Newspapers and their fear of channel spillover: evidence for Europe

Introduction. Newspapers that have a Website with substantial content need to be sensitive to the danger that their print channel might be cannibalised by the online channel.
Method. We visited the Websites of all eighty-two national newspapers in eight Western European countries and listed their relevant characteristics. We posit that newspapers' use of mixed bundling of print and online subscriptions and especially how they price such a bundle is an indicator of their fear of channel spillover.
Analysis. We use binary logit and ordinary least squares regression analyses to explain newspapers' fear of channel spillover by means of newspaper-, country- and market specific variables.
Results. We find that newspapers have a tendency to do what other newspapers do. We find, for example, that newspapers will grant a higher discount for their bundle when the average discount granted by competitors is high. We also find that financial newspapers are more likely to opt for mixed bundling.
Conclusion. We find strong indications that online newspapers exhibit mimicking behaviour. However, these results are often difficult to disentangle from country effects such as the relative importance of advertising.

Publication year:2011

Keywords:newspapers, online content, channel spillover, cannibalisation, bundling, inter-organisational imitation