What does a Canadian Chicken chain and Verizon have in common? A unique way to play a social responsibility card in a time of crisis and need. While brands look to deliver the essential messages…we are here for you, we support each other…at least these two found a unique way to keep people informed, and deliver a pretty interesting ROI for the media business that could, and maybe should, be replicated; the removal of paywalls for great content, be it for a wide audience or an emerging one.
The New York Times and Verizon
Through a deal with Verizon, the New York Times is giving free access to NYTimes.com and its mobile apps to American high school students for the next three months. The idea is that Times journalism can keep students informed as they deal with the dislocation caused by the coronavirus and the social constraints imposed on Americans as a result. It is an offshoot of Newspapers in Education, a valuable program which the Times championed, but which, sadly, has dwindled in recent years.
That combination — of honest hopes for improved social welfare and financial self-interest — has marked the relationship between newspapers and education across the two-plus centuries since. Newspapers-in-education programs took off in the United States in the 1930s and have both given students a window into the broader world and inculcated the newspaper-reading habit in generations of young future subscribers.
Postmedia and Mary Brown’s Chicken
North of the border on April 1, Postmedia announced it was partnering with Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters, a Canadian fast-food restaurant with 170 locations, to drop its paywall on all content for the entire month. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened what was already a precarious situation for the journalism industry. Postmedia content from its broadsheet newspapers — the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, London Free Press, Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Vancouver Sun, Windsor Star, National Post, and Financial Post — will be free from April 1–15, according to Phyllise Gelfand, Postmedia’s vice president of communications. From April 16–30, the paywall will drop on tabloids The Province, Toronto Sun, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, Ottawa Sun, and Winnipeg Sun. Postmedia had previously announced that it would drop the paywall on its coronavirus coverage, with public interest stories made available across publications from March 16 “until further notice.”
So why do these?
Multiple and varied reasons. For The Times it opens up their quality journalism to an audience who may become subscribers in the future at a low rate; many of whom would have never looked at NYT behind even a limited paywall. They now find multimedia opts that they did not know about, and probably will start a best reading habit that they would not have before.
For Verizon, in addition to good will and social responsibility it outs them with a database of potential new customers as well, in addition to creating great value add with The Times that just print ads could not bring in this time. It is a unique way to tie to a heavy news cycle with an audience craving information and content.
Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters actually goes a bit wider, since the audience opened up is not just students, but general consumer, many of whom are looking for information but may not be willing to ante up to get behind a paywall. Like Verizon, it gives the chain great credibility, and creative endorsement, at a time then dollars and discretionary income are going to become tight. The value ad they bring to consumers, they hope, will resonate on buying, and will be remembered beyond just a print ad with discount coupons, or a digital pop up.
The good news is there are plenty of quality sites, from The Athletic to The Wall Street Journal, who could benefit from a brand coming in and lifting the curtain. The only way it works for those with paywalls is to offset costs for subscribers, and companies looking for a way to give back through news can look this way. Heck if it works for chicken and the big-time communications business, couldn’t it work for other chains in hyper local markets or big ones who are looking to cut through a strategic clutter.
Bravo Mary Brown’s and Verizon for opening up the information portal at a time when its really needed. Hope more follow suit.
