Last week EPS Insights reported
that Nature Publishing
Group (NPG) started offering online classified ads for free.

According
to Richard Charkin (CEO, Macmillan UK), "This means kissing goodbye to
some revenue which is always hard to do.”  

What’s their strategy?

“It also means that the
Nature site becomes an even more essential tool of everyday life for the
working scientist, thus pulling in more readers more regularly and allowing
our advertisers better results, particularly if they decide to add to
the free ads with more information and more sophisticated linking.” [Emphasis
added] 

As Richard goes on to say,
“It is fingers-crossed time because such a change is not without risk but in
the web world the only certainty is that non-adaptation is fatal.”

In every world
non-adaptation is fatal – eventually! It
just happens faster on the web. 

While AOL has also walked
away from significant revenue to “reinvent” their business, they departed from
a radically declining model to embark upon one that has had some success.

Walking away when you’re
not blatantly failing takes even more fortitude, commitment, and discipline. 

Kudos to you and NPG,
Richard, for experimenting with adaptations and resisting the temptation to extract
every last cent from your current model!

Please let us know how
this works out.

Note: Richard
reprinted the original EPS
Insights article (subscription required) on his site, but I’m sure he had permission.
EPS is very generous that way!