RBC of Pro

2021: Plan of reaching self-sufficiency

"For 2021 we set for ourselves the task to reach self-sufficiency, Artem Agapov, the project manager of RBC Pro told in February, 2021. - I cannot tell that it will be simply, but we will try — we already have all premises".

If to take in general all who are anyway involved in work on the project about 30-40 people will turn out. As for those who are completely focused on RBC of Pro, they can be separated into several groups.

First, it is the group which is responsible for content. Consciously I avoid a word "edition" because it not only edition in usual sense of this word. We make more than a half of content of RBC of Pro in collaboration with partners. We look for partners who have business content for our audience, we agree that they sent it it is desirable in the form of ready materials. If there are no such, then a semi-finished product. People who are engaged in this search build up partner relations and are responsible for bringing their materials to usual to our users of formats, we call producers. But except them we, of course, have also own writing authors.

The second group – digital-marketing – people who are engaged in all complex of tasks of promotion of a product and sale of subscriptions: campaign e-mail, context, retargeting and so on. We actually from scratch created this direction for the last year, before all b2c-products of RBC worked on advertizing model and used promotion methods inherent to this model. In RBC of Pro we experiment, trying to combine the methods of involvement of audience characteristic for e-kommersa, with traditionally media – both this separate and very interesting field for experiments.

At last, product area of work. In RBC of Pro there is now no clear split into people who are engaged in specifically product tasks, and all others. In a triangle, usual for media, edition - product-marketing is always joints, and in my representation of success those who have these joints the most seamless try to obtain. Therefore we now, in many respects intuitively, build a situation when we have people who ensure functioning on these joints. About each of them it is difficult to tell whether he, for example, in pure form is a marketing specialist or produktology on a role. In reality children approximately at the same time are engaged in both marketing, and content or both a product, and marketing. And so, if to take all such team members, then expanded product group from us 6-7 people. Under specific product objectives from it narrower groups are selected, they are engaged in their study, and periodically all of us together carry out the review and we plan further.

And by the way about the review – still we have a group of analysts, irreplaceable people because they are just verifiers of everything that at us occurs in terms of statistics. Of course, all command works with statistics in the daily mode. But everyone can use different methods of calculation, and when there is no general methodology, it is heavy to discuss trends and to make joint decisions. Analysts just create this methodology and supply us with the "reference" data collected on it.

A year ago we saw RBC of Pro as the industry guide on business, and built on it positioning, communication. Recognized that we will take business to components on the industries: on construction, a retail, agriculture and so on, and for each of these industries we will collect analytics, cases, to do instructions. But over time understood that this story slips because we have problems approximately on all fronts. We lack forces to make such volume of content which really fully would cover all industries we experience difficulties in distribution by the industry principle because it is necessary to chase separately people from each separate industry, and in most cases not that there is a lot of them. Plus is already quite serious competition from niche trade publications there.

And then we had a hypothesis that it will be better if we segment in a different way audience, namely – if we look at potential audience not through a prism of the industries in which these people work, and in terms of business functions which they execute.

Any business can be separated into a set of standard business functions: managerial link, marketing, HR, lawyers. And we began to concentrate not on industry specifics, and that it is interesting and important to know to all marketing specialists or managers irrespective of, in a retail they work, or in the real estate.

At the first stage for check of this hypothesis we did not even begin to change seriously approach to content, and just corrected distribution – segmentation and targeting. Already it gave growth in conversion and money. After that we began to rebuild content production, and we are going to pass this "functional" model into the coming months finally.

We try to build marketing on the basis of personal discounts which depend on the user and his history of interaction with a product. We have joint promotion actions with partners who influence conditions for users. For example, card owners of Raiffeisenbank according to our arrangement with bank can receive the bigger number of trialny months right now, than usually. Besides, we really change the discount size depending on the history of interaction with a product, it depends on that how long the user with us how often it uses RBC of Pro. But, of course, except personal conditions, we carry out also some normal discount campaigns: we participate in "Black Friday", we do New Year's offers.

There are such users, there are others. Someone consciously sees value in a product, it for them is a key factor of purchase, and such people, fortunately, become more and more. But for someone the key factor is a big discount, and then our task – to explain and confirm value. Because the subscription is not single sale, and first of all prolongation^[1].

Before introduction of a paid subscription to RBC of Pro we worked about a year in the regwall model, and during this time collected good amount of data about the actual frequency of interaction of users with service. Proceeding from it month seemed the optimal period. RBC of Pro – same not news media, we do not mean daily use. It is more measured relationship which requires time.

2019: Transfer of service in the paid mode

On December 16, 2019 access to publications in the section of RBC of Pro became paid. The cost of access was 800 rubles a month. Earlier these materials could be read freely, having filled out only the registration form. Old readers will be able to continue to read free of charge materials one month after start of a subscription.

Editorial texts, materials of the consulting companies, translations of articles of Bloomberg, research, digests of messages of industry media are published in "Pro". In plans start of the video section with webinars and reports from industry conferences. Banners on the Pro pages will not be.

The deputy director general of RBC Maxim Vasyukov told:

- In Pro we set several tasks for ourselves. First, to attach on not news business content skills of RBC media holding in selection and verification of information. It will allow users to save time on search of really quality and useful materials significantly. Secondly, we want to form and inspire, but not only from positions of journalists: we provide the platform for the expression to gurus of the market. Thirdly, we are going to create professional community, to supplement Pro offline - actions, such as joint viewings broadcasts of forums, a public currents, master classes.

New RBC of Pro will be separately on sale and as a part of corporate subscriptions. Now the holding sells to business access to shop of researches, public.ru library and other services.

2018: Beginning of testing of paid access

RBC planned sale of subscriptions to bonus content in the 2015th and tested paid access since May, 2018.

Notes