Subscription Stories - Ep.7: INMA's Greg Piechota on the News Industry's Big Bet on Reader Revenue

Greg Piechota, Researcher-In-Residence at the International News Media Association, joins Robbie to discuss the increasing importance of subscriptions and reader revenue in a world of declining ad sales. They talk about the value of studying one industry to gain insight for another, new models for advertisers, and the importance of customer-centricity in any subscription business.

Highlights from this episode:
2:20 — How Greg’s career took him from Poland to Massachusetts to Oxford
3:40 — The importance of looking across industries to develop insights
6:13 — How data causes companies from different industries to start competing with each other
9:41 — Greg’s advice for companies dealing with competitors who come from different spaces but target the same customer
10:37 — Advertisers that take on new business models in retail, media, and e-commerce
17:38 — The importance of customer centricity, especially in a subscription business
24:20 — Greg’s advice for companies that want to move to a subscription model but are worried about the cannibalization risk and leaving money on the table during while they are in between models
28:05 — Subscriptions as a way to stabilize a business model
30:20 — Greg’s advice for entrepreneurs and executives, in any industry, who are trying to build robust subscription businesses
31:00 — Robbie’s Speed Round

Greg's Bio:
Grzegorz “Greg” Piechota studies technology-enabled disruption patterns across industries, with a focus on business model innovation in news media. Greg is a former media executive with 20+ years of industry experience. He began his career at Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza in 1996 as a reporter in one of the smallest local offices, and then rising to a news editor and a vice-president of Agora Foundation. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University from 2015-2016 and continued as a Research Associate at Harvard Business School for three more years. Following his time at Harvard, he moved to Oxford where he conducted research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He now serves as a Researcher-In-Residence at the International News Media Association (INMA), and a board member at various media, software, and e-commerce companies.

Links:
Greg’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grzegorzpiechota/
Greg at the INMA: https://www.inma.org/modules/event/2019ReaderRevenue/about-greg.cfm
Robbie’s Book THE FOREVER TRANSACTION: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-forever-transaction/
Podcast website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/podcast