Don’t get me wrong. I love my steel news sources. I’m a steel nerd and, if it existed, I’d want my FeTV too. But here’s a rant that I indulge in once a year because I think the industry’s subscription news sources are lacking and have not yet fully engaged in the search for a new business model like so many other news outlets are having to.
Here’s how the rant starts. Like most other people in the steel industry we’ve been reviewing all our steel news subscriptions and assessing their worth because they’re not very differentiated (strategic hint) and they overlap. Renewing your subscription is an adventure as many of you will be discovering. These are the puzzling questions that set me off:
- Prices are going up. Excuse me? Which planet are these guys living on? I’m sure advertising revenues must be down, but don’t they read their own news? Forcing the issue onto subscribers may just accelerate finding out how little some of the subscriptions are needed.
- It’s a bazaar-like (and bizarro-like) negotiation. You can trade on what you’ve paid in the past, how long you’ve been paying and how many people want to read the thing. I’ve no doubt that pilfering news by sharing accounts drives these guys nuts, but customer behavior might actually be giving them useful feedback as to how to redesign their model profitably for them, their advertisers and their readers. Doesn’t the bargaining prove the current model is in decay?
- Currency exchange rates apparently mean nothing. One respectable industry publication offers a UK pound sterling basic subscription for about a thousand pounds. Choose that, because if you select the $ sign to convert to dollars the subscription balloons to $2,600. How much? Just where do they trade their currency? This is what comes from trying to cram an old physical economic model online. See #4.
- Part of the reason for Puzzling Question Number 3 is that these Luddites still insist on shipping the magazine in hard copy around the world. That particular publication offers no “online-only” subscription, probably because they’re still addicted to ad revenues in a glossy magazine. What happens to the glossy magazine in our office? Nothing. It gets thrown out without being opened. Advertisers please note – we don’t read the hard copy.
- In the steel industry press, the world is still divided into regional communities like a Risk board, so there are Latin American, North American, European, Asian editions, etc. Of course we all want to tailor our news to center around the regions and products we’re most interested in, but let us do it! There should be no boundaries in steel industry news. And does it really cost so much more to offer a global product over the regional variants? There are other value added ways to offer a range of price points. This is not one of them.
- For some time now, there has been a very convenient thing called RSS feeds that NONE of the subscriber steel industry press offers as a standard service. Help me get my news in more different forms and I’ll love you. Let me weave it with other sources so that I can get a fuller view of what’s happening. The day is past when proprietary news was proprietary enough to guard like it was hot from a single press. The AP beats them most of the time. Why can’t I work more with the content?
- And on that topic, the industry press seems oblivious to the many free and extremely efficient sources of steel news such as the many linked to on these pages. Subscription site search functions are still worse than using Google itself for steel news. So when will we get a subscription service that is truly reliable, informed, accessible, relational, value added, value for money and fully exploiting the technologies available? Don’t hold your breath.
Confronting these quaint anomalies reminds me of some of the reasons we started Nerds of Steel, which is just about a year old now, in the first place. Web 2.0 has provided some powerful communication tools that should reduce the cost to publishers for addressing vertical markets like the steel industry and the price to readers for staying informed about an increasingly complex world. Publishing and social networking tools allow the generators of the news and the information to share it and add to it between them without paying an intermediary exorbitantly for providing space.
Of course the subscription services play a vital role and they won’t disappear. We use many of their fine value added services and want to see more. But the publishers are still confused and confusing about their subscription models and they need to start working to get to the next generation of steel industry news tools. They better hurry up. If our decision making is anything to go by, they won’t all be getting renewed this year. There, that’s my rant over for another year. What’s been your experience?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the insight you have on this, and really, you should be paid as a consultant for all these subscriber services.
I subscribe to nearly all of them and I too throw the printed (out-dated) material away when I receive it. I have been receiving ‘harassing’ emails about needing to have a corporate account so others can legally share the news I subscribe to.
Some services are quicker and others are more detailed, but lately, they all seem to be copying each other’s news. The other kick they seem to be on is conducting too many conferences just because that seems to be bringing revenue in the door.
Here’s a prime example of how they are wrong, and we can track this real time. This morning at 7:21 am, Cliffs Resources said they are halting production at their WV coal mine. How many days will we see articles on this, and how will these journalists differentiate their articles?
One will report mainly the news, as fast as they can, while another will run the same old comments from one of their industry sources, as it pertains to this.
None, however, will feed speculation on how this will impact the 2009 coking coal contract negatiations.
SI
-as always love your blog and your insight.
Exactly!
My budget for subscription was slashed this year. Surprisingly, I’m learning quickly to live without all these payed sources. Except for the prices historical data, I’m finding most of the info I need from non-payed sources (e.g. Nerds of Steel, Google) and from my professional network (Linked In is a good source if you’re connected to the right people).
Dear steelnerd
this is the first time anyone has ever written a blog entry about our humble steel news profession – finally, we are IN the news – thank you!
Before the spotlight is removed from us, I’d like to address your 7 questions, specifically from Steel Business Briefing’s (SBB) point of view.
1. We haven’t changed our subscription prices since March last year. When they do change, it is realistic, sensible and justifiable.
2. It is easy to understand what is included in our subscription. Baffling the customer with complicated sub options doesn’t work…
3. Subscriptions are priced in different currencies at that day’s exchange rate. We don’t adjust the rates thereafter, no matter if they go up, or down.
4. Not a single hard copy in sight, for all the reasons you mentioned.
5. You can personalize your daily news by region, product, topic or even keyword.
6. We have an RSS feed (we just haven’t told too many people about it yet!)
7. “…reliable, informed, accessible, relational, value added, value for money and fully exploiting the technologies available.” Hey, that’s our mission statement! Well, near enough anyway..
8. You missed one – Steel nerds around the world generally only care about steel news. Stop paying for all those other metals!
By following the above 8 principles, SBB has grown 40% each year, and we are now the world’s largest and most read steel news company. Read all about it!
SBB Steelnews Guy
http://www.steelbb.com
oh, and we do have FeTV – you can watch the latest steel news on our website: http://www.steelbb.com/interviews/
First of all, I also would like to thank you for your very generous comments. Sometimes we find it very hard to get honest criticism from our subscribers as they tend to be nice and flattering the service.
Second of all, I would like to confirm that this comment here does not have any intention of advertising my company. You will not be harrassed by any sales and marketing sentences.
I do agree with most of your points. As a matter of fact I tend to think that the Luddites in the industry had opened the door for all on-line services to sneak in. It is totally a different ball game now.
Eventhough it is what we base our businesses on; the technology brings along a huge problem for all the value added sevices we try to provide for our customers in the industry. That is on-line theft!
It is a very costly operation to produce global, unique information on a specific topic and when people starts copying and distributing the product, it is a huge blow for all the effort and investment put in to.
You as a customer are certainly right to demand more from your service provider(s). We will certainly be trying to address those demands in line with the technological developments. I just hope that the customers around the world will also respect all the efforts and investments put into these services.
Murat Eryilmaz
CEO
SteelOrbis
James, well done for writing what, I am sure so many of us think.
How interesting that 2 shareholders of 2 different steel publications read this blog and respond. Nerds of Steel is a perfect example of what you gentleman have to accept. The barriers to entry for publishing steel information are now zero. If you continue to charge for what can be found for free, your days are numbered. Adapt or Die. Listen to what your customers tell you, or accept the results. If you keep your content in a walled garden, then take a look at AOL to know where you will end up. This blog provides more insight than I was getting in any paid subscription.The posts are refreshing and provide genuine insight and different perspectives. If I want general news, I agree with Marcus, I can get what I need from a google news feed. If you want us to pay for content in the future, you need to provide something unique I can use, not regurgatated news. How many times have any of the publishers asked us what we want in our service ?. Andrew it is a good job you don’t work for our company, I wonder how we would get on if we had a Galvanized product available but ” we just haven’t told anyone about it yet “. Publishers can complain about content theft, and I think I know who that is aimed at, but that company is growing even more than the 40% Andrew Goodwin mentions. The reason is simple, customers don’t care about you, they care about themselves, and they will get what they need from where it is available. Think about the music and film industry, they tried to ignore market changes, but sites like Napster and programmes like limewire flourished. You can’t stop change, it is time for steel publishers to rethink the product they give us.Who among you is going to be innovative ? My Subscriptions are cancelled, market conditions are tough, so what are you going offer me that makes me think I must have this information and I am prepared to pay for it ?. At the moment I feel these services are like the weatherman telling me what the weather was like today. I know what the weather was like today because I was in it, I am interested to know what it will be like tomorrow though.
Many thanks to all of you who took the time and thought to post comments on this topic, especially Steel Insider, Marcos and Peter. Sorry for the delay in replying to you, but there has been considerable offline discussion about this post too. I’m also glad Andrew at SBB and Murat at SteelOrbis took the time to post responses. It’s not easy to hear feedback and I know their jobs are difficult and testing in a very dynamic environment. But I also hope that this brief airing of grievances and hopes will provoke innovations in places where none was previously planned. I will return to this topic in the not too distance future. It’s much more important than just an issue of value for money in subscriptions. Thanks for reading and supporting Nerds.
On behalf of Metal Bulletin, I would like to respond to your comments made on the nerdsofsteel.com website. Firstly, thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Any feedback we receive is valued as we always strive to offer the best possible service and value for money to our clients.
Given the growth we have seen in the ferrous and non-ferrous metals sectors over the past few years Metal Bulletin has invested heavily to develop our services, bringing our subscribers more market intelligence and industry news than ever before, while offering more ways than ever before in which to access this information.
This sustained investment has meant that there has been some increase in the costs associated with our product. Our subscription rates are calculated based on this investment and the requirements of our customers. We have worked as hard as possible with our customers in order to minimize the impact of any increased costs.
The improvements in our service are extensive.
We have, for some time now, offered an RSS feed, which is easily accessible from any page on our website. We also now offer the option to receive Metal Bulletin coverage via tailored email alerts at the click of a button.
Also as part of our basic subscription, Metal Bulletin’s 24-hour coverage is constantly updated on our website, delivered by daily html or text email and presented in PDF and print format.
Over the past few years we have repeatedly reviewed the inclusion of our weekly print magazine in this package. On each occasion our subscribers have overwhelmingly opposed any move to remove it and underlined how much they enjoy reading it.
The cost of producing and distributing the magazine is carried by the advertising contained within, allowing us to charge a similar subscription rate to our competitors while offering this extra service.
We have always believed that our online publishing channel is central to the product – and we have invested heavily in this area of our business and are continuing to do so.
But by far the most valuable investment we have made in the past few years has been in the quality of our coverage itself. Without the best market intelligence, news and pricing any of these investments in technology would have been pointless.
We are constantly striving to expand our coverage, optimise our key services such as pricing and develop our own expertise to deliver true insight into developments, rather than offering a basic blow-by-blow account that may be available from other sources.
This is an ongoing process. But Metal Bulletin is very lucky to have a hard-working and intelligent team of steel reporters with the common goal of providing the most valuable to our subscribers.
This is constantly changing, and is why we at Metal Bulletin greatly value our interaction with our customers and the industry that we serve. Both I and the rest of the steel team would be delighted to hear from members of either community directly if there is anything we can do to improve our service.
Best Regards,
Phillip Price, steel editor, Metal Bulletin.
I would also like to address the point relating to variances in prices across different exchange rates. To aid the payment process for clients, we started to price our product for three distinct groups of customers in euros, US dollars and sterling depending on the subscriber’s location. We limit uncertainty in prices for each set of clients by not continually adjusting prices in response to currency movements. There has of course been unprecedented volatility in the currency markets recently. The massive depreciation in sterling has seen our revenue from our (minority) sterling-denominated UK-based clients diminish considerably. Raising our sterling price to bring this in line with our US dollar price would have been a particularly unfair penalty to our customers in the UK many of whom we recognise are already suffering given the economic conditions especially prominent in the UK – the same reason that has caused the decline in sterling in the first place.
Phillip
Dear Nerd,
I was going through my notes during the holiday period and realized that I forgot to update you with what we had done a few months ago basis your feedback on this blog.
The very convenient thing called RSS feeds are available now as a standard service. You can get your news in more different forms and we just hope that you love us now!
By the way, your news are free!
Wishing you all a happy new year!
Murat Eryilmaz
CEO
SteelOrbis