The Herald paywall only increased digital revenue 1%

Stuff reports:

Media company NZME has announced a heavy loss, weighed down by $175m of impairments to reflect its share price.

The company reported a full-year net loss of $165.2 million to the end of December, compared to a net profit of $11.6m in 2018.

Excluding the writedowns, NZME noted that operating profit was up 4 per cent to $19.7m.

Overall revenue fell 4 per cent to $371.7m, but its radio revenue grew 5 per cent in the second half, and ended up 2 per cent for the year to $110.9m.

Print revenue fell 8 per cent to $192.4m. However, digital revenue rose 1 per cent after the company introduced a “paywall” for selected content.

A 1% increase in digital revenue only. Hardly a roaring success.

There are 21,000 paid subscribers. If digital revenue only went up 1% that suggests not all paid subscribers are paying the full $200.

Digital revenue went up from $60.0m to $60.4 million or a mere $400,000. The paywall made $1.7 million so other digital revenue dropped $1.3 million – possibly advertising from smaller visitor numbers.