Will anybody buy? Logistic regression - Improving the User Experience through Practical Data Analytics - page 273

trying to igure out what to do about abysmal network news ratings, reduced print
subscriptions, and anemic revenue. They just want you to igure out a way to stop the
cash bleed-because if you can't, they're pulling up stakes and leaving town pronto.
You've been barely at your job for a week, when creative director Denise Dan-
gle calls an all-hands meeting in her ofice to relay the new owner's angst. Dangle,
trained as a librarian in the 1970s, has suddenly been thrust into a position of author-
ity, despite not really having a handle on the reality of news consumption in the
new millennium. She's brusque, impatient, and exudes a “don't confuse me with the
facts” vibe that drives everybody nuts whenever they have to deal with her. But this
time, she seems especially irritated.
“Okay, look, we're in trouble here, and nobody has given one solitary good idea
how to get these subscriptions up.” She glares around the room. “What do I have to
do? Break out the 'We have to work this weekend' card?”
Nick Bonovich, a recent transplant from The New York Times, clears his throat
and raises his hand.
“Thank God,” Dangle sighs. “Yes, Nick?”
“What about credibility?” Bonovich asks.
“What about it?” Dangle implores. She's getting irritated.
“We had a bunch of research done at the Times, and credibility was often cited as
a main reason for renewals.”
“You think you have a corner on credibility just because it's the mighty Times ?”
Dangle asks incredulously. “The Globe has been around since the Civil War. If we
weren't believable, we wouldn't have made it into the twentieth century, let alone the
twenty-irst.”
A hush falls over the room. Dangle's eyes travel around the conference room and
land on you.
“How 'bout our new UX researcher? Any ideas?”
“Well, willingness to pay for news has typically been correlated to demographic
factors, like age, income, and education,” you state.
Dangle stares at you. “Right and….” She waves her hands in the air impatiently,
motioning you to keep going.
“But for digital subscribers, these kinds of traditional predictors obviously aren't
telling us the full story about consumer behavior.”
Dangle perks up: “So?”
“We can launch an online survey that probes current news consumption, willing-
ness to pay for online news, and what attributes of an online news experience would
have the most impact of the respondent's willingness to pay for digital news content.”
“Hmmm,” Dangle muses, “Interesting.”
You have an opening; you plunge forward.
“We'll still gather the demographic stuff, but the survey will really try to get at
what content and attributes of that content would impact willingness to buy.”
“What about credibility?” Nick asks.
“Yup, we'll get respondents to rank the impact perceived credibility has on will-
ingness to buy.”
You can feel consensus growing, but Dangle rolls her eyes.