The payment in Internet does not save Financial Times

The payment procedure of Financial Times does not save his results. The operative benefits of the economic journal fell down 42 % in 2009 (39 million pounds sterling, 43,2 million euros), with a reduction of the invoicing of 12 % (395 million euros).
His payment strategy for consumption or for intensity (metered model) has allowed him to obtain 126.000 digital subscribers and 750 licenses of company, an increase of 15 % with regard to 2008.
It is not possible to consider a big result, but it improves the numbers of 2004, when with his previous payment model it overcame 80.000 subscribers.
The users registered in FT.com are 1,8 millions, which another 1,4 millions join in FTChinese.com, where Pearson, his publishing company, he has chosen to expand.
But the diffusion of the newspaper keeps on falling down, 7 %, to remain in 402.799 copies.
Pero Pearson supports that the payment strategy for contents is the best future for the informative means. The publicity keeps on overcoming to the payment in the invoicing of Financial Times, but Pearson entrusts more in the future of the payment for services that in the advertizing investment due to the scarce profitability of the digital publicity.
Interactivate Byline, his company of information and financial services, it marks the way. It is consolidated like leader of the business of information of the group with an increase of sales of 5 % (484 million pounds sterling) and 7 % of growth of the benefits: 148 millions.
With this information, FT Publishing, the division of informative means of Pearson obtains 81 % of his income of payment and subscriptions thanks to Interactive Data while the low publicity to 19 %. The perspectives of the company insist that the advertizing market will be still volatile while the payment business will grow.
The bet for the digital information does also that the digital income is already 73 % opposite to only 27 % of the role, on the contrary than in the year 2000.
The Economist, where Pearson possesses 50 % of the capital, it continues his growth in diffusion up to 1,42 million copies, 2,2 % more than in 2008.
The results of the company are not different from those of other big groups like Hurry or The Washington Post Company, with which it coincides with the bet for the business of the education, the engine of the benefits in the three.
The business of the education allows to Pearson to increase his income 4 %, the same as the increase of his operative benefits, of 858 million pounds sterling, 947,7 million euros.
Lessons of the strategy Financial Times:
Change towards the digital business: of the products role to the digitalises, both in the division of education and in the informative one and in the books, where the sale of ebooks of Penguin has gone off from the appearance of Kindle de Amazon. Groups as The Washington Post or The New York Times already obtain 15 % of his income of the digital business, while in Spain the proportion is still much more a-year-old fall 8,7 % of the advertizing income in Vocento and minor in Hurry and, of course, in the televisions.
The contents as service. Pearson is sure that the new business of the contents and the information happens for turning into services providers when the information is a process.
I pay for reading instead of the sale of copies. The business of the information and the contents as service changes the old model of the sale of contents into the subscriptions and the licenses, the affiliation and the search of the profitability with a base coontinua and clients' believer.
It is the same strategy of the music in Internet or of the payment for reading, the model to which they stretch the ebooks and the digital book in the cloud (cloud computing).
When the information and the contents are permanent accessible in Internet from many devices, the sale and the proper concept of property of the information disappear: one pays for the reading and the consultation. Of a property model to one of services.
To improve the efficiency and the profitability. The new structure and the efficiency in the management and the costs of Pearson allows to support the profitability margins. Financial Times supports profitability of 10 % and in Interactive Data it climbs up to 25 % thanks to the benefits of the prosecution of information and his distribution multiproduct, which has grown with the services in real-time (19 % of the sales of the company of financial information and of market).
New platforms of distribution and user's experience. The new digital supports like ebooks, mobile, iPads, etc. are the hope of the business of the contents. Penguin already has 14.000 books in format ebook and the application for iPhone of FT.com has unburdened itself 200.000 times.
The business of the payment for information is not yet sufficient. FT.com it has achieved a conversion valuation of users registered to subscribers of 7 %, much underneath of the margins necessary for the sostenibilidad. His 126.000 pay an average for 172 euros per year, a few income for 21,7 million euros. The payment income in Internet sound 6 % of the invoicing of Financial Times, much underneath of the proportion necessary for a newspaper of his characteristics. That's why the publicity keeps on being essential like principal business of the information until it does not become possible to reach about 30 % of the income for the digital means.
Mixed, social business and multiplatform. The social flow, the participation of the users, the business for access across different platforms marks the future of Pearson and Financial Times, like that of so many means and companies of contents. Without this development of a hybrid business both in income and in publicity the support of the means will be very difficult.