Donovan is right about the ad revenue, a factor I failed to mention in my 
previous reply to Eric Meyer. Could that be because I'm from the 
editorial side?

Actually, on-line usually relies more heavily on subscription revenue 
than print counterparts, but adjustments in that thinking are occuring 
daily.

Jeff

On Mon, 7 Aug 1995, Donovan White wrote:

> > OK, all you mathematicians out there. Let's assume the L.A. Times has 
> > 22,000 on Prodigy. That's gross revenue of a bit less than $110,000 a 
> > month, of which, of course, Prodigy will want a sizeable share. Let's 
> > assume a $100,000 annual cost per employee working on the project -- 
> > salary, fringes, office equipment, etc. That's a rather conservative 
> > figure. Plug in your own values for number of staff members and 
> > Prodigy's share. Now compare the net revenue to the Times vs. the 
> > expense paid by the Times. Next factor in projections of Prodigy's future 
> > subscriber base. And Times-Mirror's desire for about a 25% profit. 
> > So, when all is said and done, what's your bottom line?
> 
> These are strictly subscription numbers being used here.
> 
> Nobody's interested in online products for the subscription revenue. 
> We're all here for the ad revenue, the overtime revenue, and the 
> per-item revenue. Subscription charges work nicely as a barrier cost that 
> to help winnow out the freeloaders, but the gravy's in the others.
> 
> dw
> 
>         Donovan White
> 
>         Online Information Development and Design
> 
>         dwhite@iii.net           DonovanWhite@ichange.com
> 
>         (508) 597-5321           (508) 597-3285
> 

==============================================================================
Jeff Perlman, Speaking Out Editor
TimesLink/Los Angeles Times
perlman@news.latimes.com
rejn05d@prodigy.com             < OPINIONS ARE MY OWN, NOT MY EMPLOYER'S >
============================================================================== 


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End of online-news-digest V1 #276
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