The media industry is being torn apart by waves of creative destruction. Once-stable franchises like CBS CBS -0.84%, The New York Times and even FORBES are thrashing about, looking for ways to hold on to their readers and maintain their share of a shrinking advertising market.
What’s the solution? Bring back sweepstakes, says Gerhard Fehr, a Switzerland-based consultant, behavioral economist and former journalist who advises companies on how to deal with rapidly changing markets. Electronic prize tokens, quizzes and other gimmicky tactics — once the hallmark of failing daily newspapers — are one way to strengthen ties between readers and content producers in a business where Google GOOGL +0.27% is siphoning up most of the advertising profits and publishers long ago made the fatal mistake of giving their products away for free.
via A Behavioral Economist Says You Deserve A Prize For Reading This Post.
