On the relationship between print and mobile channels for newspapers

The business model of traditional media has come under attack due to digital delivery channels. In this paper, we analyze how a mobile app affects the lifetimes and lifetime values of customers of print media. We use subscription data and develop a model based on survival analysis that captures the interdependence between these two content delivery channels. We apply our model to a large dataset of a publisher who offers a newspaper in a print version and a version as a mobile app. The results suggest that there exists a complementary interdependence between these media, as having subscribed to one of them decreases the hazard of canceling a parallel subscription to the other one. This holds true for nearly all customers. Accordingly, we find that the mobile app increases the lifetimes and lifetime values of print customers and vice versa. We also analyze the attribution of these effects.