Speaking to How-Do about the development Garner was his usual candid self, admitting that the paid-for model had not worked in terms of direct revenue creation, but had worked in terms of leading to an increased profile for the business and new revenue models.

Garner first revealed that Man Con was set to become a subscriber-only website last October, closing off large sections of its local food, drink and leisure-based content to its (at that point) 260,000 weekly readers.

A new Man Con site, complete with paywall, was then launched in January.

"Prior to launching the subs model we undertook in-depth research that showed that around 21% of our readers would pay for content," Garner told How-Do. "We were bullish after that and decided to give it a go."

What Garner didn't tell How-Do, or anyone else at that time, was that the business was losing money "hand over fist", with ad sales plummeting and the property market all but disappearing as a result of the recession.

"We lost money throughout the entire year," he now states matter-of-factly.

What he doesn't admit is that the paywall measure was an act of desperation on his behalf. He still believes it's the future - "absolutely, somebody HAS to pay for original, specialist content... that's the reality of the situation" - although not for Manchester Confidential (in the short term at any rate).

Garner won't reveal the numbers of subscribers that signed up to the various packages as the site is still pushing membership as a means of building a community centred on the unique deals (in restaurants, bars and venues around town) that Man Con can negotiate, rather than site access.

Garner: positive

What is clear is that he and his colleagues have now switched from trying to pull in revenue through editorial content and are concentrating on e-commerce. Two new streams have opened up as a result of the site relaunch that appear to be doing the business.

They are Strictly Confidential (which was trialled last year), a service focusing on getting users into venues where availability is usually non-existent, and voucher sales.

The latter involves selling vouchers that users can redeem against, for example, spa days at health resorts.

Together, according to Garner, these are now accounting for 30% of business turnover.

What's more, he stresses, that turnover is now rising again - partly as a result of the increased profile of the site through the paywall introduction ("this publicising isn't for my own sake you know"), but largely due to a sense that the clouds of recession are retreating and advertising and associated revenues are returning.

Advertisers spending again

Advertisers are booking too - Regus and City College are two names he mentions, while an airport and various football clubs are ones he can't but are at "advanced stages" of discussion.

To get the e-commerce revenues flowing Manchester Confidential needs a requisite weight of users perusing the site and this is probably the key reason for breaking down a wall that, when it was first planned for, seemed to be so deeply unpopular (with How-Do users at any rate).

Garner, despite his positive outlook, sounds disappointed that the concept didn't quite pan out as planned, vehemently insisting that paid-for will be the future of online publishing.

But for now, he says, Man Con will be shelving the model and concentrating on something that he knows works - "deals, food, booze and a bit of architecture thrown in" and, of course, "making real money."

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Comments (39)

11  By Tristan Welch (Communications , on 19-04-2010 13:49 Hi John, that £7 deposit isn't profiteering, it's our fee for the media space we put behind the Strictly deals, there's no charge for the restaurant to advertise and it gives us a menu that's devised to be exclusive to our readers that shouldn't be available directly through the restaurant Report

25  By jonthebeef , on 20-04-2010 12:48 Credit where credit's due. I think it's fair play he gave it a crack, and then accepts both privately and publically that it hasn't been a success. That's called BALLS.    You can't blame him for trying. Report

29  By Mark Garner , on 22-04-2010 11:37 Anon I said my piece to the Editor on the ManCon debate thank you very much. Thanks to the supporters and the people who have their own view; you are welcome to the debate. Massive reads over the past few days, welcome back everyone. Report

30  By Francois , on 28-04-2010 07:57 Mark,     Been following you site and innovate online revenue streams with some interest, including the paywall experiment.    Just checked the Manchester Confidential traffic on Alexa.com, and it shows an 85% drop in traffic since February. Is that about right?     Of course, I'm also keen to see how long it takes for the audience numbers to recover. All the best. Report

34  By Mark Garner , on 28-04-2010 16:21 Francois, thank you for your interest. As part of our getting-our-act-together process, we have directed nearly all of the .com traffic onto the .co.uk domain, which accounts for one dropping and the other spurting upwards. Our stats show a slight increase this month on the last two with a large burp during january, probably because of people having a peek at the new format. Report