strategy the overbuild," Boehne says. "This is not to switch resources or switch money, and certainly the goal here is not to fund it through switched revenue."Boehne won't reveal just how much Scripps has invested in WCPO for the experiment, but it has meant adding nearly 30 new staffers, most in editorial roles, at the ABC affiliate, all working toward building - and selling - a depth and breadth of digital content worth paying for.
Many of those staffers were hired away from other local media outlets on the strength of their own in-depth reporting brands, such as Dan Monk and Lucy May of the local Cincinnati Business Courier.
Symson says the company has spent more than two years building up to this move, studying closely the predilections of consumers both friendly to their brand and unfamiliar with it to get a stronger sense of their general digital expectations.
The results of that market research are stories -text-centric and multimedia - that dive much deeper than the "typical fare from a television website," Symson says. As an example, he points to this story about a shopping app with which Macy's is experimenting to track consumer habits.
The premium content, Symson says, will convey a greater depth and perspective more aligned with digital consumers' expectations. Some of it will cater to a business-minded perspective, given that the city is home to the corporate headquarters of Proctor & Gamble Co., The Kroger Co. and Macy's Inc. in addition to a number of research companies.
Other content will delve into arts and entertainment, where multimedia stories will be most prevalent, along with coverage of nightlife and the city's burgeoning dining scene.
Symson says the station has actually been teasing out the more in-depth content for some time. Its focus for the next two months will be calling users' attention to its value proposition and giving notice of January's impending paywall.
Scripps is holding back the particular terms of that subscription model, though Symson allows that monthly and annual subscription products will be on the table for users. He also notes that the station is looking into models that allow users to consume foreshortened versions of premium stories.
WCPO uses the Endplay content management system, and its paywall software has been developed from the same proprietary software that Scripps uses for its newspaper paywalls. Those paywalls use a meter set to varying lengths of access time after publication depending on the property before stories go behind the wall.
Monetization of the site's new premium section won't be stopping at the paywall. Boehne hints at at least two new digital revenue streams affixed that will be unveiled in the next year, though he won't divulge particulars.
"There's more infrastructure yet to build for this to be successful," he says. "You'll see us try many things people may say [are] out on the edge."Symson is slightly more forthcoming about what he sees evolving from a subscription "to a real insider membership.