WSJ: Apple wants 50% revenue from $10/month News subscription service
Published in 2019, this chronicle by @adtac details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $10/month.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 5 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 2 comments
That is a staggering percentage and given the current state of the app I don't see how it is warranted. Then throw in your bundled in there with everyone else who signed up so the pay back is what exactly? Seriously, if you a large news organization with a built up reputation and good customer base what is the pay off here?
and here I thought Apple might take a hint after companies started to balk at the 30% clip in the app store
For a typical newspaper 2/3 of costs is printing and distibution. So if they can live with that in print why not in electronic distribution channel?
And remember that Apple is starved for 'services' revenues.